It's hailing... when you are under a tree

My younger sister informed me today that it was hailing. When Conker and I went out to the Jeep I noticed that it was indeed hailing, but only under the cedar tree. The ice that has been chilling on the branches had begun to melt when the sun came out for a few hours, and some of it was falling off and gave the impression that it was hailing.

Our hike started out much like yesterday's, except without the thick ice fog. We took the new trail again, by Conker's choice. This hike was entierly one he chose. The ground for the first bit was frozen and frost covered the foliage.

But when we came up over the hilltop, the sun was shining brightly and the frost was all melted! The trees here were also producing "hail" and some sections were pretty muddy.

There was a light haze in the forest, mainly hanging out in the lower sections and inbetween the mountain ridges.

This hike, by Conker's choice, was not very long. Though I wanted to have a longer hike today, Conker did not pick trails that created a long route. Also, his right knee has been acting up today (Notice how Conker is holing his right rear leg up in this picture.) so even if he did pick longer trails I probably would have cut it short to avoid injuring his joint.

I thought it was nifty how parts of the trail were sunny and dry, others sunny and wet, or dark and icy, dark and damp, dark and dry... Every corner we turned had a different theme, I guess.

The GP overlook is on one of the prominent ridges but was shrouded in ice. Conker likes this trail (from a certain direction) since it has lots of long slopes that he loves to charge down. (Notice Conker's right rear leg again. Not much weight on it.)

This particular section is one of the steeper ones. I do not like it when Conker blasts down these (like he did today) since he can easily injure his knees on this sort of slope. But he seems to enjoy them, so I do not avoid them.
I like this picture since it shows how fluffy Conker's butt is. Super soft Shiba. It also shows us progressing from the sunlight down into a dark ice-covered valley. There are really tall pine trees on the lower section of this trail. The diversity in tree and plant life is one of the reasons why I love hiking at Cathedral Hills.