With warmer temps, conditions in the woods have been getting progressively worse, so on Friday, I needed to adjust expectations of what I was going to get out of my morning lumber. I also needed to make further adjustments to my kit.
Tag Archives | doing stuff
Attempting Normalcy
While we were away in Pennsylvania, the central Michigan area picked up another few inches of wet snow on top of what we already had on the ground, and that made for some tricky hiking conditions on Christmas morning.
Wifey would be joining me for the early morning lumber, and we debated whether to take the snowshoes with us or not. We settled on sharing my trekking poles and using hikers, and that proved to be just fine, with only minor slipping here and there.
Deer and Gutchies
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a little late getting to the trails due to the late sunrise (8:07 AM Michigan Standard Time for your sunrise nerds who read this) and my want to fill a bathtub up with scolding hot coffee, climb my naked self in, and drink myself out instead of going out into the dank, wintry morning air.
Luckily, Wifey will not permit me to fill our tub up with coffee (“It’ll stain the tub!” she says), so I settled for a big-ass mug or two of the stuff and then got my shit together for another lumber in chilly woods.
The Art of Dodging Wrenches
On a recent wintry lumber, I created a new course in my head that I was sure would easily get me over 5 miles and provide some new stimulation for my eyes. I was half right.
The new course just barely got me to my 5-mile goal, so that was a bit disappointing; however, it did provide the appropriate amount of visual stimulation for picture takin’, so I’ll take it.
I’ve been thinking more about the trails I lumber on lately, and it brought back some memories. I’ll explain.
Friday Chilliness
Thursday’s 5-mile lumber in 10˚ temps had me feeling pretty logy last night, but I was up and ready for another 5 miles today and the chance to hit my 25-mile weekly lumbering goal.
Thank goodness it was going to be warmer today. Well, by 4˚.
Lumber and Fun Facts
With about a mile left in my lumber on Wednesday, I passed Mary(?) and Jim(?) coming in the opposite direction. Mary is usually the more talkative of the two when we pass, but this time, Jim said, “It’s going to be something else tomorrow!”
I was confused for a second, but then I remembered the weather forecast: a high of 16˚, windy conditions, and light snow. “Oh, yeah, I saw that! Gonna have to bundle up!”
And the weather people were not wrong.
Foggy Notions, Etc.
Monday morning brought a great start to a week of lumbering, with a wonderful “heavy drizzle” (a laughable oxymoron of a weather term I saw that morning) and dense fog. It was perfect lumbering weather!
Getting Real
It’s 7:20 Wednesday morning and I’m sitting in the room of our house that contains a desk, my computer, and all my camera gear1, wasting time, waiting for my lower intestines to give me the all-clear sign to exit the house for a lumber.
While doing so, I checked the weather. Ho hum, cloudy, 34˚, chance of snow flurrries, winds from 10-20 MPH; yawn, typical Michigan winter. But then I looked at tonight’s forecast; cloudy, snow showers and wind gusts up to FORTY miles per hour. Ma Nature’s kicking shit up a bit! Going to be even more trees down on Thursday.
OK, all clear, time to go.
Finished Weeks and Selfies
After an abbreviated lumber due to the local Thanksgiving turkey trotters, I was anxious to get on the trails on Friday morning to finish off my week of lumbering.
Goals, Milestones, And Shoes
Today’s 6.10-mile lumber was dank, grey, and fairly lifeless in the woods. I saw a couple deer sprinting away from a distance and a black-capped chickadee flitting around in some brush, and that was it. I took one shitty photo which is not shown here due to said shittiness. Instead you get a backyard Turdus captured weeks ago.