The week of lumbering has been OK, but not my best. Monday through Wednesday, snowshoes were needed to make things more efficient, and today (Thursday), I opted to strap on my Kahtoola Micro Spikes1 in an effort to speed up the lumber over the snow, which the Groomer Gal and her magic sled have packed down tight.2 And to be honest, I should have just used the snowshoes; there was a 0% improvement in my overall time, it was just less noisy.
On Monday, I bit off more than I could chew during the morning’s snowshoe hike. Not physically, I felt fine, but a later start and a slower pace put me behind schedule for the day’s duties.
So, this morning, I made sure to get in the woods before sunrise with my headlamp, took out a small hunk of trail, and finished at my normal time. Yes, I had to settle for the hike being .75 miles shorter, but it’s winter, there’s snow on the ground, and I’m forced to use snowshoes, so just getting myself out the door is a victory.
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
Come early Black Friday morning, I was in the dark, frozen woods with my camera, happy and content with our Thanksgiving holiday (see below for more on that). There were no Door Buster Specials, no adults fighting for crap toys, and no signs of capitalism’s evil grip on society. Just crunching leaves, crisp air, critters, and miles to lumber.
Just as I was about to pull into the trailhead lot on Thursday, a large owl swooped out of the pines and off into the darkness. I was hoping that was a good omen for critter sighting during the morning’s lumber. Sadly, it was not.
Ah, the mid-week update of my mundane life/micro-adventures. It’s the post that no one needed or wanted (not even me), but since I’m not in the people-pleasing business, I’m posting it anyway.
After a weekend of boring nothingness, I was eager to get back into the woods on Monday morning, but I was admittedly a little apprehensive due to deer season being only 3 days old.
The past two days were filled with lumbered miles, and more bucks looking for a good time. It was all the LAST of my leaf cleanup (I SWEAR!!) around the Cul-De-Sac Shack.
Another weekend has come and gone, and once again, it was pretty darn not bad.
There was less slack than I wanted due to light snow coming on Saturday night, and the remaining leaves needing to be cleaned up on Saturday morning. The good news is that 95% of all the leaves are down and cleaned up, and the remainder can be taken care of another time, or just let winter take its course. Glad to have it done and out of the way. Of course, I was gifted a literal pain in the neck in the end, so that’s not great.
It’s strange that after 15+ years of living in central Michigan, my mind still thinks in Pittsburgh time, where the sun rises more than 20 minutes before it does here. So, while this has been a nice week of starting my lumbers in what is known as “civil twilight,” it will, of course, be coming to an end in the coming days3.
After that, I will have to at least start out with a headlamp if I want to keep my normal “business hours.” And sadly, this will be the case until after the Winter Solstice on December 21st, when the light will start creeping back into our lives.