Less than an inch in total, the first snow of the season arrived today.  In one month I will be making another visit to the southwest and have some rather lengthy hikes planned.  Feeling it would be prudent to get some training under my belt, I did a 4-mile hike with my pack this afternoon.  I started at a cranberry bog near the Great Brook Farm State Park and finished at the dairy farm within the 1000-acre park.  The temperature was right at the freezing mark which led to some very interesting patterns of ice and snow on the local ponds.