I want to interrupt my post with a neat video featuring our friend and fellow musher, Justin Fink.
Justin is…well, let the video tell you. Look for the video feature with Justin’s Journey: Dog sledding in Alaska. (Click on it!)
GO JUSTIN! (Click on his name for his website!)
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program:
OK, I admit it. One of my favorite past times is to take a walk and look for tracks. (Zip too…and Rustic Russ.)
And scat. It only makes sense. When you love to scoop poop, it carries over into other areas of your life.
Little do “normal” people realize how much you can learn from a “finding”. And, how exciting it is to score a scat.
In the dog yard, I can tell if a dog is healthy, happy (following normal routine), or off his game a tad. Every dog area is a confirmation that Rustic Russ and I are doing things right and our dogs are healthy. Like many mushers proclaim, it’s all in the poop.
In the woods, you can tell a lot by what nature leaves behind. Coyote scat with fur, claws, teeth, berries…they tell a story. An interesting story that I love to read.
It’s like a giant puzzle, in nature. Waiting for you to join in.
Bunny tracks. And it goes without saying…if there are tracks, there must be scat.
Tracks and scat go together like tea and toast, pork and beans, …OK, ok, you get the idea.
You may need to look under ferns.
You can do it in the fall.
The ground cover will tell its tales. Tales of fight or flight.
Banditos on the run.
Now, let’s take a quiz, shall we? We will start out easy and go from there. Ready?
How did you do? Those pictures were compliments of Rustic Russ, by the way. Before the snow fell. It was a photo assignment and he did darn well. And the animals cooperated that day.
If you want to learn more…check out the many books by fellow native Michigander and professional woodsman Len McDougall. (Click on name.) Len and partner, Cheanne Chellis, live in Paradise, MI with sled dogs and a wolf sanctuary in their own back yard. He and Cheanne operate Timberwolf Wilderness Adventures. I’ve visited their place with my Idita-Brats (junior mushing group). They have an amazing set up for the wolves, with the sled dogs near by.
Until tomorrow ~
Woodswoman
