With about a mile left in my lumber on Wednesday, I passed Mary(?) and Jim(?) coming in the opposite direction. Mary is usually the more talkative of the two when we pass, but this time, Jim said, “It’s going to be something else tomorrow!”
I was confused for a second, but then I remembered the weather forecast: a high of 16˚, windy conditions, and light snow. “Oh, yeah, I saw that! Gonna have to bundle up!”
And the weather people were not wrong.
“I like Lou Reed” she said, sticking her tongue in my ear. (I’ve Been Tired by The Pixies)
I pulled into the trailhead lot at 8:01 AM, two minutes before official sunrise, and I was surprised to see I was not the only nut job there. The well-stickered Soobie belonging to the Two Aging Hippies who walk their dog well before sunrise was already there, and eight various-sized foot/paw prints could be seen in the light snow covering the path to the woods. Then, just around the bend, the T.A.H.s and their dog soon passed and greeted me as they finished up.
I was well dressed (probably overdressed) with various base layers, a winter jacket, Craft wind front XC ski pants, gloves, a balaclava, and my favorite bobble hat as I entered the woods, happy to see the sun breaking over the trees, clear skies overhead, and no high winds as of yet. It was cold, but not scary cold.
By mile two, I was warming up and starting to sweat, so I ditched my thick gloves for my standard gloves and needed to pull my balaclava down every so often to let the crisp morning air cool my bloated face a bit.
I saw a few deer here and there but didn’t even bother to try for a shot since all I had with me was my Z6 with a 28mm lens on it.
Despite the occasional frozen eyelash, I was plenty warm, and for 99% of the hike, I saw no further signs of humans.
Frozen Face Parking Lot Selfie #2 of the season. (iPhone pic)
Despite having a winter contingency plan to shorten the hike if need be, I was warm and feeling great, so I kept on track for my standard 5+ miles and ended with 5.17 miles, surprised to see that NOW I was the only car in the lot on such a beautiful winter day.
After a few quick stretches, it was home for eggs, 99% lean “homemade” turkey sausage, toast, and a hot cup of coffee to warm up with.
SOILED FUN FACT!
With all the layers to strip off and stretching to do, I was out of my post-lumber routine and forgot to turn off my Garmin watch when I finished. I didn’t realize this until I was almost home and felt my watch buzz to tell me I had completed another mile, this time at a breathtaking 50 MPH pace!
I figured I would just delete the day on the desktop app and manually enter the most prevalent information to keep my stats tidy. However, after poking around the app, I realized that Garmin Connect allows the user to trim activities, and I was able to slide the cursor back to where I finished, and then Garmin updated all the stats. Nice!
I need 4.73 miles to polish off the week, and I hope to knock that out Friday morning. It’s probably going to be another cold one, but by Saturday, we’re back in the 40s.
Later.