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 Dwight Peck's personal website
Winter 2016-2017
In the awful, hopefully only, Year of Trump
You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Insisting on our right to at least a little snow four days before Christmas
It's not much like the old days.
This is one of our favorite old trails in the forests above the Col de la Givrine -- between the local forestry machines and the US-led Global Warming Coalition, there's not much here to grin about. 21 December 2016.
We're staring down into the Grande Combe behind the farm of La Genolière. I'd confidently brought my snowshoes along, but Dr Joe just laughed at me and we left them in the car.
Oh Joy, Oh Bliss. Some snow. Big deal.
A wood ant nest with three big excavations (one is normal, two are exceptional)
Le Noirmont in the distance to the northwest
They're just mocking us.
Healthy winds recently . . . but still no snow.
An artificial pond, now frozen over. But no snow.
Leaving the top of the ridge above the Cabane Rochefort, this is a look back at La Dôle to the south.
Our guide has an idea.
Our favorite trail down along the Combe à Bernard, pretty well trashed, and no snow
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Impressive vehicle tracks, and ice. No snow.
A chopped up track down off the ridge line. That's not snow, it's just frost.
In the aptly named Combe Froide, here's finally a little snow, very hard snow, and it's really cold here.
The last sunlight here was probably months ago.
Nothing stops the hardy foresters and their big trucks.
A frozen swamp
Bursting gratefully out into the sunlight, near the farm of Haut Mont
Laughing at us again
Past La Genolière farm, there is a small copse of woods that looks . . . suspicious.
Thought so!
Mind the step.
Dr Joe loves big karstic limestone holes in the ground, and peering down into them.
Frequently we can talk him into leaning way out over the abyss, for an unsettling photo, but today he's onto us.
We collect photos of holes in the forest floor in winter, but with no snow, this is not convincing.
There appears to be a sort of doorway down there . . .
. . . but a Doorway to Where??
 Feedback
and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative,  .
All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 8 March 2017.
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