New Year's Up North Part 1: The Great Outdoors

In keeping with a new tradition, I flew up to Michigan to spend New Year's Eve with K.  This year, we joined a bunch of friends and family Even Further Up North in the land of the Cherry Republic.  K picked me up at the airport in Chicago, which was little worse off than St Louis in terms of wintry weather.  Then we headed around the bottom of the Lake and up up up -- north toward Traverse City (the finger tips of the Michigan hand map), toward a region that must've been settled by the pioneers who were cast out of the groups that stayed further south. I gave up driving duty as soon as we reached the point where ice has probably covered the highway uninterrupted since mid-August.  Apparently, Northern drivers learn to adapt to the sliding and keep driving anyway.  Bravo, yanks! Personally, I don't even like driving in the rain; I think I'll let K stick to the northern winter driving duty (especially when we're in her car!).



I thought that living in St Louis over the past couple of colder-than-average winters had helped me acclimate to northern climates, but the sheer magnitude of wintry material in this region was unlike anything I've ever imagined.  At one point I looked out the car window at a huge field covered in an infinite array of snow and wondered what it would be like to be dropped off in the middle of it.  I'm not sure I can imagine a more bleak scenario... I'm not a good swimmer, but I think I'd prefer to be dropped off in the middle of an ocean.  At least there would be sharks to give me a quick ending. True, from an aesthetic point of view it's a marvelous thing -- nature seems incredibly still and tranquil when everything's covered in snow, when the trees glisten with ice as if they're coated in glass, and your breath has that winter-fresh thing going on, even if you haven't had a mint in days. And the kid in me still enjoys stomping around in the snow, pulling giant icicles off the overhangs and then tossing them like spears to smash into a tree (I don't think anyone witnessed this primal child-like behavior, thank goodness).  But it's not the sort of outdoors environment that's exactly welcoming in any sense; it's only enjoyable if you've got a pack full of REI gear to keep your bum toasty and your feet dry. I think I'll always be an Autumn person; there's something about September-October (back home, that is; even St Louis is far too cold by October) that beckons you to sit outside and just be. Winter, on the other hand, teaches us to appreciate the cozy indoors (of which I'll write much more in the second part of this blog). There's really nothing like a pot of coffee or hot chocolate after a hike through a frozen forest.

On to the photos...


I took this picture of Lake Michigan (or Superior? help, K?) while being blasted in the face by freezing wind at the top of a hill.  I think it may have been the coldest I've ever been in my life. Despite wearing multiple layers, the wind still chilled me to the bone. The rest of the hike was pretty normal-- I even took off my gloves for most of it because I got sweaty, but then I got cold after Riley and Bailey pretended to be stuck in a snow bank just long enough for me to climb in after them.

This was our mascot for most of the hikes, Erin and Ryan's dog Renley.  There's some magical relationship between dogs and snow; it reminds me of when I was a little kid and I got really excited whenever I woke up and saw snow outside covering everything in a fluffy white blanket of fun.

This is Renley's mommy, Erin. 

K :)

And...smiling! :D

Chilly creek flowing...this was one of those peaceful scenes that makes you forget for a moment that it's really frackin' cold outside.

Ryan, Renley's dad. 

Isn't the trail really clear and easy to see in this photo?

K really liked this view of the trees on the other side of a clearing 

Same shot without zoom... perhaps you had to be there, but it was a very serene moment (despite the presence of a burly hunter guy with his rifle a few hundred meters away. Bah.)

This last one makes me happy :)  Not sure if it's because of K or the coffee ;)