A walk in the woods

Around 4:30 this afternoon, after a housebound day, I took a walk to clear my head.  Because of the late hour and the day's overcast, I almost didn't take the camera...

Two or three minutes to the west, the road my house is on turns into the same road under another name (Giffin Pond Road), heads up a short hill and, derelict at this point, disappears into the trees.  The road runs west, parallel to the Fundy coast but through the forest, for 2+ kilometres.  There, it ends at Giffin Pond and (yet another) spectacular beach.

There hasn't been much snow this year and an ATV had been up the road fairly recently, so the walking was easy despite an inch or snow of fresh snow.  With some brushing and deeper snow, the road would make a great cross country ski trail.  Encroaching alders have narrowed it in some places and in others, it is more stream bed than road.  In fact, on the descent to Giffin Pond, the ATV had turned back because of the deep cuts evidently caused by running water.  It would be a lot of work to turn it into a passable ski trail and I haven't met any cross country skiers here to help with the work... but perhaps one winter the right conditions will inspire me.

Today's conditions were perfect for seeing wildlife tracks, some fresh, others snow-covered.  There were countless fresh rabbit tracks, plus those of other small animals which I'm guessing were squirrels and moles/mice -- yet surprisingly few fresh predator tracks.  The one set I saw probably belonged to a fox, given the small paws and short pace.  Toward the pond, there were moose tracks, snow-covered but unmistakable.

Predictably for a winter walk in the woods, there was a profound stillness, broken primarily by the sound of my boots on the snow.  At one point, a small plane flew over, its engines muffled by the clouds.  At another, again toward the pond, small streams broke through the snow and percolated cheerily downhill.   And just before the road broke out of the trees at Giffen Pond, I recognized the increasingly familiar, rhythmic sighing of the ocean as small waves washed the shore.

Giffen Pond was visible through the trees as I approached, an expanse of snow-covered ice.  But I was unprepared for the view of the beach.  To the west:

And to the east:

The beach rises up to a dike of sorts, on one side the ocean and on the other, Giffen Pond.  It's a testament to the power of the waves, because the stones of the dike are rounded and smooth, clearly shaped by the waters that have piled them there.

The pond must be a haven for waterfowl in spring and fall; it's perfect for that.

Despite the isolation, there is plenty of evidence of human activity, from the fire pit in the photo above to the refuse, old and new, washed up among the stones.

It was getting late by this time.  With so much left to explore, regrettably I had to turn and leave.  I started back up the road thinking only about whether the light would hold long enough for me to get home.  It was already dim enough that I had to watch the trail without looking up... and so, as I broke out of the trees into a more exposed area it was an unexpected glow on the snow that caused me to look up and abruptly turn around.  This is what I saw:

Good thing I decided to take the camera!