Hiking Through the Woods on a Snowy Afternoon

In honor of George Washington's birthday, we visited Mount Washington with some friends.  We hiked along the Big Creek Trail, a four-mile loop that crosses three creeks as they cascade between the slopes.

It was not a difficult trail, but D2 lagged far behind Scoot, the compulsive leader.  Our friends were generous with motivation and a few carries.  At one point, Mr. S suggested that D2 try to find the snow dogs.  I think he was referring to his own dogs, who spent most of their time galloping through the snow in the front of the line.  But D2 wasn't interested in going that fast, and doubted the very existence of snow dogs.

The Caterpillar must have overheard their discussion.  Pretty soon we started finding things like this along the trail.  D2 called them snow kitties, and promptly knocked their ears off.  When the Caterpillar heard that, he  sculpted a head with seven ears.  D2 left them alone.  I don't know if the snow art motivated D2's hiking, but Dandelionslayer and I enjoyed watching the Caterpillar exercising his creativity.

D2 caught up enough to add the arms to the Caterpillar's
snow Viking. 

The leaders, crossing another stream.

"Who's that crossing over my bridge?"

This huge boulder, covered with moss and icicles, was next to another bridge.

Once we started going downhill, on the briefly sunnier side, everyone moved faster.  Even Rollo quit whining and ran along with the bigger boys.  Except for a few giggly slips, D2 stayed on his feet until almost the end.  Then, of course, he fell asleep on Dandelionslayer's back.  We all slept well that night.