WEDNESDAY WALK - THROUGH THE WINTRY WOODS

The snow continues to fall here in SE Pennsylvania. We had snow on March 1st, March 2nd, and March 3rd we ended up with a total of about 11 inches. It was a strange sequence of storms, because between each storm we has a warming period where the snow would melt off of the roadways but remained most everywhere else. So on Saturday during one of these warming periods I decided to go for a walk through the woods.

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The first stop was to take a shot of this big white cedar that grows right next to my house, all frosted with snow.

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The next shot was of these red cedar trees in my yard that surround a large bolder.

Here is a closeup of the bolder.
Over the years people have piled rocks around the bolder to make a kind of ramp to the top.

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At this point I began my hike into the woods. The first thing I came across was a lot of downed trees and under growth.
This is an old dead pine that was blown over in a wind storm earlier in the week.

Then I saw all this undergrowth that was bent down and knocked over.
It is strange how a lot of these small saplings have been bent over into arches like this. The only thing I can figure is this happened due to some icing we had this winter.

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Here you can see my traveling companion. Her name is Bella (A Saint Bernard Mix). She is here to protect me as we travel through the "forbidden" woods. You can see our destination ahead, a stand of tall white pines.
I call this the "forbidden" woods because in all the years I have lived here (almost 15) I have never traveled through this area, you will soon see why.

This is what I had to navigate through. Fallen pine tree after fallen pine tree.

after fallen pine tree,

after fallen pine tree,

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Further and further I traveled into the woods, slowly picking my way through the underbrush.

After a bit of struggling I finally made it to the middle of the pine grove, and took a shot looking straight up.

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Finally after quite a bit of struggle and poked eyes I made it through to the other side, where I saw this tree with a few leaves still hanging on.

and managed to get this one cool photo

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Looking back I vowed never to return to those "forbidden" woods.

We finally got onto the trail that would take us home and my faithful traveling companion is look back wondering what is taking so long, after all she had no problem getting through the woods.

Hope you all enjoyed the hike.
Until next time have a blessed week.