All last week as I “ran” on the Dreadmill™, and spun my wheels going nowhere on the trainer, I set my mind to go down to the Cannonsburg Ski Area to take photos at the fat bike and snowboard races they were hosting. I figured I could use the practice and getting outside would do me good.
Friday night I charged my camera batteries, loaded up SD cards and packed my bag before setting my alarm and going to bed. That’s when things went down hill. The first half of the night I did my normal sleepless tossing and turning, then around 4 AM I slipped into a deep sleep filled with some of the most lucid dreams I’ve ever had. I could talk for hours about the strange shit that was going on in, but I won’t bore you with all that other that to say that I’ve never taken LSD, but I can only imagine that these dreams were VERY much like a trip. I would dream, wake up screaming (which is more like a high pitched moan according to Wifey), and then fall back to sleep and have another. Needless to say I didn’t sleep that great, and by morning had already turned the alarm off, aborting my photography plans.
Saturday morning I was pleased to see that the temps were going to be in the 40s and photo from a friend on Instragram showed the dirt roads in the county south to us were ice free. With that knowledge I ate some breakfast and then headed out early in the afternoon to get some outdoor miles in on dirt.
Even though I had a newly built wheel for the Boone, I opted to take the PrOcal in case things got dicey. In hindsight avoiding the dirt roads completely would have been the best idea. The north and south roads were mostly hard pack and mud, but the east and west roads were nearly all solid ice! There was a LOT of ass puckering going on.
This farm cat has its camo dialed.
After a few miles of slop and slow rolling on ice, I took a paved road south and hooked back up with my Plèasant – Bêal – Plèasant paved road loop. It felt so good to relax a bit and roll on pavement without the risk of a sudden face to face meeting with frozen dirt. The PrOcal was a bit slow on the pavement and the Boone would have been nice, but I wasn’t about to complain too much.
Guinea fowls making a racket.
The loop got me nearly 30 miles, which isn’t great, but given the lack of quality sleep, and the face that it was a mild February day in Michigan, I’ll take it.
Black Eyed Suzan.
Anyone that has ever lived with me knows that I am a curt, depressed, moody dick during the winter months and the ice and rain of Winter 2017 has compounded all that for sure, so to be outside on my bike with my camera was welcomed not only by me, but my entire family.
Just chickens being chickens.
Earlier in the week the birds made a brief return to the backyard and to the feeder. Not sure if they’re not diggin’ the food I have in the feeder or what, but it’s been weeks since I’ve seen any.
Fat robin doing robin type stuff.
Not sure why they chose the particular day they did last week, because even though the sun was out, it was only about 18˚.
Little pecker pecking.
It looks like after a few chilly and windy days early this week, the temps are going to be up into the 50s for a few days. Really stoked about that, and hoping that will bring more miles my way.
Later.