Oh Yes We Will

Oh yes- we will be posting a 2009 in review post.

Oh yes- we will be posting some of our outdoor escapades soon.

Oh yes- we will stop overdosing on junk food soon.

Here is how Misty spent the holidays:



All those presents and not one was for me?



Well, I'm going to sleep then.



Wait-- what was that sound? Was that food dropping?



Will someone please pay attention to me?



Hello? Belly rub please?



Great- no food droppings -- no belly rubs. I'm going back to sleep.

Happy Holidays!

photo source

Happy Holidays all! If you have any snow nearby, throw it for a dog!

Cold One

It's been pretty cold lately at about 20-21 degrees all day with winds gusting around 15-20 mph. That basically keeps things at a nice steady state of, oh say... zero.

Bored to death lately with Christmas shopping mania, wrapping, and cookie making (which for the record I have absolutely no self control)-- Misty and I decided to have a ladies hike. She was thrilled that old Adam-yak wasn't around to slow us down.

Above treeline the gusts were even stronger--- so I don't have any summit pics today. Too cold to get those gloves off!

Massive Storm Hits the East Coast

And this is all we got in the North Country.

An inch maybe five max. Pretty boring.

The dog is truly in heaven though. She thinks a few inches of snow rocks just as much as one foot.



This cracks me up though. Can you spot her? That's how she looks when stalking squirrels.



Here's a close-up, because apparently black and white spots act as camouflage in the winter.

Winter Hiking Series: Why Winter Hike

If you've been thinking about doing more winter hiking, especially above treeline stay tuned for my new how-to series about winter hiking. A few weeks ago, I posted 10 Winter Hiking Tips to start you off. I plan to continue the series with: traction basics, above treeline tips, eating, drinking, and being merry while winter hiking and more! So stay tuned.

To fire up our Winter Hiking Series--- let's start with reasons to hike in the winter. Sure you may go out for casual jaunts in the winter months, but I challenge you to take it up a notch and find a peak that suits your skills and fitness level.


Less crowds

This is one of the main reasons I like to get out and hike in the winter. The parking lots are near empty, the summits are barren, and the dog can run wild along the trails.

Less biking

For me I bike a lot less in the winter. Save for a few warmer days (like 30 to 40 degrees) I mainly ride on the bike trainer. Although I heard you readers! Many of you are out biking all winter long. Rock on! And I swear I'll be biking more in the colder months myself soon. You'll are very inspiring :)

Anyways- less biking equals more hiking for me- especially in the winter months.

The silence

The silence sort of goes hand-and hand with less crowds, but certainly deserves its own mention. The silence of a winter hike is unbeatable. After a fresh snowfall you can even hear clumps of snow falling off the trees.

More animal sightings

I tend to come across more animals in the winter months. Obviously not many of the hibernating kind, but the snow makes it easier to spot tracks and often I come across more critters because of this. It probably has a lot to do with the less crowds thing too.

It's harder

Add several inches of fresh snow, extra layers in the pack, and challenging temperatures and your easy summer hike becomes much more of a challenge.

Almost Lost

Face flushed, legs shaking a bit, scenarios running through my mind---- we were about to be completely lost.

"This is really stupid," I kept thinking.

Really, really stupid. Of all the places we've been. Of all the snow swept peaks we've made it back down, all the winding trails we've figured out with no map and this is where we would be spending our first unexpected night.

After a long day of hiking in nearby Point Reyes National Seashore, we pitched a tent in a nearly deserted state park just to the north. It was the off-season for California, which really means it is the to-go season if you come from New England like we do. April is cold for Californians as my west coast living brother informed us.

We pitched our lonely tent and decided to visit the dunes before we made our dinner and before the sun set. I grabbed my camera and we headed up the dunes. The trails wove all over, with frequent trail intersections every four to five feet. I thought I was paying attention to the direction we had been heading. I stopped and looked back at each intersection like I always do.

Picture from before we realized that we were lost

We took some photos before the sun set and turned back to have our dinner. We quickly lost track of our rights and lefts. Seriously, every intersection looked exactly the same, grass and sand- grass and sand- more grass and sand.

"Cute," I thought. Not only do we not have a headlamp, but we hadn't eaten and no one knew where we were. While we eventually made it to our tent that night- we had made a ton of classic mistakes. Like tell someone where you are going, when you'll be back, bring food, water and extra clothing, know your route--- the list goes on.

A friend of mine had a similar almost-situation when she and her husband decided to explore a trail in their backyard. Yes, their backyard. While they are quite experienced hikers, they soon became lost and it started to rain. Soaked and exhausted they finally made it home nearly five hours later.

It's those incredibly easy outings that perhaps are the most threatening. I always figured the first time that I would get really lost would be out in the woods somewhere. Not in some random network of dunes in California.

Reasons I Still Haven't Set Up my Bike Trainer

With the recent snows and dropping temperatures it is really time to get serious about riding my bicycle on the bike trainer. But serious is always something that I've had a little problem with. Here are the reasons I have yet to set up my bike trainer

• The animals have taken to sleeping directly where the trainer is destined to go. And I don't know about you, but I'm not messing with that gigantic cat. He's like twice the size of Misty's in that photo.
• I can't find my spare skewer.
• I can't find anything on the television that would go with a one hour bike session.
• I can't seem to accept that most of the trails are now snow covered.
• Spinning your wheels in the living room is nothing like spinning your wheels on the road with the wind in your hair.

Okay, fess up. What are the reasons you haven't either set up or been on your bike trainer?

Out and About

Ouch! It's 8 degrees out right now with a windchill factor in the minus digits. It's really hurting and making me wonder where my face mask and ski goggles are off to.

Hiking this weekend, I realized after Misty has an initial freak-out and runs around a bit, she stays amazingly close. Here is some photographic evidence as well as some photos of the accident. The accident involves Adam-yak toppling over with my camera in his hand. Luckily he just made an incredible scene flinging snow this way and that and he is fine (and so is my camera!)



pointing out where he fell



the dog investigating it



and this is how close she really walks





It gets a little challenging with snowshoes because she is always stepping on them. Plus we're always flinging snow in her face.

Procrastinating

I spent the weekend procrastinating. You may have already read about it here, but I wanted to let you know that the procrastination continued on through Sunday evening. Yes, not a minute was spent on important things and instead the minutes were well spent.


We were out breaking trails in the fresh snow all weekend. It can be tough to get to several of our favorite haunts since the parking lots are seldom plowed. Often we are parking along side roads, hoping we don't get hit or towed. We also had to keep our adventuring pretty local this weekend, but I'm hoping next weekend we can whip out the sleds.

Misty flippin loves the the white stuff. She bounds through it- in and around the trees, randomly pawing at it and biting at it. It's a blast to watch.



Lastly, this well placed little sign. Life Seems to Need Us. I wish it said Life Seems to Need This.