raccoon tracks

I spent quite a while today following a raccoon trail.  It was clearly a well-used trail - there were many tracks going in both directions.  There were also many side tracks.  I'm guessing the coons are living under my neighbor's deck, judging from where the tracks seemed to come from - I decided not to trespass and follow the tracks into their yard.  Then I followed the tracks out from the house line and through the woods for quite a ways.  One interesting thing I noticed was that whenever there was a downed tree lying in the general direction of the trail, the coons would walk on the tree trunk, instead of on the ground.  The tracks were very clear in some places because we had a dusting of snow the other night.  In other places I had to look carefully around where the snow had melted away to find where the trail picked up again.  I have no idea how many raccoons are out there, but there are a LOT of tracks.  They often stopped around dead trees, as if looking for snacks there.  I followed the tracks all the way down to a swamp where the trail led onto the ice.  I continued to follow it for a while, but then I started to see open water as I got closer to the stream that runs through the swampy area.  Not wanting to walk all the way home wet and muddy - it was pretty cold here today - I headed off the ice and back toward home.  As I came back to the (human) trail I found no people tracks, but more coon tracks!

 

coon tracks on ice

coon tracks up close

Another cool thing - my new phone has a GPS in it, so I tried it out today, and I could see where I was walking on a map!  I knew where I was the whole time because I was in an area near my home, but it was neat to think that if I were in some unfamiliar place, I could find my way out to a road - assuming there is a GPS signal of course, and that the battery isn't dead.
I'm not generally a techie, but some new things are just so cool!