Part I, The Orneriness
The long (too long) weekend brought our first substantial snowfall of the season, with about 6″ dropped in our area. While I am no fan of winter and snow, I do appreciate the normalcy of snow when it’s supposed to snow. Way to normal up, Ma Nature, bravo.
We did luck out with the timing of the storm, when it was pushed back from starting early Saturday morning to late that afternoon, which allowed Brennan to stay another night and still safely dive back to East Lansing before the snow fell in earnest. Again, bravo Ma Nature, bravo
The extent of my physical activities over the weekend was snow shoveling and 12 ounce curls while watching Spurs shit the bed within the first 10 minutes of the game. And the only photos I took were of the various birds visiting the bird stick in the backyard. Not that exciting, but I dig the birds and the photos.
By Sunday afternoon, I was pretty burned out on the long holiday weekend, as well as shoveling snow, and just wanted to get back to my normal duties and routine. Wifey said I was getting pretty ornery, which is her way of telling me I was acting like a dick.
So, I jump-started my routine by going to bed at 7 PM on Sunday evening and sleeping like a fleshy rock until 5 AM Monday. Orneriness be gone!
As I type the first hunk of this dross, I have already gathered my winter gear for the morning’s lumber: GORE-TEX boots, gaiters, snood, bobble hat, gloves, extra camera battery, and snowshoes, just in case. [sigh]
The first lumber in real snow is always a gamble; will it be a normal 5 to 6 mile loop, or stumbling around hoping to get at least 3 or 4 in my feetz?
Only one way to find out.
Part II, First Stomps
I arrived at the park lot just after 7 in the faintest hints of daylight. The lot was empty, and as I waited for my Garmin to connect, I strolled over to the main path to the trails to see if it was a boots, spikes, or snowshoe kind of day. I opted for snowshoes, and it was totally the right choice for hiking in 6+ inches of snow.
After a short week last week, and a weekend that seemed to go on way too long, I was eager to blow the stink/orneriness off of me in the woods.
The air was crisp, the snow crunched underfoot, and within the first half mile, I was reminded of just how much more effort is required to snowshoe compared to lumbering. The temps were in the mid-20s, and I stomped most of the hike without gloves or a hat and was sweating like it was 80˚ with handfuls of minutes added on to my average pace per mile. I was reminded of the sweating when I got home, took my coat off, and realized I smelled like skank garlic, stale beer, and regret.
The woods were still and void of critters for most of the hike. I saw a random deer running through the woods in the distance, a squirrel or two, and a couple of Downy Woodpeckers, getting a shot of one at about mile 4. Other than that, there was nothing, and my SD card showed it when I got home.
With no critters about, I had to settle for some Winter “B-roll” photos to capture the moment.
On the bright side, this was the first hike I did using the Cotton Carrier Skout G2 Harness, and I was really happy with it. It made carrying the Nikon Z50 with my new Tamron 50-400mm F/4.5-6.3 lens way easer!
I’ve only been using the so-not-pro Tamron lens for about a week now, and I’m very happy with it. And when used with the crop sensor Z50, it has a 600mm equivalent, making it a fine lens for an amateur wildlife photographer like me, who shoots while hiking, rather than hiking to an area and waiting for the wildlife.
I’ve used it on the Z50 and the Z6 and like it WAY more on the Z50. The only downside is that it weighs over a pound more than my Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3, but the Skout G2 has solved that problem and made hiking with my camera even easier. ALL the photos in today’s post were taken with the Tamron lens.
Today’s lumber took me a good 20+ extra minutes due to the slow nature of snowshoeing through fresh snow, but it was a great workout, especially after the holiday, and I was extremely happy to get 5.48 miles in.
Later.