Running in Snow

It’s not easy. It’s not the treadmill of sand. No. Snow is a throat. After weeks of freeze, a 50-degree day has me penciling for two miles on what was yesterday the snowshoer’s tarmac. I don’t mind. This day, this one 50-degree day, will quench my thirst ‘til April, maybe May.

I’m giddy drunk with the distance I hiked in the tracks of so many deer, along the waves frozen but breaking back into the water piece-by-piece, the way that in the end, the sky opened up to a blue you see once during the winter if you’re lucky. At least here in Marquette.

Note: I do not run. It is not an activity I partake in with any sort of regularity. I hike. But today, the snow was almost easier to navigate if I moved faster, and after a while, it was (ahem) fun. I was laughing at myself, alone in a woods edged with the second largest body of freshwater in the world. The world.

I talk to those crazy little birds that follow you, the name of which I can never remember, and I’m happy. I’m tired of the busy me. Tired of taking things for granted. I live here. In this gorgeous place in the middle of “nowhere,” according to many. It’s not a “coast” per se, and it’s Midwest—clearly we’re all beer-guzzling rednecks driving recklessly between pines with our gang of snowmobilers.

Yes. That’s what we are.

Of course the locals have perpetuated this “myth” of the Upper Peninsula so as to keep out unwelcome guests, maintain a low pop. That’s what I think. What’s more, lately, I can’t begin to think of how I’ll leave here in a year. If I want to. If I should. Will.

Dear Dad: I’m sorry, but I’ve become a Yooper. I'm recording the winter through hikes, the way the season ebbs and flows. I'm not too proud to say I need a guide. I'm not too proud to say I'm still learning. How to relax. How to laugh. To run in snow.

Pacific Rim, That's What I Said

Okay, so I'm talking Pacific Rim in the U.S., but who wouldn't want to hit WA for 4-5 days, then head down the coast to Redwood, then up through NV to the last living geyser in that state, and end up in the Salt Flats? Well, I think it sounds fun, and no matter what anyone says (Ajani), I'm calling it the Pacific Rim trip (though, props to Kevin, since he said it first, and more/less planned the whole trip).


Is it possible to have winter allergies? If not, I've gotten a cold, which never happens. Either way, it feels like someone's got my head in a vice. I'm not really enjoying it.

For now, I'll post a pic and give a short list (because they all make me smile):

3 weeks to Puerto Rico (thx, D!)
10 weeks til summer
15 weeks til Pacific Rim trip


And a great hike today...the water was the clearest I'd ever seen it. Here's a pic over the edge of the blackrocks (where I dropped my bird in a jewelry box)---it's about 15 feet down to the water. What you see is the rock floor, through about 25 feet of water. Ah, Lake Superior in winter.