TUESDAY

With my rediscovered motivation via the not-so-subtle art of self-fat shaming, I was back on the trails Tuesday for another lumber in the snow.

The additional snow that fell over the weekend had turned softer, and while not that difficult to walk in, it was mildly irritating when I suffered from the age-old problem of wet clumps of snow forming within the chains of my microspikes. One minute I’m walking along fine, the next minute it’s like walking on high heels made of snowballs.

With that, I had to make some adjustments to my gaiter straps, the main culprit of the clumping. The “clumprit” if you will (sorry). And during this adjustment at the .50 mile mark, I realized that my Garmin had accidentally paused right after I started. Thankfully, after thousands of miles on these trails, I knew that I was indeed at mile .50 and was able to make the correction when I got home. It took my dim bulb of a brain a little while to process the mismatched mile-math along the way, but somehow I survived.

I had gone roughly 3 miles without a shot, only seeing a couple of deer scrambling through the woods from a distance. Then, as I lumbered along the Covered Bridge Trail, I felt like I was being watched. I looked to my left, and a large doe was standing in the brush, staring right at me from about 10 yards away. She froze, I froze, I took a few shots, and we parted ways. (See intro photo)

I lumbered briskly along, mostly free from my snow clumps, scouring the woods for critters but only seeing squirrels, hearing a few black-capped chickadees somewhere in the trees, and seeing what seemed like hundreds of trees providing for the woodpeckers. Given the number of well-pecked trees I see, I’m shocked I don’t see more woodpeckers.

The shot of the tree above illustrates just how much pecking a Pileated Woodpecker can do, AND how dark and grey the day was; the background looks black and white!

Then, around mile 5, as I crested a hill, I saw a doe and a youngster grazing amongst the snow-covered leaves. I was struggling to find a clear shot through the trees, but then when I took my next turn, it looped me around to the left, and boom. I got the shot I wanted of the doe!

I was stoked with the image, and it’s my favorite shot of the young year.

After that, I lumbered on to the end and finished with 6.40 miles, after remembering to add on the 1/2 mile I missed at the beginning.

I got 12.74 miles in my feetz in two days, and I’m happy to be back on track, even if the conditions are sub-optimal.

As I type this early Wednesday morning, we’re still another hour away from daylight, and snow is falling. Hopefully, the drive to the trails is uneventful, and more miles will be had with little to no clumping.

WEDNESDAY

The snow that was falling earlier this morning tapered off to nothing by the time I left the house, and I was soon at the trailhead, and the only car in the lot.

The temps were in the low 20s, and the trails once again turned to ice. It wasn’t full-blown CLACKITY-CLACK type ice, but damn close.

As I lumbered, I saw all the usual suspects: deer, squirrels, and some geese.

Then, around mile 4, I could hear a Pileated Woodpecker in the trees to my left. I stopped, scanned upward, and after a few seconds found it.

It was hard to get a shot, and the first series of shots had its head obscured by some branches. Not to mention it was backlit by the grey sky, and even once I finally got in a better shooting position, I knew that it would take some work in Lightroom to adjust the shadows, and hopefully get a keeper.

It’s not my best work, but I’m not mad at it, and I couldn’t believe that earlier in the morning, I had just written how I see a ton of pecked trees, but not a ton of woodpeckers. Ma Nature must have been listening!

After getting some shots, I lumbered on, 6 miles in feet, and 18.74 on the week.

After a month of heavy snow, snow melt, ice storms, poor road conditions, and the holidays, this is the first week that I have felt like things are getting back to normal.

I long for warmer weather and the return of the birds, insects, snakes, frogs, and blooming nature nubbins. Sadly, there are still two months or more of winter weather to go, but this was a much-needed return to my daily lumbers.

Later.