Week #5 (spring break)

My phenology spot this week was different because I was home in Monkton for spring break. Just being in a more rural setting made me feel like I had a greater connection to the changing seasons. The weather was sunny and beautiful for the first half of the week and my driveway and the dirt road I live on both announced the coming of mud season. Before clouds and rain rolled in around thursday I took advantage of the sun and warmth by making a daily hike up Hogback Mountain which lies just across the road. I followed old logging trails observing how the forest changed and trying to read the landscape. In the hollows between the low ridges that run north to south along the mountain the snow was still deep but I could usually walk on top of it without falling through unless I hit a pocket formed by downed branches or the jumbled rocks of a talus slope. On one walk I saw deer signs and remnants of beds, they looked old but the quickly melting snow must have deceived me because over the next ridge I startled several deer who quickly turned up their tails and fled down the treacherous slope faster then I could hope to follow. I could hear birds and occasionally would startle at the sound of snow sloughing off of rocks above me. The rain towards the end of the week kept me inside and melted the remaining ice on my driveway making packing for my return to school easier since I didn't have to park my car at the top. The last thing I did before leaving home was to take what was probably the last sled run of the season with my mom. There was just enough snow left to get a good ride in before hitting the bare grass and abruptly skidding to a stop.