Sign up to get free environmental news updates by email. Currently, he is searching for forest carnivores in Mt. Hood National Forest. But now, with my hand slowly slipping from the mass of roots above my head, my body dangling at the top of the icy, precipitous slope, I start to wonder if it was all worth it. Plummeting down the yawning abyss had shocked me more than scared me. I stand up, one snowshoe dangling guiltily while my knees shake to hide their embarrassment.
Life never seems so real and present as when the fragility of existence comes into view.
Fresh fox tracks. And today was the day for fox tracks, fresh ones and lots of them. Having already descended and ascended Sand Canyon in my pursuit of pine marten and snowshoe hare tracks, at first I balked at the ominous Little Zigzag Canyon. But, hot on the trail of the red fox tracks, I could not pass up the delicious opportunity to follow them as far as my body would allow. This was more than I could pass up for fear of a mere 300-foot icy canyon.