Animal tracking fun on trail, not so much at home

It was only a few days ago that the kids and I spotted animal tracks in the snow on a trail near our house. It's always so fun to come upon a discovery like this one.

We find the winter is a great time to find animal tracks. But it is amazing what a difference a few days can make in late winter when warm temperatures start melting snow. The muddy mess of early spring makes animal tracking (at least for my family) a little more challenging.

The animal tracks we have been seeing for the past month or so in our own backyard are of a skunk. We know this because even though we don't always have tracks to follow, our noses can easily detect our (unwelcome) visitor.

I don't believe skunks hibernate but they do go into a resting period in the winter. Now, with warmer weather, we have found our resident skunk is becoming more active and a real nuisance. Seeing tracks in our backyard is even less exciting after discovering one of our chickens dead last week. My husband is sure the skunk killed it based on tracks and signs of his hiding spot.

My husband has a plan to encourage the skunk to move on. I haven't asked for details on this plan because I am afraid to ask. I will just hope it is effective and less Caddy Shack-like (his plans of times past have included some of both).

Which leads me to another almost-spring livestock happening - kidding season. My whole family has been spending more time outside this past week checking in on our pregnant goat, Angel.

I have been surprised, but not, about how naturally my kids have taken to raising livestock (the have been in 4H for 10 years). I think all the years we've spent exploring trails when they were younger has helped with their passion for animals. Because the truth is, you really do have to love the outdoors to have even a small hobby farm. Every morning and evening (no matter the weather) you have to be outside feeding your animals.

And that has made us all more in tune with the weather and develop a real appreciation for the little signs of the changing seasons.

My family can definitely feel spring is in the air. We don't want to rush this season but I do admit to hoping the mud - and skunk - move along without too many hassles.

Kid Tracks column: Whether you're on on skis or on foot, Portland offers delights

One day it's snowing, another day it's raining and just to keep things interesting, a warm day is thrown into the mix. That's what March in Maine is all about, which makes planning an outdoor adventure a lesson in weather watching and taking advantage of every condition when family time is available. With flexibility in mind, we managed two fun urban trail adventures this month on Portland trails.

We tossed our cross-country skis in the car after a snowstorm to see if we could squeeze in an hour at Riverside Golf Course in Portland before dark. The trails there are typically groomed for skiing and with both kids at a Portland school in the afternoon, it's a convenient place for a quick stop when I can sneak out of the office early.

Our friend, Shannon, joined us on this adventure. It was as much about getting on our skis as it was about exercising for all of us.

We had an hour before dark and thought we could cover a mile or two in that time. That turned out to be a conservative estimate because we managed to cover 3.5 miles despite Shannon and I doing quite a bit of chatting and skiing at a leisurely pace.

And I have to say, watching a winter sunset while cross-country skiing is awfully darn nice.
A week later the snow was melting and we felt a hint of spring in the air. I consulted Shannon, who joined the girls and I again, and we decided we were not in the mood for skiing. So we decided to go on a hiking loop that included the Eastern Prom and Bayside trails in Portland.

We parked at the Top of the Old Port parking lot and headed down to Commercial Street to catch the Eastern Prom Trail. I don't always have the kind of karma that has me running into friends randomly on Portland streets but I did on this day. We stopped to chat a couple of times so it took a little longer than planned to get to the Eastern Prom trail. But it was a nice way to get rolling.

A little way into that trail the kids and I commented on the fact that we are usually on wheels of some kind -- bikes or rollerblades -- on this particular path. No matter our speed, we like walking here because there are always some interesting sites, beyond the great view of Casco Bay and the waterfront happenings. The waste treatment plant's bubbling brown water is always a fascination. And the graffiti wall seems to always require a moment to interpret what the letters created by the artists actually are. All those flowing bubble letter-type drawings need a bit of code-breaking.

We found another wall of graffiti on the Bayside trail with an unfortunate spelling error but (by some stroke of luck?) the grammar use of "you're" was correct. When words are your business, these sorts of things jump out at you. You don't want to care but you can't help but ponder the unfortunate physical evidence of a law-breaking individual's intelligence.

When we looped back to the parking lot, we were surprised to discover that my smartphone mapping application recorded we had covered 4.6 miles. That's some solid exercising mileage and a nice bonus after a pleasant walk chatting with my teenagers and friends.

In the spring it's always best to keep outdoor adventures simple and flexible. It's just nice to be outdoors knowing a new season is right around the corner. Portland trails has a lot to offer for busy families who want to enjoy some time together while getting outdoors during a stormy season. And the sights -- scenic and otherwise -- are always entertaining.

Riverside Golf Course in Portland is the place for some fine cross country skiing 

and not only that, the winter sunset is a sight to behold.

There’s always something to see along the Eastern Prom Trail in Portland, whether it’s 

the beauties of the ocean and the islands, or a graffiti wall with inaccurate grammar.

Portland Trails Hike

Riverside XC Skiing

Wendy Almeida can be contacted at 791-6334 or at:
wea@mainetoday.com
Twitter: wea1021

Originally published in the Maine Sunday Telegram March 10, 2013.

Geocache maintenance, an adventure all by itself

. I am teaching someone how to play the game of geocaching on Saturday and I had to do some prep work this week. This included some geocache maintenance for a couple of geocaches my own family has hidden for players of this outdoor game.

Geocaching is a game that uses GPS coordinates to find a hidden box filled with inexpensive trinkets and a logbook. I used to use a hand-held GPS unit to play, manually downloading coordinates from a website to find the hidden box in the woods. These days I use a free mobile app on my Galaxy phone. There are several smart phone apps available now that has helped the game grow in popularity.

Since it has been a snowy winter – and no big thaw yet – the geocaches my family has hidden are under at least a foot of snow, which is a bit more of a challenge (even for us) to find than usual.
I set off in the early morning before work yesterday to see if one of our traditional caches could be pulled out of its hiding spot to use as a real-life geocache for our newbie game player this weekend. It's in a metal ammo crate that's tough to open on a warm day so I know it closes securely to keep out the snow. The trick was to see if it was stuck in a block of icy snow.

I had hoped I wouldn't have to work too hard to hike to the cache location because there is a snowmobile trail nearby that usually packs down the snow. But sadly, no snowmobiles forged even a partial path for me so I had to hoof it about 1/4 mile in a couple of feet of snow to get there in my regular snow boots. But don't feel badly for me. It was good exercise and a lesson to remind me to better prepare for winter geocaching. I should have brought my snowshoes or xc skis!

I found my geocache and it was not buried too deeply. The layer of icy snow was broken with the aid of a shovel handle so I was able to pull it out. Inside the contents were dry so I dubbed it a winner for the to-find geocache list for the weekend.

Then I was on to my family's next geocache, which I was told via the cache's online listing that it was in need of maintenance. The note said this geocache was wet. This is always a tricky message to interpret because the cache box is made out of natural materials. So by its nature it absorbs moisture. But still, I decided to pick it up and take it offline for the rest of the winter.

This particular geocache is hidden in a high traffic area that includes a library, a town hall and a school. That means whenever I do maintenance on this geocache – like hauling it out of its hiding spot – I call the local police to let them know what I'm doing. If you search the web for stories about people mistaking geocaches for bombs, you'll find a lot. I'd rather explain to the police ahead of time what I'm doing rather than a quick talking on-the-spot explanation.

I had to explain my life story to the police department (and no joke, I also had to give them my date of birth) when I called to tell them I was moving my own geocache. But still, it was nice we avoided any hassles. Start to finish in the dark last night, we had the geocache (a cumbersome, overly heavy item) out of hiding and in our truck in about five minutes.

So as I work out how to explain to someone new to the geocaching game how to play, I ponder all the people who volunteer to actually hide the geocaches that allow people to play the game. Being a geocache owner myself (by making and hiding the box) I know it is not just a one-time commitment; it's an on-going maintenance job. But since geocaching.com – the website where I list my own geocache finds and hides – just reached a new milestone of 2 million active geocaches (which they hit on Feb. 28, 2013), I can confirm there really are a lot of game enthusiasts. So I do my best to be a good cache owner because I appreciate all the people that have hidden their own geocaches for my family to find.

If you're new to the game – or simply want to learn more about it because you have no idea what I'm talking about in this post – you can read one of my former stories that explains the basics of the game.

Scheduling fun is important because the M-dub club matters, too

The kids and I decided to schedule weekly meet-ups to "train" for hiking mountains this summer. Our hope is to get into shape to summit Mt. Washington in the fall. My friend Shannon has decided to join  this adventure with us so we're all committed to making each other accountable. We are planning our weekly "M-dub Club" (our nickname thanks to Shannon's wordsmithing skills) meet-ups to cover at least a few miles of walking/hiking (or cross country skiing as it happened this week) for exercise. We're going with whatever seasonal activity we can manage to get our legs and hearts pumping in anticipation of tackling the 6,288-foot mountain.

The Mount Washington Observatory website has a helpful guide that offers information about the four more popular hiking routes to the summit. No matter which way we choose – Pinkham Notch, Tuckerman Ravine, Ammonoosuc Ravine or Gulfside – we're looking at an elevation gain of at least 3,800 feet. Since our hike last year looped from Little Haystack to Lafayette was an elevation gain of about 3,500 feet, we have a few hundred feet more to tackle. It doesn't sound like much but in thinking back to that adventure (which was awesome for so many reasons), we were working pretty darn hard to summit.

With a friend in the mix relying on us to stay accountable – and of course having an "official" name for our weekly meet-ups helps – we're committed to meeting every week.

But already my family's busy life is getting in the way. My 16-year-old has been talking about taking a tractor safety class for years. She has been working at a beef cow farm every week for five years with her 4-H project and they have tractors. She drives the smaller ATV-types on occassion but this summer she wants to drive the big boys. But she needs this tractor safety class under her belt to do it.
So during the month of May we have to find another time for our M-dub Club meet-ups.

But we're committed to training. Really. This is just a minor set-back and we can be flexible.

I just have to keep reminding myself that even if it is a sad state of affairs that I have to "schedule" family fun time into our calendar, I'll do it. This adventure really is just as important as everything else we have on our schedule.

The M-dub club will reign supreme (in theory at least) this year.

All I have to do is think back to amazing adventure the kids and I had last year...

 Lunch on the summit of Mt. Lafayette last September.