After Saturday’s day of moving, travel, and off-schedule eating, Sunday was spent sleeping, working on my post-moving DOMS, goofing off, and watching the World Cup.
Then, come Monday, I woke up, and my body was like, “Um, NO!” So, I listened, skipped my lumber, and instead focused on getting caught up on some Cul De Sac Shack work, whilst trying not to feel guilty for skipping a hike.
With a semi-slack weekend partially filled with watching horrible International Friendly football matches that are leading up to a World Cup that 99% of all footy fans (including myself) know is, for the most part, a corrupt, US-based shit show on nearly every possible level (economic, human rights, environmental, meteorological, basic human decency, etc.) I was happy to be back on the trails this morning and far away from anything relating to the USA or FIFA. #lovefootballhateFIFA
Well, the Weather Mongers were not wrong, and I woke up to snow and high winds this morning. There were only a few inches at the time, but it was still coming down, and after four days of snowless hiking, I was not in the mood.
As seems to be the case over the past couple of months, the week was not the greatest for lumbering, but I made the most of my three hikes, enjoyed time outside, and played with my camera along the way.
After a few days spent with my slack turned blissfully up to 11, I woke up Monday morning with not one ounce of desire to lumber on what were either going to be extremely slushy trails or extremely icy trails. Either way, I knew I didn’t have the brain power to deal, so I didn’t. Giving up is so easy, I really should get back into the routine.
Fast forward to Tuesday morning…
Sometimes you miss a goal, and sometimes that is just fine. Such is the case this week. I missed my “normal” weather goal of 30 miles of lumbering in 5 days. I also missed my 20-mile Winter Contingency Act goal, coming in at 18.88 miles in 4 days. But as I said, I’m fine with it.
For roughly the 10th time in the past 3+ months, I let Winter beat me down. And for roughly the 10th time in the past 3+ months, I have bounced back like a body tossed from the top of the Empire State Building.
These days, I’m not so much hiding from winter as I am beat down by winter like an aging heavyweight boxer lying on the mat, dazed, confused, with blood and spittle running from my slackened jaw as my eyes struggle to focus on what is happening around me before accepting fate, and closing them. *cue soundtrack*
But hey, it’s February, and like the saying goes, “new month, same old cold, miserable, bullshit.”
Obviously, I am riding a wave of hyperbole and caffeine this morning, as I recap a week of nothing. For that, I make no apologies.
After getting 30 miles of lumbering in 5 days last week, I took the weekend off to slack and watch footy. The slack went fine, but the footy was lackluster with Spurs losing at home yet again, 2-1 in the dying minutes of stoppage time to West Ham, who are in the gahdamn relegation zone! I continue to hate them. Moving on…
I was eager to get back in the woods on Monday, and got to the trails just as the dark night turned to dark grey daylight.
Monday, 5:57 AM
After two days of rain and warmer temps, I was up early on Saturday morning, anxious to get out for a lumber on what I hoped would be ice-free trails. As you can see from the photo above, they were not.
The park lot was void of ice, but 99% of the trails were still solid ice. Microspikes were needed, and as I CLACK! CLACK! CLACKED! my way down the path to the trails, I was surely scaring every critter in a 5 mile radius, as well as disrupting the peaceful morning of the ice fisherman making his way out onto the ice to my left.