Two Loop Walk #1

Today I did the first of a what I hope will be a year’s worth of walks around the two campground loops here at Prelude Lake Park where I live. For me, this is an exercise in awareness. At the end of each walk, I will write and post at least one sentence about it. It is a 15-minute walk in the summer and about a 40-minute walk through the snow in the winter. I plan to do 365 walks and posts in all, although not necessarily every day.

Two Loop Walk #1

I set out with Bill and Princess. It is a snowy day where the colour of the sky is a perfect reflection of the snow on the ground. There are flakes coming down and fresh powder on the snowmobile trails we follow. It is warm – only minus 6. Princess leads the way, her tail raised in an ecstatic curl. I follow Bill whose brilliant blue jacket is the only colour in the landscape. Then I notice the dark, dusty green of spruce needles under the snow and realize the colour is still there, but hidden.

Princess stops, crouches and creeps along the path like a mighty hunter, slowly, slowly, only inches at a time. Then leaps through the snow and slams herself against a tree. I wonder if the squirrel up high is afraid or laughing at this clumsy creature who can’t even climb trees.

Each of the snow caps on the posts that mark the camp sites is different. Some are round, some long and thin and there is one that overhangs the post about six inches. I wonder what’s holding it up.

We stop and look at a picnic table. The snow on the ground is higher than the seat. The snow on the seat is higher than the table. “Doesn’t even look like a table,” Bill says. He thinks it looks like a set of stairs. I think it looks like a World War II bunker.

The thing I notice most as we return is how little I notice. I’ve spent most of the walk thinking about the book I want to publish.