Snow Delay
Dates: February 9th, 2013 through February 23rd, 2013
Date Published: February 25th, 2013
Dates: February 9th, 2013 through February 23rd, 2013
Date Published: February 25th, 2013
Record breaking snowfall has a funny way of altering plans. Those of you who are familiar with this blog have probably realized that I’m quick to change plans on the fly when the need arises. But, you should also know (if you don’t already) there is nothing more frustrating to me than continually changing and / or delaying the original plan to the point where there no longer is one. So, when the Northeast got hammered by Winter Storm Nemo in February of 2013, I was not a happy camper. The pictures in this blog will show otherwise, but this is really just the three of us making the best of a bad situation (that’s how we roll in the Armstrong household). Also, these pictures were taken just as the snowstorm was ending. If you had told me then that we wouldn’t be hiking for two weeks after this, I would have wiped that (covered) smile right off my face.
The thing with these crazy snowfall totals isn’t that it is more challenging than usual to shovel the driveway and sidewalk (although it did take us almost 8 hours to finish the driveway and the sidewalk wasn’t completely cleared until several days later). The things is that, once the snow is cleared from the driveway and sidewalk, it takes a REALLY long time to melt to a reasonable level. Even now, as I type this, there is still about six inches of snow in some spots.
So, needless to say, I had to keep pushing back our hiking and we didn’t do any between the day of the storm and yesterday. And, the only reason I went out yesterday is because Roscoe looked like he was so bored that he was probably about 30 seconds away from tearing apart our couch cushions for fun. Truthfully, he wasn’t the only one who was bored. On Friday, I decided to go back and see how many weeks in a row I had hiked before the storm. And, I was able to go all the way back to the last weekend in October. 15 weeks in a row I had been hiking before this unplanned break. I had to go get back on the trail.
Because I wasn’t sure what I would find once I got out in this “winter wonderland”, I stuck with a familiar area and did what is becoming my “usual” hike around the area of Case Mountain. It was raining lightly when we left the parking lot, but it turned over to ice and even some snow as we made our way up to the “higher” elevations. It wasn’t long before Roscoe had that NICE wet dog smell. The snow was still pretty deep on some of the less traveled trails, and that made for some tough sledding. I’m also not sure what the layoff did in terms of my “hiking shape”, but I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. I told myself this was because of the snow, not because I was out of shape. Overall, it was a nice hike through some familiar territory. And, since I’ve blogged about those trails before, I’m not going to go into detail about them.
I will note that, when I was done, I added 5.02 miles to my total distance for the year…which is now at 71.83 miles.
I really hope to be able to get out and hike some new trails this coming weekend. Hopefully we don’t get any more snow and the snow we do have finally melts. Otherwise, I might have to push it back another weekend…and my couch cushions might start to look like dog toys again…
Distance to 2013 goal: 293.17
Because I wasn’t sure what I would find once I got out in this “winter wonderland”, I stuck with a familiar area and did what is becoming my “usual” hike around the area of Case Mountain. It was raining lightly when we left the parking lot, but it turned over to ice and even some snow as we made our way up to the “higher” elevations. It wasn’t long before Roscoe had that NICE wet dog smell. The snow was still pretty deep on some of the less traveled trails, and that made for some tough sledding. I’m also not sure what the layoff did in terms of my “hiking shape”, but I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. I told myself this was because of the snow, not because I was out of shape. Overall, it was a nice hike through some familiar territory. And, since I’ve blogged about those trails before, I’m not going to go into detail about them.
I will note that, when I was done, I added 5.02 miles to my total distance for the year…which is now at 71.83 miles.
I really hope to be able to get out and hike some new trails this coming weekend. Hopefully we don’t get any more snow and the snow we do have finally melts. Otherwise, I might have to push it back another weekend…and my couch cushions might start to look like dog toys again…
Distance to 2013 goal: 293.17