April 1st Snow Storm

What do you do when Mother Nature plays an April Fools joke by sending over a foot of snow your way? You could stay inside and muse over your summer gardening plans, or you can get out and make the best of it. I chose the later by grabbing my snowshoes, which I had not yet put away for the season, and venturing outside during the middle of the storm. Unlike the blizzard that hit two weeks ago, the wind was mild as was the temperature, which hovered between slightly below to slightly above freezing throughout the two-day storm. It started snowing Friday morning, but took several hours before there was any accumulation. When I got home from work there was only a couple inches on the ground. This quickly changed overnight as the snow came down heavier and accumulated. In the morning there was no sign of it letting up, so my initial plans of driving north to go cross-country skiing were changed to staying closer to home. It was still snowing heavily when   my dog Guster and I hit the trail around 9:30 AM.

One thing I noticed about the snow from this storm is how blue it was. I don't recall ever seeing snow this color before, but it's an indication of the snow being very dense, which was definitely apparent by its weight when shoveled. This newspaper article provides a good explanation of what causes this phenomenon http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20100128/OPINION/1280385.

Wherever there were crevices or holes in the snow it appeared blue

The snow was beautiful as it clung to the trees, but it was difficult trekking through over a foot of snow even with snowshoes as they kept sinking into the snow instead of floating on top. I also had to be careful, because there were large puddles of water underneath where the ground had previously been disturbed by snowmobile riders. A couple weeks earlier, I came out to ski on this same trail, but it was a sheet of ice, which made going down hills quite precarious. I am glad that I didn't bring the skis out today. There would be no snowmobiles out  to break the trail.

Water along the trail

Occasionally there would be a loud whoosh of snow as it broke free from the branches above. I didn't hear any limbs breaking, but there was evidence that this had occurred and I was very aware of the sounds around me and was prepared to cover my head.

Fallen branches line a portion of the trail

Hemlock branches weighed down by snow

Guster, who normally leads the way, hung back opting to follow in my footsteps. I remembered to apply Musher's secret to his paws to keep ice from forming between the pads.
This stuff works great, unfortunately, I realized too late that due to the depth of the snow he needed protection for his entire body and not just his paws. He was not only exhausted from trying to maneuver through the deep snow, but he was being weighed down by large snowballs that clung to his coat. There was nothing that could be done, except continually remove them as best I could. But each time this was only a short temporary solution since they would quickly re-accumulate.
Poor Guster, toward the end of the three mile hike, he literally got stuck several times and couldn't move without my chiseling off the chunks of snow. We had never experienced anything like this before and it made a normally fun hike, quite miserable for us both.  That said there were some nice moments with beautiful scenery to enjoy.

 

But I was happy to make it back to the car. Gus was exhausted and slept for most of the remainder of the day. I expect it may be a while before he wants to go back out on that trail again.

As is often the case with snowstorms in April, the following day was sunny and warm and felt like Spring again. The goldfinches felt it too, as they showed they are beginning to shed their drab winter garb in exchange for bright golden feathers of which they are named.

Goldfinches molting