MOLLY'S AND MY AFTERNOON

[Nasoosie]

Here's what Molly and I did today! What a perfect day to ski, as the deep, soggy snow of the past several days is now frozen with about 2 inches of new, fluffy snow on the top. That means we can ski anywhere!



We followed this running ADK wolf all over the place!



This was a very busy coyote game trail down past the leanto to Cold Brook....tons of coyotes of all sizes, and tons of snowshoe rabbits trails.



We took a break in the sun at the leanto at the pond.



My skis and jacket at the leanto rest station.



A perfect end to a great afternoon! Sun, music, and a cold drink!!

[Cedar518]

looks like a great afternoon, give molly a hug from me!

[Mollysmom]

It looks like you had a wonderful day ! Thanks for sharing with us

[Sparkle]

Wonderful! X-country skiing takes so much energy, I don't think I would have the energy any more. You go girl!

[mtngal]

What a perfectly lovely day!

[Sparkle]

Is this a stupid question? What is an ADK Wolf?

[sharon]

Soos, seems like you enjoy that white stuff and it's beautiful in pictures, but I for one stay as far away from it as possible! I'm with Sparkle, what's a ADK wolf?

[dcricket]

Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrdy Yup, I was curious as to what an ADK wolf was too. I've never skiid, but loved to snow shoe
What a wonderful day you two had.

[bluepinecones]

What a GREAT DAY! The only problem I noted was ending it with a cold drink instead of a hot one after being out in the snow.
Loved the photos.

[snowball]

a lovely day!!! and waiting to hear what ADK wolf is as well
sheila

[Sparkle]

I couldn't wait any longer so I Googled it. It's an Adirondack Wolf.

[Nasoosie]

An Adirondack Wolf is a species of wild canine that people up here have argued about its existing for years and years. I personally have seen just ONE, and it was when my daughter was in Kindergarten. She left the house to walk down the driveway to get the schoolbus, came back in, and said, "Mommy, there's a wolf in our yard." I had thought that perhaps it was a stray dog, but I went to look, and LO! It was most certainly a beautiful silvery wolf, just sitting at the edge of the plowed snow in the turnaround area of the driveway. It was taller than a yardstick, sitting down, had that beautiful wolfish face, and intelligent, curious expression. Once it saw me, it stood up long enough for me to see its beautiful bushy tail, whirled around and loped off through the new snow toward the pond. I went out and took pictures of its tracks, WAY larger than our Adirondack (ADK) coyotes' tracks, which I have stashed somewhere in my 'stuff.'

I have heard wolves howling across the mountain where I lived in a log cabin for a number of years, and recorded those howls on cassette tape. The howl of a wolf is something you will never mistake for the more common coyote howls. I never saw a wolf over there, but saw tracks many many times as I was skiing around that area.....tracks that could never have been made by a coyote.

On this side of the mountain, I have recently seen more and more LARGE canine tracks amid the usual coyote tracks, although I have never heard a wolf howl over here. I would LOVE to hear one. I hear coyotes all the time, and they are fun, too....especially when the babies attempt to learn the howling with the parents' nightly howl sessions! And I very often see coyotes on their morning hunting excursions for rabbits.

Yesterday, I picked up the large canine tracks, what I call an ADK wolf, not far from the house, and followed them for about a mile before they headed off into some thick woods where I couldn't ski. The tracks started off at a walking pattern, and very soon took on the configuration of the loping pattern that I photographed. We have an abundance of snowshoe rabbits (varrying hares) here on the property, as I don't allow any hunters on here. It's a perfect place for canines to find ample food. The size of the prints were more than double the size, almost triple the size, of Molly's prints, which are about the size of ADK coyote prints.

I would so love to see another beautiful wolf here. More and more people are reporting having seen them now, and biologists who analyze prints and scats have decided that we do, indeed, have a small population of wolves who probably migrated from Canada.

And that's what an ADK wolf is!

[sharon]

Cool, Soos, thanks for the info. I've seen coyotes around here, but not for a long time, to many people moving in, but we see and hear them all the time where we go for Thanksgiving. Love listening to them sing. The only wolf I've seen in the wild was at Denali and we were fortunate to see the female alpha of the Tokla pack, one of 2 packs that live in the park. The first sighting was from a distance, she was sunning herself by the river. Second sighting, she was trotting down the side of the road like she owned it....which she did! She was a pretty silver color also, but kind of scrawny. Guide said she had just weaned her pups and needed to get some weight on now before winter. I'll see if I can find her picture to post.