Incredible North Country Trail Snowshoe -- Post 1

It has been many months since I made time to go on an "epic" adventure.  Yesterday was the day.  Friends, Jamey and Lois, their two dogs Bear and Nora, and I parked in the plowed area at the start of the School Forest's cross country ski trail.  We snowshoed through the woods to the bridge and caught the North Country Trail.  It was such a beautiful day.  Temperatures were in the upper 30s, but it felt warmer.  I'll post the photos over two days.

 As I was driving over to pick my friends up, I snapped this photo of the bay. 

Here are a couple of photos of my new snowshoes.

 



 

As we started our adventure at 12:45, a "Yooper Mobile" drove by.

 



The photo below shows what we think is a woodpecker hole.  It was around four inches in diameter and at least six inches deep.

 



 

Jamey is an expert on animal tracks.  In the photo below, the tracks on the left are red squirrel and on the right otter.

 



The Sucker River is pretty much frozen.  Here are pictures from the bridge looking both ways.

 



 

We made a right at the bridge on the North Country Trail.  Around a quarter mile down the trail, Jamey spotted this otter hole.  Since the river's surface is frozen, the otter keep this slide hole open so they can slide down under the ice to scavenge for food.

 



Around 40 feet up in a tree we spotted this huge nest.  We are not sure what critter made this nest but it is huge:  around eight feet by six feet.

 



Pictures along the trail....