Tuesday was another morning of stuffing myself into cold-weather gear and begrudgingly heading out for a lumber in temps, struggling to make it into the double digits. However, I was quick to realize that, outside of a four-hour flight to Jamaica, there’s no place I’d rather be heading off to on a Tuesday morning.
I was once again faced with the choices of boots, snowshoes, boots with microspikes, or boots with microspikes AND trekking poles. The snow just isn’t deep enough for snowshoes, so I went with the boots/spikes/poles option and did just fine. NOT fast, but fine.
Adding in the poles really helped with stability, but things were still slow going, and even in stretches where I felt like I was making good time, I was going painfully slow.
Shortly into the hike, I had to accept that my beloved Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm lens did NOT fully survive its fall last week and could not find focus, especially fully zoomed and using continuous autofocus. It’s been said before, I’ll say it again; “Shit.”
I tried to get a shot here and there with no real luck and then took the couple of images you see here with my phone just to prove to myself later that I was outside and doing something instead of sitting around thinking of how useless to society I am.
I ended up with a mere 4.30 miles on my feetz, but the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and despite the 10˚ temps, I was warm and comfy the whole time. Not to mention, I had the whole forest to myself, and outside of a few deer and some squirrels, I didn’t see another living thing.
I would rather not have lugged a useless camera around for 90 minutes, but at least I now know that the lens is not 100%, and once home from the hike, I quickly found one in “like new” condition for $239 at MPB. It’s not a purchase I really wanted to make, but cheaper than a new camera and way cheaper than buying a brand-new lens. For the record, I did find one on Amazon that was around the same price, but it was shipping from Germany for some reason and wouldn’t arrive for over a month. Screw that.
I’ll be lucky if I hit my 25-mile goal this week, but I’m sure I’ll have fun trying. Or die trying; either way, it’s a win.
In Cat 5 Cooking news…
Later in the day I also made up a vat of Soiled White Trash Rice and Beans (long grain rice, garlic, onions, a can of tomatoes and green chilies, black beans, various seasonings, and topped with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese and hot sauce). This is a cheap as hell lunch that makes enough for lunches and/or sides for the next few days.
Later.