There have been times in the last 30 + years when we have had bare ground until Christmas and beyond. There have also been years when the snows have come in November and stayed. This is one of those years. We got back down to bare ground once but it was -15 here yesterday and we’re getting 10 to 12 inches of snow today and into tomorrow. It could be more or less depending on whether it changes over to rain and if it does how long it rains before it turns back to snow. Deep snow doesn’t really effect the grouse unless there is a thick crust they can’t get through to snow roost. Our grouse basically create their own little snow caves by diving into the snow and being completely buried for the night. In the spring as the snow melts you can find the piles of grouse droppings in places where there is no apparent cover. Those piles are most likely from a snow roost. There isn’t anything that is much more startling then having a grouse flush out of the snow right in front of you when your skiing or snowshoeing. The worst time for me was when I was skijoring with two dogs and a grouse came out of the snow right in front of them and they both headed into the woods in hot pursuit. Fortunately there’s a quick release on my skijoring rig and I was able to detach quickly. The dogs lead lines hung up in the brush as they were hooked together and they didn’t get too far. Fortunately, I’m headed to Kentucky for part of the winter with a truck load of dogs and hopefully winter in Kentucky will be a little milder than last year.
Skijoring with Jack and his son LJ