Seen along the trail

It's been a long cold stretch here on the North Shore. Even when the high temp for the day is 3 below, I'm getting out for an hour or so each day, just enough to ski a loop at one of my local favorite XC trails.

After a blizzard that turned to rain and back to snow, you find funny things in the woods.



At the Piedmont Ski Trail, it looked just like someone had been ice-fishing in the middle of a trail junction. The hole was just the right size for a tip-up, right down to the open water and slush. The groomers came through the next day and the icefishing hole was still there. The forest fisherman must have re-augered the hole. Maybe there's a trout that feeds on ski wax shavings.



Still at Piedmont, there's a great sign for the truly lost. If this sign doesn't orient you, what ever would?



Then, at Bagley Nature Area at UMD, the Superior Hiking Trail got a good grooming...by a joyriding snowmobiler. Note the blue paint blazes that mark the SHT all the way up to Canada. Could it be the SHT's first thru-Skidoo?