My Guy and I decided to head to one of our favorite locations just below Evans Notch this morning, with a plan for a lunch date of the finest kind–al fresco, of course. What we didn’t know was what awaited us.
First, there was the surprise of the decorated Christmas tree. Actually, we saw two of these over the course of our adventure.
And there were windows to look through at the old Sap House–this one with a few panes missing providing a delightful contrast of the view beyond.
And beside it another, offering a different vision of the same theme, albeit a bit cockeyed.
That was all good, but then . . . but then . . . we spotted the warning sign. Oh my! Big Foot in these parts! It made sense. We were in a rather remote section with the National Forest just beyond. But still. What were the possibilities that we’d actually spot Sasquatch?
Yikes! Pretty darn good apparently. One festive hiker obviously had.
We had to wonder, “Did he get caught while decorating the trees?”
We started paying attention to every little thing–looking for clues. And so it came as no surprise that we found this oversized creature of the North woods–a Winter Crane Fly. But my, what little feet it had. Maybe because in reality, it is less than an inch in length.
The good news is that if you spot one of these, they are not Mosquitoes, and in fact, do not have mouth parts, so they won’t bite you. Do not fear the Winter Crane Fly.
And then another creature garnered our attention–this one even smaller, being a Dwarf Sheet Weaver Spider–and male to boot–look at those boxing gloves on its pedipalps.
But never fear again. He wanted nothing to do with us and quickly walked across the snow away from the trail we were on.
Ah, but next we found evidence of another with big feet. Would we see the creator?
We weren’t too worried about this one because Black Bears are in dens at this point. Though we have witnessed their tracks in February on Blueberry Mountain, which is just up the road, so there’s always a possibility that a young male may decide that his den of choice wasn’t all that great and he could go in search of another place to hang out for a couple of months.
But we’re heading back into frigid temps so we doubted that would happen today.
About a quarter of a mile later, we spotted the track of another mighty one. I dropped my hiking pole to show the stride of this creature. Big Foot? Big feet certainly. And deep. And at least a few days old since the 1 – 2 inch snow storms of the past three nights or so have filled in the prints.
We decided to not let our fear overcome us and so cleared off a bench farther up the trail and enjoyed our lunch–realizing that we were the luckiest people to be dining in this spot, despite the Big Foot warning.
After lunch, as we continued hiking, do you see what we saw? Yes, more BIG impressions.
And above the foot prints–missing buds from Red Maples at about 7 feet up the sapling. With little tags where the creature had torn the buds and part of the twig off because it has no upper incisors, but rather a hard palate and yanks with its lower incisors pushed against that upper dental pad, leaving behind ragged wood.
The work of Big Foot? Or a Moose with big feet?
We decided to check back in at the farm and ask Marta, the Norwegian Fjord. We know she has big feet too, but we suspected she might know where we should look for Big Foot.
She smiled and nodded her head, and so we headed down a path we’d walked upon earlier. Just maybe we’d finally get lucky.
We kept noticing the tracks of Snowshoe Hare and Squirrels and Coyotes and Foxes, the latter two sometimes traveling as if they were one and then suddenly splitting up for a minute before coming back together again, walking in the snow on the spot where the first in line had already packed it down.
As we noted those, we also kept scanning the landscape.
And yikes. Do you see him? Turns out, Marta was right. Always listen to the wisdom of a horse. Remember Mr. Ed?
Big Foot lurked behind a tree, and we didn’t want to end up like the skeleton we’d seen earlier . . .
so using our own big feet, we skedaddled out of there as quickly as we could.
We dare you to do the same. Go searching for Big Foot that is.
Rumor has it that he hangs around Notch View Farm in Evans Notch quite a bit. And even if you don’t see him, there are flat trails and hilly trails, so something for everyone to enjoy on skis or snowshoes.
Do be sure to say hello to Marta, and just maybe she’ll tell you which direction to travel as well.
And give thanks to Becky and Jim for making their land available to all–including by grooming the trails and building benches and trail signs.
wondermyway 