It’s 7:20 Wednesday morning and I’m sitting in the room of our house that contains a desk, my computer, and all my camera gear1, wasting time, waiting for my lower intestines to give me the all-clear sign to exit the house for a lumber.
While doing so, I checked the weather. Ho hum, cloudy, 34˚, chance of snow flurrries, winds from 10-20 MPH; yawn, typical Michigan winter. But then I looked at tonight’s forecast; cloudy, snow showers and wind gusts up to FORTY miles per hour. Ma Nature’s kicking shit up a bit! Going to be even more trees down on Thursday.
OK, all clear, time to go.
Despite the warmer temps today (27˚ rather than 21˚), it felt WAY colder, and the leafless trees did little to protect me from the breeze blowing through the woods. I’ve been carrying my balaclava in my pack for a week or so now but haven’t been forced to use it yet. I have a feeling if we get the winds they’re calling for tonight and tomorrow, I will be stuffing my fat head into it sooner rather than later.
Anyway, I decided to do my normal 5-mile “run” loop as a lumber today, but switched out one boring trail for a singletrack one, similar in length that is “off the map” but way more fun to hike. I’ve avoided it for a while because some downed trees made it impossible to navigate through during the summer. But, as luck would have it, a Trail Gnome cut them out a few weeks ago. Thank you, Mr./Miss Trail Ga-Nome
Around Mile 2, I looked to my left to see a couple of deer frozen in their tracks after I startled them, munching whatever deer munch on in the woods.
After a minute or so of them staring at me, one started to lift and stomp its hoof on the ground in an attempt to frighten me, I assume. It didn’t work, so they both went back to alternating between munching and staring at me as I fired off a few shots of each. Due to the darkness of the day (It was a lights on in the house all day, sort of dark on Wednesday), I needed to drop my shutter speed down to 1/100 and an unbelievable 1/60 to get these shots, and my ISO was STILL at 3200. Thank goodness for noise correction in Lightroom!
After seeing the deer, there wasn’t much else going on critter wise. I really couldn’t believe how dark it was in the woods for being after 8 in the morning and combined with the cold, it was hard to not want to just lay down and nap in a bed of leaves until spring. Somehow, I resisted.
I finished with 5.03 miles on a slightly new loop and a couple pics I liked. I’ll take it.
It’s early Thursday morning now, and as I finish pointlessly blathering about Wednesday’s short day hike, I am back in the room (henceforth known as my Rumpus Room) that has my computer, sitting in the dark typing. Outside, it’s 19˚, gusting wind, with an inch or two of snow on the ground, and more expected through the morning hours. It looks like real winter is finally here, so I guess I need to gather my real winter lumber-wear and prepare for the first real winter lumber of the season. It’s a real pain in the ass, but better than not doing anything.
Later.