Spring was well on its way back home, there were days that felt more like midsummer. But this, this was different. I found myself far away from home and hiking across the Alaskan tundra, it seemed more like the dead of winter rather than late spring. It was cold enough that I had even put the sandals away and donned my winter boots and for the moment, I was extremely glad that I had. A frigid wind was blowing in off of the sea and occasionally a blast of snow would pelt my face. 

I’d been hiking for a couple of days now, looking for something very specific in this treeless landscape, a Fox den, Red Foxes in particular. This was a huge landscape with magnificent vistas and a seemingly endless terrain that stretched on as far as the eye could see. But somewhere out there were the Foxes I sought. Walking steadily up a hill, I soon crested the top and gazed across the wide, open tundra. A ravine lay in front of me and far away on the other side was a small shape, a shape that didn’t quite blend in as well as the surrounding rocks, this shape had a pair of ears!

The ravine was too steep for me to safely climb down and back up, and so, I began the long trek around the perimeter to the opposite side. I moved as quickly as I could without making my movements too noticeable, all the while keeping an eye on that distant shape for as long as I could. When the time came that I could no longer recognize the shape, I picked out some identifiable landmarks nearby and committed their locations to memory. These would be helpful when trying to find the location again once I was on the other side of the ravine, everything looked the same out here. 

Some time later, I made my way down the gradual slope in the landscape. The landmarks I had picked out earlier were nearby but the shape was gone. I continued to move slowly, constantly looking and listening for any signs of life. Another blast of icy wind pelted my face and with it, some movement to my left. Squinting my eyes against the cold, I stared hard to find the movement again. There! Fur blowing in the wind, silver fur! And there she was, a beautiful silver morph Red Fox, curled up against the cold. The search was over at last. That night, the cold no longer bothered me, for I was in the company of a magnificent family of tundra Foxes.