As mentioned before, I often go for a morning trot through the local town forest, and I am aware that I am sharing this space with many critters, some seen, but mostly unseen. Well, last night we were blessed with about an inch of fresh snow, and while I wasn’t actually planning on going for a run today, I couldn’t resist the fierce blue sky and blanket of white. Knowing that the creatures are there is one thing, but it is always a joy to see the tale of their rompings written in the snow. I saw a few squirrel and rabbit tracks, some deer, but I think the most abundant track was coyote. I often wonder about where they are; while not dangerous to a large human, they have the largest teeth of any animal in these parts, so I think it’s natural to be curious. My son was climbing a granite hill in there one day, and there was a coyote, not 50 yards away, cleaning himself and seeming to take no notice of my son. I sometimes fantasize about them having hideouts in an old abandoned quarry area- makes me think of the hyenas in the lion king. Anyway, the tracks put aside any thoughts of them skulking in one specific area and painted them as the true rangers of these woods. They crossed my path in many places, and sometimes ran along it for 10, 20, 30 yards and then veered off. You could see where they sometimes met and circled. On the way into the woods there were no human tracks, which is what made me presume that the first set of tracks like these were coyote tracks. However, on the portion of the trail that I retraced to get back, it looked like my tracks were running along with his… so that was pretty cool.