what a night. what a night. the moon is not particularly full nor is the moon particularly visible tonight. yet the white lit snow was bright enough to do some hiking in the woods "sans" torch. the dogs loved it, and I loved watching the dogs love it. they were all hyped up. their personal game creation of wrestle and chase was in rare form, the volume was set at eleven. when they ran off trail on the open snow there was a loud thick thud with each contact of each paw to the several inch deep snow with its think coat of near ice with its thin dusting of freshly fallen snow. I closed my eyes and listened to the rhythmless rhythm of nature. the hike was short, just a dash across the street into Rock Creek and then the loop (Mark and Karin's Loop) behind Dean's Art Class, Rosemount Center. The trail is moderately steep with its conveluted terrain, the trail mixes single track wtih some moderately wide double track with trees young and old shooting out of the earth on each side. not exactly the old open hill I grew up on as a suburban kid. this network of trails would be classified as high intermediate to double black in the world of sledding in the world created in a kids mind. clearly some hills offer greater danger than others, sharper turns, steeper drops, less run off, no run off. dean and I opted for one of the more moderate runs this morning before I dropped him off at Rosemount. we did a handful of runs, went off the trail into a snow drift nearly covering him completely in light soft powder. immediate smiles and giggles at the rush of the whole crash experience quickly grew into displeasure and near crying. dean had refused to wear his snowpants. one of his blue snow boots was filled with snow. his little leg was already flush from the cold. he made it clear, "I want to go home now. I want to go to Dean's house!" but the direction we needed to go was the opposite way, Art Class. it was a silly game of my putting him in the sled and him popping up and out. "no, I do not want to go sledding." I tried one more time, first putting my (yes "my" not Dean's) backpack on the sled for back support. then put Dean in the sled and said, relax. Dean relaxed as I pulled him up a not so steep trail towards the school. the dogs off running not offering once to help pull.
guess it was a pretty good day from morning to night, well, if you subtract the 9 hours spent at work.