Another weekend of winter hiking. On Saturday we conquered the Seven Lakes Trail, hiking 8 miles from Kelly Lake to Engineer Lake and back again. The lakes were practically untouched except for some occasionally snowshoe hare prints near the shoreline. The trees were frosted over and the sun never really came out long enough to melt the frost off their branches. With the snow, frosted trees, and cloudy sky, the landscape was an array of whites and grays. Moose tracks and snowshoe hare tracks were of plenty along the trail, however neither were sighted. A few spruce grouse gave us quite a scare as they flew from nearby trees with their thumping loud wings. Boreal chickadees were also heard and seen along trail. The trail took us past two other lakes as well, Hikers Lake and Hidden Lake, which we did not have a chance to explore. The lakes very much reminder us of what you might see in the BWCA or along the Gunflint Trail.
Sunday brought us to a new lake in the area, Peterson Lake. We were hopig to snowshoe, but unfortunately there was not quite enough snow for it to be worthwhile. Rather than hiking a trail, we opted to hike the perimeter of the lake. The lake was well frozen. Early this morning or late last night, the lake had a couple other visitors. Wolf tracks, at least two sets of them, followed much of the shoreline. You can see just how big their paws are in the picture above. As we continued along we kept our eyes open for snowshoe hare, suddenly we spotted a small white creature, but not a snowshoe hare. An ermine was along the shore and bounded up into the forest as we approach. Something that neither of us have ever seen before!
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