Snowshoeing

There is a wooded area next door to Mom's office building in Pittsfield, and Mom has made a habit of taking lunchtime walks there a couple of times each week. Since the snow arrived it has been too deep to walk in, so today Mom brought her snowshoes to work and gave that a try.

The path starts as a little hunter trail through the trees....

...and it opens up onto the Sebasticook River, with a nice view of this rickety suspension bridge....

....then eventually it runs into this old railroad grade, which is used by snowmobilers in the winter.

The snowmobile trail crosses the rickety bridge, but Mom doesn't trust it unless she sees fresh tracks.

It's obvious that the bridge has been here for awhile (note the tree growing around the tieback cables in the photo below), so it must be fairly sturdy.

Crossing the bridge would take you to Manson Park, but Mom usually goes the other way, which eventually dead-ends into the existing railroad tracks that run through town.

It's a very peaceful walk, especially with snow on the ground to dampen any noise from town. Today Mom saw a lot of animal tracks in the snow and these two ducks swimming in the river.

Here's a self-portrait taken from the bridge (Mom usually tries to wear some orange in the woods--it is still bowhunting season after all).

Mom is very lucky to be able to go snowshoeing right from work! It's like a little nature therapy, right in the middle of the workday.