Suburban Skyview: What does it take to build a snowman?

What does it take to build a snowman? A little bit of space and a lot of steps.

Hovering my drone over dozens of people sledding in Fabyan Forest Preserve, on Route 25 between Geneva and Batavia, I was drawn to the heavy, dark trails left behind as a pair of people rolled big snowballs to build snowmen along the Fox River Trail at the bottom of the hill.

The starting point, at lower right in the photo, is small. As the snowman base gathers snow and builds girth, the trail left behind gets wider until the builders decide to stop.

The middle section of the snowman left a trail much shorter. The roller of the snow took a few steps, then angled back toward the base and then carried to belly of the snowman the rest of the way.

The smallest trail at left is where the head of the snowman was formed.

I swung the drone around at a height of about 50 feet and tried to find the cleanest view of the building that would include the footprints and the starting points of the three trails, but without distracting elements like weeds, shrubs and tree branches.

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