SOL- snowshoeing

     I sit in the snow with my clunky snowshoes off and laying next to me. I am eating a giant chicken leg, because that's what my mom packed. Unfortunately, I did not get up early enough to make my own lunch for the trip.
     Everyone not eating is chatting with each other. Someone says, "Look! It's a small furry mammal!" I turn my head to look. A small brown mouse is climbing over the snow a couple yards away. It is coming toward us. Everyone quiets. The mouse has a shorter tail than the ones I see at Petsmart, but it is fatter. It makes its way over Sophie's backpack, about a foot away from where I am sitting. The mouse passes the backpack and rests in the dip of snow under a little pine tree. We can't see it anymore.
     "Look, it's another furry mammal!" "I think it's an ermine." "Ooh!" We whisper as another little fuzzy thing jumps around the snow. It is a white ermine, a little less than half a foot tall. It boings around, following the mouse's trail. We are too loud, and it circles around us, not as direct as the mouse. It also goes to the tree and disappears where we can't see it. As far as I know, the mouse is still there, too. Everything is quiet. Then the ermine reappears above the snow with the dead mouse in its mouth. Some people cheer too loudly and the ermine drops the mouse and runs away. We are silent again. The ermine comes back, picks up the mouse, and runs away.



     The snowshoeing trip was fun. I got really tired on the way up because I have not hiked for months while waiting for my knee to heal. I had the option of staying in someone else's classroom for the day, but I didn't want to. I have only gone snowshoeing once before, last year. It was colder then with more snow. I still like snowshoeing.