The Curious 7

Today Was an amazing day.  This afternoon I was privileged to go hiking with a group of friends.  It was so beautiful.  It was about 31*F (-0.6*C), and snowy - for those who don't know, this is almost perfect packing snow.   We met up and started down a trail and we didn't get anywhere quick.  I do not think we went more than 5 minutes at a time without stopping and getting sidetracked - which was cool.

The scenery was so beautiful.  The snow was coming down light (weight wise) yet lots of it, and they were huge snow flakes.  It was one of the most beautiful snowfalls I have ever witnessed.  I was in awe of God's beauty and creation!   The pictures below cannot even begin to describe, reveal or compare to the stunning experience we had.

We had many fun adventures while walking and getting sidetracked.  We found a field which was beyond beautiful in sight, and we raced through it, talked and laughed in it.   We played "snow baseball" and stopped to sight see some ducks in the creek.   One of the guys in our group found a fallen tree that was pretty bouncy and so 4 of us (there were 7 of us) piled on it until it started creaking, then we all jumped off and carried on.

Some of climbed some trees.  In doing so we learned some great lessons.  For example when hanging on to a branch facing upwards, keeping note of the branch you are on is helpful: never hang on an evergreen branch that has no evergreen on it, it may dead.   Yes, there was a bit of fall, but everyone is all right, praise God!   We had some good laughs and joke from it.

At the end of the trail (or at least where we stopped) was a dam, man-made.  it was cool since there was a lot of ice and snow, yet it still flowed.   We stopped at the dam for a while before heading back.   In total we were hiking for about 2 or so hours.   It was well worth it.  I am so blessed to have a group of friends like this, it's a group like no other!  God is good to me.

*Thanks to Elsbeth and Daniel for some of the pictures below*

In this picture I, on the far right, appear to be in a less natural position.  This is because as we were walking Daniel ran ahead aways and turned to take a picture.  Except we did not know what he was doing for sure.  So we were debating if we should stand still or slowly walk towards him.   I believe this was taken right as the decision was made to walk towards him.  

Here is the dam that was at the end of the trail.  One person in our group actually ran down a ways to the right to a little bridge and ran across to the other side.  

Elsbeth was apparently talking some pictures with other people, but I didn't know that, so I'm looking another direction.  Yet the picture as a whole still turned out really well.

So that tree that four of us decided to sit on (you can see someone sitting on it on the far right) had a bit of a steep, snowy and slippery slide down to it.  

One person climbing a tree.  Unfortunately for sharing a visual memory, no one got a picture of the fall.  

A few sights of the path, creek, river, and beautiful snow falling.

Now here is the first two people to jump on the bouncy, dead and cold branch.

Fun memories start with that one person who steps out in curiosity. 

There was also a train bridge.  On person in our group climbed up on top of it and walked around for a bit before we continued on the path.

Periodically the path would have little stops with a bench to rest on.

Now here were the two main ducks that we crossed.