My favorite time of year to hike (and snowshoe) is the winter months. There are no bugs, and the snow allows me to see which animals live in the places where I regularly hike. I get some sense of that in warmer weather, but the tracks they leave in the snow provide a great opportunity to see who is up to what in my favorite local places.
Last weekend we took a walk at one of our usual haunts and noticed that in places the snowy trail was really torn up and in others it was just packed snow. The torn-up places all looked the same: rearranged snow, brown oak and beech leaves, empty acorn caps and deer tracks. It looked like the deer knew where to dig and only tore up the snow in places where they'd find acorns. In one very large disturbed area, I found turkey tracks. I guess the turkeys were taking advantage of the deer's hard work. Every winter hike is like this - we find tracks that tell a story. I encourage everyone to bundle up, get outside and find out what your wild neighbors are up to.