Madison, WI

Started walk at 6:30 a.m.

It was an overcast morning in Madison -- tradition! The temperature was a little colder than the last few days but still pretty mild given typical Wisconsin standards. As expected, it's been a mild winter on the whole.

A little field mouse ran right in front of us on the trail. The melting snow froze during the night and created a thick ice crust on top that the mouse couldn't easily tunnel into. It was scampering on top looking for an entrance to safety. Forget the hawk, Chance almost pounced on the little critter.

We saw a couple of song birds but I couldn't tell what they were because it was still too dark to see clearly. We also saw two woodpeckers up in dead trees that lined the water's shore near where Chance fell into the water. They were tapping back in forth in morse code, "Hey Woody! Tap. Tap. There's that dog I was telling you about!". "Tap. Tap. Yeah, I see him, he got out OK."

Once again, no runners, no bikers, no other dog walkers .

Coffee -- Costa Rican -- Excellent. Muffin today -- Cranberry -- good.