We had a large turnout for the January animal-tracking hike at Poke-O-Moonshine’s Lost Oak Valley. This hike is a continuation of winter tracking hikes organized by Friends of Poke-O-Moonshine and Keeping Track that began several years ago. Usually, the January hike has temperatures below zero, but last Saturday the temperatures were quite warm, making for a very comfortable and enjoyable day outdoors.

Nineteen of us snowshoed on the crusty snow up the old jeep trail and then on a side-trail into the valley. As the valley narrowed with Little Deerfield Mountain on the left and a foothill of Poke-O-Moonshine on the right, hike leader David Thomas Train noted a grouse hole in the snow. Grouse create a small snow cave for warmth and to keep away from predators. This one appeared to have been used for some time as there was quite a large pile of grouse droppings which looked like porcupine poop—I didn’t think grouse could eat so much.

We continued into the Valley which opened into a horshoe shaped area formed by large cliffs with numerous frozen waterfalls. The tracking conditions weren't too good because of the hard snow and dusting that occurred the night before so most of the animal tracks were indistinct. However, the trail had been criss-crossed by a fisher who was a recent traveler because its tracks were the only clear ones we saw except for some made by squirrels.

When tracking, one might think you spend the whole time looking at the ground to see where animals have walked. But, many times you will find signs of animals on trees and sure enough, on many tree trunks were wonderful displays of bear claw marks made when they climbed the trees to get food, communicate with other bears, or to park the cubs while the mother foraged around. It was quite a display of bear activity.

After lunch and a continuation of the hike a little further into the valley, we returned by the same trail, got back to our cars, and headed on home. It was a beautiful way to spend part of the day.

Our next trail project is scheduled for February 20th. Details about where and when will be sent out later.

In lieu of saying “Happy trails”, I googled the term to see if there are any synonyms. I didn’t find any; instead here is the chorus from the song Dale Evans Rogers wrote:

Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It’s the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a happy one for you.