Renewal

Spring is always a time when we feel a sense of renewal.  After a long winter and little daylight or sun - longer days and the fresh look of spring plants making their way above ground makes us feel refreshed and new again. 

Longer days and more sunlight start to make us feel warm even when the thermometer still says it's in the upper 30's.  We break out the garden tools and start to ponder what to plant in our gardens this summer.  Visiting family and friends, taking vacations and having barbeques sound like a good excuse to break away from cleaning and/or working.   Soon a sense of excitement, the sound of laughter and music will fill the streets. 

After a few months of hibernating, working on my house, I know I'm looking forward to this.  How about you?  What are you looking forward to this summer?  Share your thoughts.

Spring Already?

Time for spring?  Maybe? 

Today I saw my first signs of spring in Milwaukee.  I found some plants peeking through the ground along the side of my house (on March 7) - seems a little early for that, but guess not.

It seems really weird since over the weekend I took the dogs hiking in Northern Kettle Moraine in the snow.  And then two days later there are spring plants.  I really have to wonder if the poor daffodil popped through the ground early.  It does sit under my dryer vent and along the side of the house that receives all the sun. 

But since I saw my first sign of spring - my thoughts are now changing from snow to what I can do in spring.  Time to bring back out the tent, sleeping bag, hiking boots, etc (although they never really were put away for the winter).  I'm ready to take the dogs on weekend getaways to the great outdoors.  Take a trip back to Utah and Colorado to visit some national parks, do some rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking.  And plan a trip out to the Northwest to do some backpacking in the mountains.  Ok, let spring come but as I already know, this is Wisconsin and winter will not give up easily.  I'm sure we'll see more snow yet. 

Yes, it's time for renewal and rejuvenation as we see all things new again.  Let spring come, turn the world green and enjoy the sunshine.

More Snow, More Snow, More Snow

Just when you think spring is on the way, well - guess again.  After the great blizzard of 2011 back on Groundhog's Day (which by the way was cancelled in Milwaukee) I think a lot of people thought we were done.  The weather warmed up and within two weeks we had temps in the 50's and could again see the grass in our yards. 

With only snow drifts and piles left - here we are again.  Starting last Sunday we had about 6 inches of snow in my neighborhood (nice, heavy wet snow).  Late that afternoon the sleet hit, then the rain, then the sleet and overnight another 4 inches or so of snow.  Now we have a day off (of snow that is) and tomorrow we'll get hit with more sleet and then snow with more snow on the way for the weekend.

I know I hear many people who wish this would go away and that spring would be on its way, but not me.  I love the snow - give me more, more and more snow.  What that really means is the hot, dog days of summer are still a ways off.  Like I've probably said before - Winter is the Best Season.  Why do I think that?

• No mosquitos
• No fighting for camp sites and no crowds
• You can add on layers in the winter, you can only take off so many in the summer
• Snow is beautiful and inspires creativity
• Winter hiking is the best
• do I need to go on?

If you can't imagine it - here's a few pictures of reasons why winter is the best season, enjoy.  And until next time, bring on the snow.



Peace and quiet - no one else in the woods.



Creativity = Using old leaves, twigs and plants to provide your snowman a mouth, eyes and even hair.



You can get the beach all to yourself - now crowds



Ice Climbing - Starting 2011 Off with a Bang

2011 is starting to look like a good year for outdoor experiences.  And it's a year where I'm promising myself to explore and adventure more than I did last year.  To start the year off right and create an experience doing something I've never done before, I went Ice Climbing. 

Ice Climbing
This is something I've always seen pictures of and thought that it would probably be a pretty amazing thing to try out.  So for 2011, I decided it was time to do it.  A friend and I went up to The Ice Pit near Green Bay, WI for the 2nd annual Ice Pit Festival.  (Yes, there is Ice Climbing in Wisconsin - who would have thought)  It was a weekend of frigid temperatures, but we didn't let that stop us.  We packed enough clothes and gear to last us for a week and we only were there for the day. 

Once there - we layered up and went and borrowed Ice Climbing gear from the wonderful guys who were there working the festival.  Thanks to their knowledge - we walked away with everything we needed to hit the wall of ice.

What we didn't expect were the lines.  After hanging around for a few hours we finally got to the front of the line.  Now remember - I had never done this before and neither had my friend, we learned from YouTube Videos how to Ice Climb.  The girl in the video made it look easy.  Thankfully we had plenty of time to watch the people in front of us as well and realized it may not be as easy as the girl in the video made it look. 

So off to the wall of ice I go (yeah, I got to go first).  After sitting in frigid temperatures for hours in the shade, once I started Ice Climbing, I realized this is quite a work out.  After a few feet you'll be swinging that ice axe and starting to sweat.  After a few more feet (these walls were 60 or so feet high) and with your arms constantly swinging above your head to get the ice axe to stick - your hands will start to get cold and freeze from all the blood draining out of them. 

Getting Read to Climb



Starting the Climb




Climbing

 But don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining.  The ice climbing experience was awesome and I'll do it again when I get the chance.  It has a lot of the same techniques as rock climbing which I love to do, but in a whole new format.  I love winter and the outdoors, so this will just be an extension of the things I can now do in the great outdoors in winter. 

Anyone want to ice climb? 

Nature Unfurled

To see nature unfurl almost everything in its power at me while on vacation is amazing.  In the last week, while on vacation I think I ran into almost everything possible.  But no matter what mother nature tried to throw at me, I either dodged it or just plowed through it.

Snowstorms:
I managed to hit the backend of the big snowstorm that basically paralyzed some of the east coast while driving to Florida.  The only real snow I hit on the entire ride down was while driving through Tennessee, who happened to have more snow that we did in Milwaukee.  Even Atlanta, who saw a white Christmas for the first time in centuries, had as much snow as Milwaukee did.




View from rest area on I-24 in Tennessee


Bitter Cold Comes to Florida
Yes, I brought the cold with me to Florida.  When I arrived in FL it was in the low 30's at night.  By the time I got up in the morning Daytona Beach was tying it's record lows.  It was 27 degrees when I woke up and took the dogs for a walk in the morning.  Nothing like the feeling of being in the sunshine state with the bitter cold.  Funny thing was I received my eNewsletter from TripAdvisor.com while I was there with the subject line of Top 10 Warm Weather escapes and #8 on the list was Orlando, FL.  Ha ha, how wrong they were that day.  But of course, on the day I left, it would get back up to the 60's. 

Severe Storms and Tornados
So next stop on the trip was to the Ozarks of Arkansas.  My first night was to stay at the Redding Campground near Cass, Arkansas along the Mulberry River. 

Mulberry River from Redding Campground

What a gorgeous little campground, even in the dead of winter.   Surprisingly, I was not alone in the campground - one other couple had their tent set up as well.  I knew upon arrival that scattered storms were supposed to pop up over night.  But with no source to the outside world, I had no idea of the changes coming.  Thankfully the other couple had some source to the outside world.  At 9:30 that evening they stopped by me to let me know the scattered storm forecast turned into severe storms heading our way and that since we were in a flash flood zone at this campground they were bailing.  After a bit of debating, I as well, tore the tent and all back down and packed it in.  I figured if I did need to abandon the campground that with 2 dogs in tow, it would be hard to pack quickly and get in the car to head out on the evacuation route.

So back to Ozark, Arkansas we headed.  The storms came in and upon awaking the next morning, turned on the news to see tornados were touching down just northwest of where I was.  And as I went to check out of the hotel the storms hit Ozark.  Thankfully by this time it was just heavy rain and winds with no tornados. 

With all the heavy rains, I decided to take the dogs hiking in an elevated area that day instead of back down by the campground on the Ozark Trail.  We headed up to Mount Magazine State Park instead and dealt with the rain up there.  Even in the rain - this is a pretty park with the highest peak in the state of Arkansas.  Definitely would recommend it and would love to go back and see this in the fall.  I bet the view is amazing as the leaves change colors.

Jasmine and Wailea hiking the North Rim Trail

Unfortunately because of the tornados I did end up cutting this vacation short one day since I was going to head out to another state park just sw of Fayetteville, Arkansas - but that would have been just east of Cincinnati Arkansas, so probably saw a little of the destruction from the tornado. 

Overall even with all the crazy weather - I'd do the whole vacation over again.  Love the fact that we could hike in Mount Magazine State Park and never see another sole.  It was like the dogs and I had the park to ourselves.  That was awesome. 

So go ahead nature unfurl your crazy weather on me.  I will take it and one up you by ignoring the weather and enjoying nature in every shape and format you can throw at me.  Yes, I may be crazy - but why not.  I will only live once and want to enjoy every minute of being outside that I can.  

Lots of Deer Poop

Have you ever wondered where deer sleep in the winter?  Well, I think I now know.  With all the snow in Northern Kettle Moraine last weekend and the limited number of visitors to Mauthe Lake State Park in the winter, it was easy to see. 

After taking a great hike on the Ice Age Trail from Mauthe Lake, the dogs and I diverted and took a walk around the Mauthe Lake campground which is closed in the winter to see what it looked like and to find peace and solitude.  It was so nice to know that the only footprints in the campground at that time of the year are from the wildlife and yourself. 

The wildlife take over the campground areas in the winter.  It's amazing to see all the trails in the snow from deer. rabbits, squirrels and who knows what else.  Makes you wonder what they do in the campground after you're asleep at night.  Thankfully for the wildlife the campground is mostly closed during the winter with only a handful of sites plowed out at the front of the park.  If the weather ever gets back to normal the dogs and I may just may have to do some winter camping to see if we can catch all this wildlife in action.

But back to all this deer poop. 

As we were walking the road back to the park entrance I diverted to the unplowed area that in the summer is the "dog" picnic area.  Letting the dogs run free they went directly to an area of trees next to where the parking lot usually is.  As I walked over there I saw all these patches of grass under the trees.  Knowing that I didn't see that anywhere else I went over to inspect. 

The snow in this area was fully packed down from all the deer traffic in the area.  Lots of deer footprints and when I looked at the ground lots and lots of deer poop.  The dogs and I had walked directly into an area where deer had made their home.  Pretty cool.  Not what you would expect to find. 

But better yet and probably really gross is the reason the dogs went directly to that area.  I guess in dog world, deer poop must be a delicacy.  Hopefully my dogs got their fill before I realized what they were doing and dragged them out of there.  Just Gross.

The Big Chill

December has been a crazy month so far.  Glad it only gets this crazy one month out of the year.  With traveling, holidays, rain, snow and bitter cold - it's a lot to take in for one month.

Snow and Bitter Cold
So far in December, Milwaukee has only seen a few inches of snow and rain which has now turned into the bitter cold.  Fortunately / unfortunately (depending upon how you look at it) last weekend there was snow and a blizzard that happened all around Milwaukee.  Milwaukee ended up with rain, how disappointing.  And then after the rain, came the deep freeze which then caused all that rain to turn into ice.  Should have seem me attempting to walk two dogs on Sunday morning.  Ugh. 

For those that were fortunate (in my opinion) to receive the 8 - 10 inches of snow I hope they ventured out to see what a beautiful site fresh fallen snow can look like.  I did venture out in search of snow on Sunday and drove directly into the heart of the blizzard up in Northern Kettle Moraine.  (Does that make me a winter storm chaser instead of a tornado chase? )  Once north of the county line, the roads definitely got worse and once off the main roads and driving on the Scenic Drive through Northern Kettle Moraine you ventured through snow drifts with your car. 

Thank goodness for my Subuaru Outback and its all wheel drive.  With luck, the dogs and I made it through the park, saw some amazing views of the snow and back home again in one piece.  It was too bad the parks and roads were not plowed where I could have pulled over for a while and gone for a hike.  But, with the bitter cold we had this week - no snow melted and the dogs and I will be off to enjoy the views of the Northern Kettle Moraine this weekend.  More on that later...