The tries formed a natural barrier against the rain and the wind. While Thorin could hear the treetops swinging forth and back, and water running down in small streams everywhere around him, the forest appeared as a haven of calmness in contrast to the fields between the forest and the city, where the storm had free reign. Several owls and other nocturnal creatures continued their song, oblivious to the ranger that passed by over the trail.<br/><br/>The trail itself was a path of dirt, the vegetation killed by the feet of hunters that walked the path from Lakeshire to the clearing, and back again. In the far distance it would reach the clearing with the hunter's lodge.<br/><br/>[Thorin Perception 8+5=13: Thorin noticed snapped branches and trampled bushes left and right of the trail, as if a larger group had tried to pass the trail very recently.]<br/><br/>The disturbance adjacent the trail path were the only signs the man had that anyone else had even been in this area recently.