Fifty Years Ago This December

Fifty years ago this December, I was taken to the nearby foothills, by the scout leader and his right hand helper, to complete part of the tenderfoot test.  It involved successfully tracking the two of them, as I would have studied that part of the scout manual.  It included the elements of backtracking, animal print recognition, and other tracking basics.  Similar to the childhood game of, "hide and seek", I had to close my eyes and count to a hundred.  After the allotted time,  I looked around and saw their tracks heading off into the newly snow dusted landscape.  Thankful for the white stuff that made it easy to see their footprints, I easily followed along, even through the heavier made backtracking tracks.  When the tracks took me under a large evergreen tree, the footprints suddenly ended.  I searched carefully every direction, and scratching my head I was completely confused, until I heard their muffled laughter... just above my head! pictures of Sherlock show him inspecting the ground never looking up date:12/18/19 contest:December Haibun sponsor: Caren Krutsinger