Winter tracks in Acadia
Most of Acadia’s loop road is closed in winter and that’s exactly why I like going. The park that’s normally full of shoulder traffic is suddenly a place where you hear your boots on snow. I went out on snowshoes at the Jordan Pond side and did a slow loop toward the carriage roads.
No big mammals this morning, but tracks. A clean set of red fox prints running straight down the trail, a single pair of snowshoe hare tracks at a clearing, and one very fresh set of fisher tracks that crossed mine at an angle. No photos of the animals, only the signs. That’s always what winter is, most of the time.
Birds were quiet. A mixed flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets and a single Brown Creeper working the same stand of spruce. Two Ravens over the pond doing whatever Ravens do. A distant Common Merganser, the only duck I saw.
The landscape is the point when birds are scarce. Granite and spruce and snow. I made a lot of photos of the spruce and not many of the granite, which is the usual ratio.
Came back to town and ate too much at Jordan’s. Found out they were closing in an hour; I’d gotten in under the wire. Acadia in December feels like a place that’s just letting you visit.
