You may have heard that blue is not a color to be taken for granted, which is a bit mind-bending in a world seemingly ruled above and below by sky and water. Maybe white snow can tell us what we’ve been assuming lightly.

We were out of town for a month, and based on what we came back to and what we’ve had in the two weeks since it could have been 10 weeks. Sunny days, highs in the low 40s, and no snow at all. Winter can be found up in the mountains, but only clinging to the shady, sheltered pockets. Yesterdays ramble was cut significantly short by thin snow. Up on the Divide you expect windscour and sastrugi just about any time, but I was tagging limestone with my bases even down in the trees.

A good day for sight seeing, if not really for making turns.

Snow shapes the land year-round, and this little this late into winter inevitably asks two questions: when will we be hiking and biking on dry dirt down in the valley, and how bad will the fires be come summer? Unless things change, the first answer is darn soon, and the second answer is unpleasant to contemplate.