Woke up to a most unusual March snow this morning. Seeing everything capped in snow again amplified how much I already missed Winter. How much I really wished I could just restart this whole season. Went out and helped my father knock the heavy snow off of our evergreens and then decided to gear up and venture into the forest nearby the house. There is such an eerie calmness to a snowy forest. The snow was already melting and all you could hear was your breath and the sound of dropping slush. I found a large overturned tree and investigated its treefall gap. I’ve certainly been looking at forest ecology differently since I’ve started volunteering at the local state parks.

I digress.

The silence was so peaceful and calm that when I heard the movement of a nearby deer I nearly jumped out of my skin. Away in the distance next to a second fallen tree stood two perfectly still deer. I didn’t get a good look at them but they were probably white-tailed deer (a species Smithsonian is working closely with). I managed to shoot a couple of shots of them but I didn’t have a zoom lens attached. They ran away before I could get closer. 

It was a rather small forest surrounded, albeit sparsely, by residential properties and the lake from my previous shoot. As I retraced my step back to my house I kept thinking how much I’d love to trek into a deep mountainside forest. How much I would love waking up to that crisp, frozen mountain air. I would only need good equipment and a good partner (human or animal) and I know I could make something for myself. Today will be dedicated to filling out my application for the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation. It is a costly program, but in the position I’m in, experience and technical training is invaluable. I am going to have to really work to earn the scholarship, It’d be the only way I allow myself to go back to school before grad school. 

Well, we will see, que sera sera.

Trek On,

Chris