Marc, Maggie and I snowshoe into the upper slopes of Botany Pond.  Maggie asks us to leave early enough that we’ll arrive in the “pre-dawn.”  We don’t make it that early, but early enough that familiar contours are draped in low-lying clouds–shades of gray upon gray.  I keep thinking about diffusion gradients, especially when we find lichen icicles.  Elongate extensions of hoar frost draping low-lying Douglas-fir branches in downward pointed spears of white. 

On the way out, I fill the page with an event map, reveling in the chance to look closely.