I took the day off from lumbering on Wednesday due to overnight snow, the need to shovel out a driveway, and a strong desire to not leave the house after I was finished.

So, today I was off like a herd of turtles at daybreak (two full hours after I woke), and eager to be in the snowy woods. Until I got to the snowy woods.

With 5 inches of snow on top of the 5 or 6 inches already on the ground from our last storm, I knew that snowshoes would be needed to salvage any enjoyment from the lumber.

I secretly hoped that the Groomer Gal had been out the day before to pack the trails down, but alas, she had not. The wide path to the trails showed that someone had been out classic skiing yesterday, and that at least one person with small feet had been out walking. This would be the case for nearly the entire hike.

With that, I was more or less breaking trail, and my heart rate was at the high end of Zone 2 for 75% of the stomp, and Zone 3 for 25%. Not that I don’t get up into Zone 3 during my lumbers, but unless I’m “running,” it never stays there for too long. And despite temps in the mid-20s, I spent most of the time with my hat and gloves off to cool down.

My first mile took almost 20 minutes, and would be my fastest mile of the hike. When I saw 19:52 on my watch, I was already breaking a sweat and was doing mile math in my head, trying to decide if a mere 3-mile loop might be good enough. But then I realized that I was in no real hurry, other than a desire to eat breakfast, so I just settled in and continued stomping, hoping to find some sort of rhythm through the deep snow.

As I lumbered along, I kept thinking that Ma Nature would reward my efforts with some critter photo ops, but for 99% of the hike, I saw nothing.

I HEARD a Black Capped Chickadee “chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee,” and a Downy Woodpecker doing some mild pecking somewhere in the trees above, but the only chance at a critter photo was about a mile from the finish when I saw a small group of deer through the trees.

With a quarter of a mile to go, just as I was nearing the bridge over the river, the Groomer Gal was entering the woods, laying classic tracks and firming up the sides of the trail for us snowshoers. While I appreciate her doing so, I could have used it four miles earlier! At least the last .25 of a mile was fast(er) on the snowy corduroy.

I finished with just 4.35 miles in my feetz with an average mile time of a whopping 22 minutes!! For the record, my normal average lumbering pace is about 15:35. Great googly-moogly!!

Hoping that after the morning’s grooming, and a cold night with no additional snow, the trails will be firmer tomorrow, ’cause I don’t think I have another day of breaking trail in me. Unless I have to.

Later.