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Lumbers and Winter Warmers

Taking a short cut on the dirt roads.

Well, I guess real winter is here, at least for a little while.

The first dose of the Michigan winter is always a refreshing break from the bleakness of naked trees, mud, and dankness of the late fall.

The first snowfall, even if it is just a few inches like we received on Wednesday through Thursday, is a novelty. It’s like the super tasty mint chocolate chip peanut butter pumpkin spiced imperial stout that your favorite brewery has concocted for the holidays. The one you boldly proclaim as the best beer you’ve ever had in your life after your first sip but quickly becomes the disgusting, overpriced glass of liquid abomination that it is by sip three, and half a pint is left to be put down the drain that it should have been put down in the first place. Ah, yes, winter. Drink it in.

While that is all true, in the name of not turning off more readers with my bleak look at life, I will stick to the fact that Thursday’s lumber was awesome.

There wasn’t enough snow to require snowshoes and no ice to worry about. On top of that, the high winds of the night before had died down, the sun came out for a while, and I found myself actually taking layers off as I lumbered along.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still damn cold, hovering right around 20˚, but just that little bit of extra effort required to hike through the snow had me getting a sweat on.

Thursday’s hike was the first one since last winter that I found myself ditching my bobble hat for brief moments to let the crisp, wintry air blow through my thinning hair before taking a swig of ice-cold water from my flask. Whether hiking, skiing, or fat biking in the winter, I have always found those sips of cold water to be the most refreshing. The combination of working hard, crisp air, and frigid water just hits right.

I could go on, but enough about water.

The first hikes in the snow with my camera also have me enjoying the little things that winter brings out. Dying weeds become little puffs of snow-covered wintry goodness that must be photographed immediately. This lasts until about mid-January, or “sip three” of that Winter Warmer.

From the looks of it, this was a brief blast of winter, with rain and 40˚ temps in the long-range forecast. I’d like to say this would be the last of my winter photos until next year, but we surely have a good 4 or 5 months more to enjoy, er, I mean to deal with it.

I used a combination of my Nikon z50 and an old Canon S95 point-and-shoot for today’s photos. [Click on the photos to enlarge to full size].

I’m 4 miles away from my weekly goal, so it’s time to gather the gear and get to the trails.

Later.

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