can anyone help me? Ahead of her, the trail curled higher, then leveled for three miles as the ridgeline bent west and the earth fell away on either side. When the church appeared, its stark and stately beauty struck her as it always did: the granite steps, the iron cross, fallen and twisted. Slipping a bit as the trail dipped into the saddle of the forgotten church, Ellen felt the difference without understanding it. The dogs were agitated, their heads low as they tracked an invisible scent and whined low in their throats. They went halfway around the church, then came back at a run, noses snuffling at the base of the broad steps as they crisscrossed each other’s path and fur lifted in strips between their shoulder blades "the trail curled higher" mean? "Slipping a bit as the trail dipped into the saddle of the forgotten church" mean? "noses snuffling at the base of the broad steps as they crisscrossed each other’s path and fur lifted in strips between their shoulder blades" mean?