After a few days out of the woods and in the Not So Stankment on the treadmill, it was awesome to return to lumbering outside on Thursday morning and doing 5.28 miles as the flakes fell. And the temps were 20 degrees warmer, which felt like a heatwave compared to -2˚ earlier in the week.
The lumpy snow and ice continue to make for slow speeds as well as doing a number on my ankles, knees, and hips, but compared to past winters where I was dealing with such things as raging plantar fasciitis in both feet and a painful corn that wouldn’t heal on a pinky toe, things aren’t too bad.
Thursday’s hike also marked the return of shooting with the Nikkor 50-250mm on the z50. The original lens was damaged after it fell off my pack a couple weeks ago and would no longer focus correctly. The “new to me” version arrived over the weekend from MPB. There was much rejoicing, and I got a couple shots I dug on Thursday.
I was anxious to get back in the woods on Friday, but the hike was not all that great. First, I forgot my Garmin watch that I had charging at home, so I had to stick to a loop that I could map out on MapMyRide.com when I got home.
File this next bit under I told you so!
Then, about a mile into the lumber, my intestines let me know real quick that I had a situation on my hands that required me to scamper into the woods like a dog looking for enough cover to take a dump behind; something easier said than done in the wintry woods void of leaves. Thankfully, I found a spot, took care of business before any soilage, and utilized a homemade emergency ShitPak™ that I keep in my pack. I told you those gahdamn refried beans would catch up with me!
I continued on with my head down, cursing the slippery snow and the toxic love triangle I put myself through from the making, eating, and blowing out of homemade refried beans.
I was also seeing nothing to photograph and barely touched my camera over the four mile hike. To add further insult, with my mind distracted by the snow, my aching joints, and that emergency pit stop, I was pretty spaced out and not paying attention. So, when a bald eagle took off from a nearby tree along the river and flew off, my camera remained unclipped from my pack. All I could do was stand and watch as the giant bird gracefully flew away, following the contour of the river until out of sight. Despite the lack of a photo, it’s always a treat to see an eagle, and this was my second sighting in the past two weeks.
After that, I just wanted to be home. So, I once again put my head down and plowed through to the end, with no idea how far I had gone until I got home.
When I got back to the parking lot, the Soobie belonging to the Two Aging Hippies was gone, and Escape II was the only car in the lot. This made me feel a little better about my chances of being seen whilst taking that projective dump. I finally got one of the Friday Chatty Cathys to acknowledge me the week before last, and I did NOT need them walking up on me as I was throwing mud.
The lack of quality lumbers and a recent flare-up of lifelong body dysmorphia have me feeling like shit. So, instead of taking the weekend off to watch footy and slack, I plan on doing some more interval work in the Not So Stankment. Then I’ll watch the footy and slack.
Later.