In my last post, I lamented the fact that mid-Michigan was hit with an ice storm that made driving the trails pretty dumb. That was Friday.
Saturday, the ice was still here, but given that we lacked a number of kitchen staples, I made an early morning trip to the grocery store instead of the trails. Later that day, we got even more ice.
Sunday came, and guess what? ANOTHER day of freezing rain and ice. Meanwhile, an hour away in Lansing, a friend of ours said it was 46˚.
It happened again. I thought I could justify not lumbering in mid-Michigan’s recent snow/rain/thaw/freeze hellscape by calling it a “mini-break” and embracing four days of rest, recovery, good food, and slack in the name of staying warm and dry with bones all in one piece.
I thought this plan would be good for me, and have me rested, recovered, and ready to get back at it come Monday morning.
Part I, Nearly Identical
Tuesday’s loop was the same as Monday’s, down to the same exact mileage; 6.09, and my time was within two minutes of Monday’s, including pauses for attempts at crap photos and a stop for bladder emptying.
I did start earlier, so that meant nearly two full miles done in darkness with a headlamp before the real balls of the dark grey day appeared, keeping ISO readings above 5000 and shutter speeds too low for quality photos even after the sun rose at 8:06 AM.
While I got next to no shots, I saw some geese in the river, an eagle flying in the distance, and a pileated woodpecker pecking high in a dark canopy of leafless trees. I did manage another deer shot (seen above), but that was about it over the 6+ miles.
Part II, Wednesday
After two days and 12.18 miles of snowshoeing, my legs and I were pretty set on keeping the miles under six on Wednesday. Especially since the temperature was 38˚ when I left the house at 6:45. That is 40˚ warmer than it was just over a week ago when I started down the trail in -2˚F temps.
While warmer temps are nice and it was great to lumber without gloves and a bobble hat, the softer snow is not so nice. Knowing that things were going to be a bit soft and slow, I figured anything over four would be fine with me, especially since I had shit to do at home followed by my bi-weekly appointment with the OG Mindbender in the early afternoon.
I was 100% right on the snow being softer and more work to get through, but I was hopeful that warmer temps would mean more critters. Um, no.
The extent of my critter sightings on the day was two deer deep in the woods, a couple of crows flying overhead, a few squirrels, and some snow fleas (Hypogastrura nivicola), but I don’t know if they count as critters or not. So, that was a bit disappointing.
Even more disappointing is the knowledge that the high temperature on Thursday is going to be 50˚ with a 1/4 inch of rainfall in the forecast, on top of 10 inches of melting snow. Then on Friday, the high temp is only going to be 28˚. Ug!! Things are going to get REAL messy, REAL fast.
With that said, I have already mentally prepared myself to skip my morning lumber on Thursday, and hope that everything freezes overnight. We shall see.
My apologies for the lack of photos and for spending nearly an entire post talking about the weather. I’m a real piece of shit for that. There’s a reason that this unnecessary, mundane shit show of a blog is unread by millions and free!
Later.
After my snowshoe lumber (snlumber? lumbershoe? snumbershoe?) on Friday, I came home, made breakfast, and set about getting shit done. Thankfully, there was no need for me to leave the house. So I didn’t. Nor would I leave the house for the next 48+ hours except for brief forays onto the deck to get a couple of bird pics, refill the bird feeders, and yell at Lola to hurry the hell up during one of her shit journeys in the early morning darkness.
After Thursday’s short 4.35-mile snowshoe that felt like 20 from breaking trail through fresh snow, I knew I needed to return on Friday with a new plan and a better attitude.
Not that my attitude was bad on Thursday, but after I was done, I felt beat down and winter weary. That will happen in time, usually around late January, but right now it’s way too early not to make some adjustments to find more enjoyment. You know, sort of like life.
I took the day off from lumbering on Wednesday due to overnight snow, the need to shovel out a driveway, and a strong desire to not leave the house after I was finished.
So, today I was off like a herd of turtles at daybreak (two full hours after I woke), and eager to be in the snowy woods. Until I got to the snowy woods.
Lola (the dog), or should I say, Lola the Hairy Food Slut, was up around 4:45 AM this morning, WAY before my 5:20 alarm, wanting food. She was denied, but once you hear a, shall we say, “robustly built” bulldog rambling down the steps like a herd of cattle to do whatever a hungry bulldog does alone in a dark living room, you never really fall back to sleep. However, I stayed in bed just to prove a point—I will not be bullied by my bulldog!!
When I did finally get up at 5:20, Lola excitedly chased me around the kitchen and then ran outside into the dark and cold to do her business, completely oblivious to the two deer standing roughly 20 yards away from her. This was on the heels of a 25-minute growling stare down with a large block of suet my neighbor had put in his yard for the critters two days ago. Deer? Who cares! Block of suet? I’LL KILL YOU DEAD!! Or at least relentlessly growl from a distance, while looking out the door window, safely inside my human’s house.
There was no weekend lumbering or photo creeping, but it was still pretty swell.
Wifey and I were up at the ass crack of dawn on Saturday to eat breakfast, coffee up, and dump out before the Jingle All The Way 5K in town at 8:30 AM. Wifey was running it, and I was there to cheer her on and get some photographs.
4.25 miles, packed frozen snow, ice, and a “Real Feel” temperature in the single digits was all that stood between me and a W.C.A. [Winter Contingency Act] approved 25-Mile/5-Day Week.
