Today was Day 4 of waking up not sick, but still with some sort of allergy or slight head cold. I’m kind of used to it now. So, into the woods I went.

Thursday’s lumber was the coldest of the week thus far, coming in at a brisk 12˚. But hey, the sun was out, and despite the frigid temps, it actually felt warm whenever I paused along the trail to soak it in.

The trails were still icy and snowy, but it appeared that someone was out on their fatty last night and packed the snow down pretty well, so there was only the occasional slip of the spikes to have me cursing winter.

Other than some deer and squirrels, I didn’t see too much critter activity, but over the sound of spikes crunching ice, I could hear the echo of pecking woodpeckers ringing through the woods, the chickadees “chick-a-dee-ing,” and the crows crowing.

I did manage a couple of shots I liked, such as the one deer photo where I was going down an off-camber crossover trail, and some deer were in a depression on the hill to my right. All I could see was the occasional head pop up. And when did, I was ready. Sort of looks like a floating deer head.

I ended the hike with 5.67 miles and now have 24.05 on the week. I have easily surpassed my shortened Winter Contingency goal of 20 miles, but I need some normalcy, so I’m looking to get my standard 30 in with tomorrow’s lumber, then see what the weekend brings.

Later.