Two weeks ago I went out to explore a network of trails in my local area that I had not used for fifteen years. This morning I went out to explore another network of trails that I have given little attention to over the years. The trails I walked this morning were not as unfamiliar to me as the trails I walked two weeks ago because a few years ago when I was looking for a change of scenery from my regular patches I took my bike out to these trails to explore. That was my first visit, so today I went out already familiar with the general landscape.
 
When out on a trail I usually take care to move about as quietly as possible. Today when I started out on the trails the temperature was still below freezing and pools of water that had formed on the trail the previous day from melting snow were frozen over with thin sheets of ice. I avoided stepping on these sheets of ice so as to avoid the resulting loud crunch, but one sheet I encountered covered the entire width of the trail. There was no getting around this one! Before ruining the ice I kneeled down to take this photo of the pretty patterns in the ice. I then, unfortunately, had to walk right though the patterns I had just admired and each step made a racket of breaking ice, the sound being greatly amplified by the large hollow space under the ice, that would have been heard by every living animal around. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the dead animals heard it too!