A Trip Down the Manistee

It was Labor Day. And it was hot! Looking back now, after spending a week in the negatives and teens, I could go for some of that hot weather right about now.

We had hoped to get out on the river earlier in the summer, yet there we were, on what was sort of the unofficial last day of summer, finally loading what looked like an inflatable banana in the back of the car. We could blame many things for the delay of our river trip. We’d had a college graduation to get through and Middle Daughter’s move, there’d been North Country Trail miles to log, I’d had a shoulder injury which made just the thought of rowing a boat too much to contemplate…you get the idea.

But everything finally lined up in September, and we set off for Baxter Bridge (about halfway between Manton and Mesick, MI) where we would exit the river. (Note: You are required to have a recreation passport to park here.) We staged a car there, then headed toward the roadside rest just north of Manton, where we would put our kayak in the water. (There is no quick way to get from point A to point B when driving this route thanks to there being only one place to cross the river in a car.) (Note: You also need a recreation passport to park in the lot at the rest area that is located near the southern North Country Trail trailhead and boat launch area. You can get around this recreation passport silliness by unloading everything at the boat launch and then parking up by the “restrooms.” [I use that term loosely. These are basically glorified porta pots.])

We inflated our kayak, slathered on the sunscreen, and set sail.

Allow me to interject with some info on this inflatable kayak and its pros and cons.

Pros

• Economical – We purchased the kayak at Dunham’s Sports on sale.
• Lightweight
• Easy to store
• Easy to transport, especially if you, like us, don’t have a truck to haul your toys in
• A conversation starter…which could be good or bad, depending on how much you like talking to strangers. We hear comments at least once per trip about our interesting mode of river travel.

Cons

• A conversation starter…see above
• Occasional moments of panic when a downed tree with pokey, jutting limbs is spotted in the distance
• Occasional moments of panic when caught on the downed tree that you should have been able to avoid since you saw it several moments before hitting it (Do I need to clarify why there is panic?)
• Slightly tiring and time-consuming to inflate
• Doesn’t glide as well as harder-sided kayaks

We enjoyed lunch on a little island all by ourselves. In fact, we had the river mostly to ourselves all afternoon. We saw turtles, ducks, a heron, AND a deer. The deer was especially noteworthy as it was living out the phrase, “Mistakes were made,” right in front of us. We were just floating along when all of a sudden the deer jumped into the river. It quickly turned around and exited the river. It was like it had been wandering along, leaped, and didn’t realize where it was going to land.

Our river map said our trip should have taken around 4 hours. We estimate we were on the river for about 4.5 hours plus our lunch break. We were paddling at a fairly decent rate for a good portion of the trip, so either the river current was moving slower or, more likely, our kayak just doesn’t move quite as swiftly through the water as others. After over four hours crammed into our little kayak under the blazing hot sun, we were both ready for our adventure to come to an end.

As for books…

Hubby and I listened to The Long Way Home by Louise Penny in 2023. I discovered, while logging all of my books into Goodreads on New Year’s Eve, that I had missed adding this one to my list for the year. I must admit, that I was never a fan of Clara Morrow’s husband, Peter. My hope was always that he would grow as a person and not be such an unlikable character. At the risk of this being a spoiler, let’s just say that my hopes will not be realized.

A Rainy Wheels on Rails Experience & a Hike

It was a gloomy September Saturday with the promise of rain, rain, and more rain in the forecast right when we were scheduled to embark on an adventure in Grawn, MI.

A few months earlier, a woman in our community band told me she’d had a great time at Wheels to Rails with some friends. I’d mentioned this to my mom, and after a few months of saying how fun it sounded, we finally settled on a date just before Labor Day for a trip north.

The tickets were purchased, and the weather looked promising.

Until it didn’t.

No worries, said the website. The experience would be on unless lightning threatened.

We packed our ponchos, and I doubt I was the only one hoping we wouldn’t end up as drenched as the time Hubby and I got caught in a rainstorm (thank you Hurricane What’s-His-Name that hit Florida in October of 2022) 6 miles from our car in the Slippery Rock Gorge in Pennsylvania. (That was a top ten memorable hike, thanks to what felt like near hypothermia by the time we reached the car.)

Despite my hope that our ponchos would stay tucked in their little plastic pouches, we had to don them before we even set out on our adventure since it started to sprinkle before our trip leader could finish giving instructions.

With rain hitting our faces and running down our ponchos, we set out on our 4-person bike for a 3-mile round trip down some old railroad tracks.

The first part of our ride took us alongside US-31. Within a short time, we were peddling through the woods. Our turn-around point was under an overpass where we all disembarked from our bikes so our leader could spin the bikes around for our return trip.

Once back at the car, the weather, of course, improved. Thus, the second half of our day could proceed as planned. After a stop for lunch at Olive Garden, where Hubby was served the absolute worst coffee ever (our waitress determined someone had brewed the coffee without removing the teabags that had been used for tea previously), we drove to Empire and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a 1.5-mile out-and-back hike along the Empire Bluff Trail. Someday, I’d like to return to walk further along the ridge overlooking Lake Michigan.

View of Lake Michigan from the Empire Bluff Trail

As for books…

One of my final books for 2023 was The New Couple by Alison James. I have three things to say about this book.

1. Despite finishing this book in either November or December (I don’t write down the dates I start or finish books), I had to look up what this book was about because I could not remember a thing. After reading a short description on Amazon, I finally had some clue about the plot. It took some digging around in the garbage bin of my brain to remember the finer details. So…clearly it wasn’t the most memorable book despite my remembering that I found it enjoyable as I read it.
2. The story was told from too many different points of view. I recall thinking as I was reading it that there was a lot of repeat information.
3. The main-ish character was a bit much. She was an obnoxiously nosy neighbor, and as someone who has the exact opposite of an obnoxiously nosy neighbor (in fact all of our “neighbors” are as un-nosy as could be), I was shocked at how nosy she was.

Soft Pretzels, Macarons, and 2 Hikes

Does it get much better than soft pretzels slathered in butter, garlic, and Parmesan, a box full of macarons, and a hike on the beach? It’s a challenge to think of much that can make a day better.

In mid-August, Middle Daughter drove up for the weekend, and we spent a fun Saturday enjoying all of those things. We started our day with a hike at the Maple Bay Natural Area (located near Williamsburg, MI) where we walked the 2.3-mile loop trail that took us through the woods and then along the beach. To the horror of Son–whom we told of our adventures when we got home–we’d enjoyed eating raspberries along the trail. (He is incredibly suspicious of all things that grow in the wild. And in our garden.)

After leaving the natural area, we traveled to Traverse City for pretzels at the Petoskey Pretzel Company. Then we continued on to Le Macaron to try several of their MANY flavors of macarons. (They were tasty but EXPENSIVE! From all the recipes I’ve looked at, they seem pretty fussy to make, so the price is justified.)

We ended the day with another hike. We chose the Manistee River and Anderson Creek Loop trail near Buckley, MI, since we would be driving home through Buckley. We’d hiked a very small portion of this trail previously, as the North Country Trail follows along this section of the Manistee River. The trail that led to the creek and river portion was just a two-track, so I’m not certain I would recommend hiking this trail. The creek was lovely, though, and we did encounter some large bear footprints in the sand of the two-track. That’s always exciting!

As for books…

I recently finished reading Dream Doll: The Ruth Handler Story by Ruth Handler. After watching the Barbie movie while recovering from hand surgery, I became interested in the story of Barbie’s creator. Ruth Handler’s life story was interesting. I did roll my eyes quite a bit as she and her husband’s wealth increased and she expressed the incredibly entitled belief that they should be able to go swimming at a beach in a private neighborhood that they did not live in. I was also a bit surprised that both Barbie and Ken were named after their children. That seems just a wee bit awkward when you consider that Barbie and Ken were usually portrayed as boyfriend and girlfriend.

A Batty Bad Time

Things got a little exciting around our home in the woods this past summer when a family of bats decided to bestow upon us the privilege of having them in residence in our attic. Now I’m a fan of bats. I think their little faces are adorable, and I love the fact that they make a meal out of the bane of our existence in the summer: mosquitos. I don’t even mind them in the attic.

What I do mind?

When they figure out a way to go down through the walls–all the way from the attic above the second floor–and come out into the unfinished part of the basement. One night our son said, “Do you hear that? That’s a bat.” And, having middle-aged hearing loss, Hubby and I both said, “No.”

Well, it wasn’t just one bat. It was two. And they were in the basement.

Another day, one flew out from under the curtains in the office, encountered the spinning ceiling fan, and splatted on the ground next to me before I even knew there was one in the room. Can you imagine if that had landed on my head? I try not to.

One of our little friends

Then there was the day when Hubby wasn’t home and our son and I had to shoo one out of the house all by ourselves. It was terrifying. What’s also terrifying is watching a bat creep along the floor until it finds something to climb onto so it can be high enough to start flying.

That day was the last straw. It was time to figure out how those little goobers were getting into the attic. It didn’t take me long to discover their access point. The tell-tale trail of guano down the siding kind of gave them away.

Do not try this at home!

We waited for night and later in the summer, so our little friends (and their babies) had the best chance of being out of the attic, then Hubby put on his non-OSHA-approved, cobbled-together safety harness made from tow straps and headed up to the roof to stuff a small hole with steelwool. I should add here that Son and I were holding the other end of the tow strap while Hubby went over the peak to the other side of the house. Our purpose was to slow his fall if things took a turn. (He could not easily access the other side of the house from the ground or a ladder.)

The same week Son and I sent a bat from the house back to the great outdoors, I broke the lawnmower running over a rock, broke a garden rake thingy (the four-pronged thing that looks kind of like a hoe) while dealing with weeds in the garden, broke a drawer pull off a kitchen drawer, AND caught a puddle of butter that leaked out of a pan while baking bread on fire while cleaning the oven. The week had been a real trial!

So when the weekend came around, we hopped in the car to drive downstate to visit our older kids. We enjoyed peaceful walks at Bow in the Clouds Preserve and at Spring Valley Park with Middle Daughter before meeting up with Eldest and her fiance to go to Cruise the Creek in Battle Creek. (Cruise the Creek is a car show.) We had a tasty dinner at New Holland Brewing Co (which I do not recommend if you have a vegetarian in the group) and enjoyed some tasty macarons at a pop-up dessert stand.

As for books…

I recently finished Treasures of the North by Tracie Peterson. I’ve had this book for AGES and finally decided to get started on the trilogy even though the fourth Outlander book has been gathering dust on my nightstand for months now! I enjoyed this first book in the trilogy and intended to go right on to the second but in my post-hand surgery, pain-med induced stupor, I ordered a book from the library (and forgot I’d done so)!

A Ticky Day

Years and years ago, back when the kids were young, we’d walked the Mackinaw Bridge during the Labor Day Bridge Walk not knowing that way in the future we would be hiking the North Country Trail and that walking the bridge was part of completing the trail in Michigan. (I think it was Labor Day 2002 because the bridge was lined with National Guard Troops as we were still living in a state of hyper-worry following 9/11 the year before. I’m not sure what those troops would have been able to do to help any of us should someone have decided to take the bridge out, but there was probably someone who felt safer due to their presence. In my memory, though, I could have sworn that our son was with us. However, he wasn’t born until the following June.)

Did we enjoy walking the bridge? Should you do it?

It was definitely an experience.

An experience that I wouldn’t want to have again, though some people around here seem to make it an annual tradition.

The walk isn’t long compared to some that we’ve done. It does not compare to the nearly 26-mile hike we did in Pennsylvania last fall. But back then, with at least two little kids and us adults who weren’t the seasoned hikers we are today, those five miles were a lot. Especially when you consider that there are no restrooms available and you’re completely exposed to whatever weather the day happens to bring…which in Michigan could mean anything. Also, it’s a bridge, and I don’t like heights.

Early July (this year) found us just south of the bridge, picking up where we’d left off all those years before. It was a lovely, though warm, day for a 16-mile hike. We parked a bit south of the bridge and walked north toward the bridge through the Biishkimikiing Wild Area (yes, there are that many i’s in that word), which had a nicely paved path where we would see the strangest site we’ve ever seen while hiking. A woman rode past us on her bike with what I believe was a Macaw in a basket on her bike. (This is not the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen while enjoying nature. That award goes to the woman canoeing down the Manistee River with a monkey chilling under her shirt.)

After returning to where we’d parked the car, we continued south past French Farm Lake. This section of the trail gifted us with mosquitos, deer flies, and ticks despite our pre-hike “shower” of OFF. The tick count for the day was 6. Five of those ticks thought I made the more attractive host. It is a wonder how we’ve avoided Lyme Disease.

The feet and legs were a little sore as we finished the 16 miles, which made me wonder if I’d gone a little soft over the winter. I’ll have to adjust my winter workouts this coming winter to keep myself in tip-top hiking shape. There are still a lot of miles left to cover!

As for books…

I recently read Identity by Nora Roberts. I enjoyed this story which was typical non-trilogy Nora Roberts. (Meaning there weren’t any witches, vampires, or other made-up characters. I’m not a fan of supernatural-esque books.) I’d wanted to read the book for a while, but getting a new Nora Roberts title from our library involves a LONG wait.

Can someone explain to me why nearly every book she’s written in recent history has someone drinking a can of Coke? Is she getting marketing money or something? And is it an actual Coke or is that just used generically because she doesn’t want to get into the “pop” vs “soda” debate?

Another Mid-Week Hike

I often recall a quote by Robin Williams’ character John Keating in Dead Poets Society: “Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone.”

In our hiking life, sucking all the marrow out of life equates to making the most of the beautiful days when they come to get outside and take a hike.

Choking on the bone would be hiking so many miles that we aren’t able to easily get up off the couch the next day.

With one beautiful week of weather sandwiched between a cold, windy, snowy winter and a cold, rainy, sometimes snowy spring, we knew we needed to get outside and get some hiking miles logged before our 7-day free trial of summer ended. With the ticks still hiding wherever vile, blood-sucking demons hibernate over the winter, it was a perfect time to get out into the woods. Summer it seems, after our tick-y experiences last year, will be an excellent time to knock off the dreaded road miles if we want to remain tick- and Lymn-free.

As Hubby had to travel further Up North (see link if confused about where Up North begins. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/68398488066325491/ ) for work reasons, we decided to “work” on logging some new northern miles of the North Country Trail. After his business was completed in Harbor Springs, we drove a few miles to the Kipp Road trailhead.

Almost immediately, we began to feel as if we were training for our next mountain climbing excursion, as a portion of the first mile headed up at a fairly decent incline. After that, the trail leveled off for a bit as it meandered through a “prickers and thorns” section where I promptly earned three scratches on my arms before realizing that I needed to walk with my arms up in the air if I wanted to avoid being all wounded and bloody. Unfortunately, there was no way to walk with my ankles up in the air, so they weren’t spared injury. I hope whoever maintains that portion of the trail keeps up with trimming back the prickly plants in the summer because it could become overgrown like the dreadful raspberry bush section we tackled a few summers ago. That section was almost impassable!

Thankfully, we got through the prickers and thorns section quickly. The rest of the hike was more woodsy and slightly hilly. Though the day topped out at around 86 degrees, we found snow in the woods. Once in a while, our feet would break through old, crusty, dirty snow and snow would creep into our sneakers. As the wind blew over the snowy sections, we’d feel a cool breeze and a nearly 20-degree drop in temperature.

As we neared our turn-around point–Brutus Road–our eyes widened with delight as we looked out over the most luscious sight: more ramps than we could ever eat in a lifetime! Sadly, we were hiking on state land and couldn’t pick any as these may not be harvested from state land in Michigan, but it’s a sign that the ramps that grow in our little corner of not state land should be popping out of the ground soon. (We took a walk to check on them recently and they weren’t up yet.)

Right before Brutus Road, we were forced off the trail for the last few feet by a massive puddle blocking our way. Some might walk right through the water, but we weren’t looking to hike the nearly five miles back to the car in squelching shoes.

We ended the day with 4.85 new trail miles and a hike total of 9.7 miles.

Feeling munchy after walking 27,000 steps that day between my morning workout and the hike, we stopped for what we thought would be a quick ice cream/coffee /french fry snack at Culver’s. Twenty-two minutes later, we finally had our snack!

As it was a teeny bit of a struggle to get my legs moving the next day, I’d say we came a bit too close to “choking on the bone.” As it’s early in the hiking season (after a few months off due to snowy and icy trails), I need to work myself back up to being able to easily handle super long hikes. You never know if there’s a 25-miler coming sometime. Gotta get in fine hiking shape so I’m ready!!

As for books…

I just finished listening to We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz.

I’ll start by saying that this book had a lot of promise. The plot was interesting. But how many times can an author repeat the same stuff over and over and over again!! It felt like the main character’s internal monologue was stuck on repeat. The ending was a little weird, and from what I read online, it seems that other readers had questions about the ending also.

My biggest complaint, though, was how annoying the main character was in one particular way. She often referenced men leering at her, taking up space as a female, being afraid to do x, y, or z because she was a woman in, and I’m probably exaggerating a smidge here, a big scary world dominated by big scary males. For the love! Every reference made to rampant misogyny was as annoying to me as that one girl on every reality show who tells the audience that “people think I’m cute.”

I don’t look like a troll. At least I don’t think I do. I have yet to pass a group of men who are leering at me. Of course, I’m not looking at them. If you don’t look, then you’re not bothered. I’m also not afraid to do things because I’m a woman. That doesn’t mean I’m stupid and go looking for trouble in potentially dangerous situations. Yes, it would be great if we lived in a perfect world where everyone behaved the way we thought they should. But we don’t.

Rant over!

Needless to say, I am unlikely to read another book by this author.

A Midweek Hike

I had just filled the crockpot with beans, carrots, onions, a ham bone, and spices when Hubby emerged from his office and suggested we go on a hike in the afternoon. I said something to the effect of, “That’s spontaneous. Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?” It’s not that he’s not spontaneous, it’s just that we don’t usually go hiking midweek, and if we do, we don’t often head to the trail before 5. But the weather was too nice for us to stay inside, so he did his work, I did mine, which included throwing the bean soup in the Instant Pot to cook it faster, and we hopped in the car a little after 3.

We drove a little over an hour southwest to pick up the North Country Trail a bit northwest of Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary. We parked on a road so seasonal that my phone’s GPS didn’t even recognize it as a road. Ignoring the phone’s directive to park and walk the half-mile to the trail, we continued driving down the narrow dirt road and were pleased to find it in better shape than some of the roads we’d driven on while hunting for trailheads.

At just after 5, we set off down the pine needle, crumbling leaf, and pinecone-strewn trail. I recently saw a photo online from a beach lover who liked the feel of sand under their toes so much that they put a box of sand under their desk so it seemed like they were at the beach while at work. After stating that I’m more of a pine needle under my tennis shoes kind of gal, Hubby suggested that maybe I need a box of pine needles under my desk. It might be messy, but I wouldn’t say no to that.

False Morel – don’t eat these!!

As I hadn’t studied the map carefully, I lost the “How many bridges will we cross” game. I thought we’d cross zero, but we found a nice, rather new bridge over one stream and a few planks of wood over another. We passed a couple swampy areas where the peep frogs–not in as great a number as we have on our property–sang loudly. (At home, there are times when we could almost have hearing damage if we stood in the swamp too long.) Every so often we heard the hammering of a woodpecker’s beak on the trees, but for the most part, it was just us and a gentle wind. And a few false morels growing along the edge of the trail.

FYI, false morels contain a neurotoxin called gyromitrin that can make you sick both if you eat it or inhale it.

We hiked four miles south, eight miles round trip, and saw one other person on the trail. That’s the beauty of the North Country Trail. It’s rare to see other people. Often the only sign that we aren’t the only people to ever walk the trail is the number of entries in the trail log. Every so often, a trail box will appear in the middle of nowhere containing a logbook and a writing utensil. We don’t often write our names in these books, but we decided to give ourselves a trail name (despite there being some “rule” that others give you a trail name) and log our presence. As our son loves to call us “Boomers”–which we are not–we’ve chosen to embrace his teasing and, at the same time, honor a hilarious movie by calling ourselves, “Here Come the Boomers.” It might not be the shortest, most accurate, or most flattering trail name, but it will probably be memorable. As Hubby said later in the hike, “How many of the other names in that logbook do you remember?” Pretty much none.

As for books…

I FINALLY finished Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. I think I started reading this one back in January at about the same time I picked up Anna Karenina. Though I’m itching to get started on the third book in the series, I’m not quite ready to tackle something so long immediately after finishing two VERY long books. But I also need to get to the third book before I forget everything from books 1 and 2 and have to re-read them for the THIRD time!

While I’m usually not really into time travel in books, I am enjoying the Outlander series. I will admit, though, that my interest waned a bit any time battle strategy was discussed or there were battle scenes.

I am NOT a daredevil. At all.

Poor Hubby. He did not marry a daredevil. While he enjoys a bit of adrenaline-producing adventure, I’m more of a worrywart. I’m constantly thinking about broken bones, the pain of broken bones, the cost of x-rays for broken bones…

Middle daughter informed me, after hearing me going on about broken bones, that if we just lived in a country with government-funded healthcare, I could do whatever I wanted without having to worry.

Hmm…

As that only takes care of one-third of my broken bones worries and doesn’t even touch the pain part, I don’t think I’d be doing whatever I wanted without worry.

So where am I going with this, and what occasion had me worrying about broken bones?

This past weekend, following a nice snowstorm, Hubby and I FINALLY got to put on our cross-country skis.

We’d tried to ski earlier in the winter. It had not gone well. The snow was wet and mushy. There were barely frozen puddles under the snow. We ended up with snow caked to the bottom of our skis. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to ski with snow caked to the bottom of your skis, but here’s what happens if you haven’t: Your thrust forward a bit with your upper half but your bottom half has glommed onto the snow on the ground and refuses to budge. There’s a constant feeling of, “I’m going to fall on my face.” It’s not fun.

But our snow this past weekend was mostly okay. I say mostly because it wasn’t perfect. The day had warmed up a bit and the snow in sunny spots was a tiny bit mushy and sticky, but it wasn’t horrible. We rarely had to stop to knock clumps off our skis. Sometimes you just have to make due when conditions aren’t totally optimal if you want to get to do what you want to do.

We set off down the road, which had a nice, smooth coating of snow, and headed for the ATV trails in the back of the neighborhood. And that’s where things got interesting.

You see, after a decent stretch of flat ground, perfect for cross-country skiing, that flat ground gives way to hills. Some slope relatively gently. Others not so much. We skipped the really, really steep hill (thank goodness) that made an excellent sledding hill when our kids were young, and stuck to just the moderately steep ones.

And I was still terrified.

I spent a lot of time carefully moving sideways down hills and sideways up hills. One hill took so long for me to descend that I probably grew a few more gray hairs in the time it took me to get close enough to the bottom that I was willing to risk skiing the rest of the way.

Despite my probably unfounded fears and grumpiness at myself for being afraid, it was nice to get out in the sunshine, produce some natural vitamin D, and breathe in a little fresh air.

As for books…

I recently finished reading Harlan Coben’s The Boy From the Woods. I’ve read at least one of his books in the past, but what drove me to check out one of his titles from the library was that I enjoyed watching the Netflix series The Stranger, which was based on one of his books. I liked The Boy From the Woods and hope to read the sequel soon. It might be a while, though, because this past month I decided to go “shopping” from my own bookcases and start attacking some of the books I’ve been meaning to read for YEARS. It could take me YEARS to get through them all.

A Swamp Shoeing Adventure

We’ve been on a roller coaster this winter…a weather roller coaster.

Most years, winter arrives just in time for Halloween with temperatures so blustery that Halloween costumes are ruined by the addition of heavy jackets. Winter then sticks around bringing snow measured in feet, freezing rain, and gusty winds until approximately 12 weeks after Groundhog Phil has declared the season over. We’ve had snow at the beginning of October. We’ve had snow on Mother’s Day. I once witnessed a woman wearing earmuffs in July.

But this year, rather than winter arriving and doing its thing for months and months straight, it’s flirted with us. We might get several inches of snow all at once, then the temps rise until it feels like spring. The snow starts to melt, turning our roads into a nightmare of ice and slush. Then the temps drop again and we’re back to the weatherperson telling us Snowmaggedon is about to happen again.

Although, this year the weatherperson has been a bit more like the “boy who cried wolf” than someone who had some sort of college education in a science field. If we’re told 10 inches, we get five. If we’re told 5 inches, we get 2. I really shouldn’t complain when we get less than what was forecast, but when the only thing that makes pushing a full shopping cart through 2 inches of mucky parking lot slush whenever we go shopping bearable is winter sports that require snow, then I say, “Bring on the snow.” Don’t give me an inch or two and then melt it away so all I have to play in is a mud puddle. You can’t snowshoe in mud or cross-country ski in mud. You can hike through mud, but I wouldn’t advise doing that after one ill-fated trip where I did a slipperoo and ended up with mud-caked jeans. We also took the dogs on that hike. What a mistake. Can we say, “Muddy under-carriage?” That is the messy hike that all messy hikes will be measured by in the future.

But we have been lucky enough to have at least a couple weekends with enough snow on the ground for a bit of winter fun. Earlier this month Hubby and I headed out for another snowshoeing adventure through the swamp.

After a stroll through the swamp, we continued on to a pair of nearby ponds following a different “path” than usual.

As for books…

Earlier this year I thoroughly enjoyed reading No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs. The only way I’m ever climbing any of those peaks is vicariously, so I read as many books as I can about others who have done so. I’m probably misquoting a tad, but I’m adding the author’s words of wisdom about reaching the top to my “Rules to hike by” list. He said something like, “Getting to the top is optional, getting back down is not.” As Hubby and I think about which mountain (of much smaller size than the ones in this book) we hope to attack next, we’ll do so with those words in mind.

Over the Swamp and Through the Woods

Christmas Eve morning we woke to a world of white. Snow was falling, and it continued to fall all day. The roads were dicey and unplowed, especially the secondary roads out in the “middle of nowhere” where we live. (Actually, I think our seasonal road, plowed by neighbors, might have been in better shape than anything the county was responsible for.) Christmas Eve services were canceled, meaning that for the third year in a row, I would miss out on the time-honored tradition of burning my hand on candle wax and spilling wax on some article of clothing. I can’t recall missing even one Christmas Eve service at any previous time in my life, let alone three in a row. Services weren’t held in 2020 for obvious reasons. (The Great Contagion, in case you’ve been living under a rock or on a deserted island.) We missed 2021 because we were in Texas at Guadalupe National Park. I’m hoping we can be there for the 2023 service.

While all that snow put the kibosh on church services, it made for excellent snowshoeing. Hubby and I strapped on the snowshoes the day after Christmas and set off into the woods.

The swamp in winter

We started off with a trip over our swamp. It’s always fun to be able to walk across the swamp without getting our feet wet or becoming a meal for the hordes of mosquitoes that call it home in the summer months. (By the way, a group of mosquitoes is apparently called a scourge.)

Once across the swamp, we turned toward the west and clomped up a hill to join up with a little nature trail that cuts through our land. Then we continued down a neighbor’s drive and into the woods on a path that leads to state land and a pair of quiet ponds. We’ve been to the ponds many times, usually hiking around both, but this time we would take a route away from the ponds that we’ve only taken once before. This past summer, following a period of dry skies, we’d managed to make our way down a two-track that’s usually impassable on foot due to A LOT of water both on the road and off. We’d taken the doggos that time. If you missed that recounting, you can find it here: https://100booksin1year.wordpress.com/2022/09/13/lunas-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day/ Luna was probably thankful we’d left her home this time.

The trails are not marked, but they aren’t difficult to follow, especially if you know where you’re going and know that as long as you keep track of the railroad track you won’t get lost. Eventually, the trail loops back to the rear of our neighborhood and connects to a system of ATV trails. If you pick the right branch onto the ATV trails, it’s a pleasant walk. If you choose the “wrong” branch, you’ll enjoy a longer hike with a whole lot of hills. We picked the “right” branch this time, thankfully, as slogging through deep, undisturbed snow is tiring even with snowshoes on. No one wants more distance or more hills in that situation. Although, out in the woods, with no one else around, with the air crisp and clean, and the sounds muffled by the snow…who would want the journey to end?

Sadly, shortly after we spent a few hours shoveling that massive storm-load of snow off the driveway and deck, the temps rose and almost everything melted. We’ve woken to a light dusting now and then since, but winter activities have been put on hold. Though I prefer warmer weather, I’d like to be able to don my snowshoes and skis more than a couple times this winter. The good news though, is that, with temps in the high 20s and 30s, we’ve been doing a lot more hiking this winter than we’ve done in the past.

As for books…

The first book for 2023 was The Prisoner by BA Paris. I enjoyed this suspense novel, though I would have liked the ending to be a little less, shall we say, vague. Did the main character see him again or didn’t she? (I hope there’s not a spoiler buried in that question. Sorry.) We’ll never know. I need more wrap-up. Don’t make me guess! Don’t leave things open-ended!

While I’ve gotten a decent start on my 100 books for 2023, there are some lengthier tomes I’d like to tackle this year which may cause me to fall far short of my goal. I’ve started Anna Karenina, which weighs in at a hefty 800 pages, and I’d love this year to be the year I finally read books 2-? of the Outlander series. Hubby’s already been through the entire series, so I feel a bit left behind, having only read the first 2 books. (I read the first one twice, as I’d forgotten quite a lot. I plan to reread the 2nd one as well.) I’ve also got the Poldark series to finish. The Three Musketeers, House of Seven Gables, Frankenstein, and Walden are also waiting on my shelves.

There are just too many books and only so many hours in the day to read them.