Tradition Time Again

 One christmas tradition our little family has is a hike on Dec. 25.  We do a loop on the Cowichan River Trail, which has some great forest and river settings.  It was pouring rain when we left home to drive to the trailhead, so rain jackets and rubber boots were "de rigeur" for the day... and when we arrived at the trailhead (more inland and a bit higher elevation than our house) it was full on snowing.

Turns out rubber boots aren't great for traction in the snow, but I don't have any other winter boots, and they were definitely a better choice than the trail runners I would normally have worn.  Humu goes absolutely crazy for snow, she only sees it a few days a year and LOVES playing in snow.  

The trail winds through the forest, down a steep bank to the river, along the water, then back into the forest.  Normally there are lots of opportunities for birds and other wildlife spotting, but it was pretty quiet out there today.  There were a few places along the banks where bears had dragged some salmon off for a feast - we need to keep an eye out for those spots!  Not because of bears, but because Humu loves to roll in the salmon carcasses, which leaves us with a gross, stinky dog.  Luckily the snow helped hide them today, and there was one close call with an almost-roll, and one attempt to abscond with a salmon tail that we quickly put a stop to.

All three of us were soaked when we finished our hike, as it wasn't quite freezing so really we were wandering through slush.  We hit the hot tub as soon as we got home, and then spent the afternoon making vegan carrot soup for our dinner contribution at Jason's parents.  We've now hit the other holiday tradition of lying semi-comatose on the couch, complaining about too much food...

Happy holidays everyone!