I stopped my daily hikes for the dark, cold, Christmas season of snacking and hibernating. And it would be really easy to just keep on hibernating until spring, but NO! Not meant to be!

My friend Jen followed me on the Strava app. That’s an app you can use to track your exercise (runs, walks, swims, bikes, hikes, etc) with your friends, or the whole wide world if you want. I tried it once, for one hike last summer, and then I never used it again. But that notification was the kick in the pants I needed.

So I vowed to resume hiking or walking every weekday. Not just our evening dog walk with Hank, but a longer walk, an hour if possible. No matter what the weather. And leave the weekends for whatever I’m in the mood for.

So I took a long lunch hour on Monday and walked the 9th Ave trail to the north end of town and then zigzag’d back home. It’s slow going – between the winter boots, the two layers of clothes, and the snow makes all the branches heavy so they hang over the trail and you have to push them out of your way with your head like a bull. There were two staircases that weren’t used much, so I plopped down on my butt and slid down the bank beside them, skipping both sets of stairs. Awesome! It was only -21C.

On Tuesday, it was -30C so I switched to my Steger mukluks to keep my toes warmer. I had to take my glasses off too because they wouldn’t stay clear of frost. I hiked up the hill behind us and took the trails through Crocus Bluff and around the back of the cemetery and around the ball diamond. Then back to town on the snowmobile trail.

It is so beautiful in the forest in January. Calm, quiet, peaceful, breathtakingly beautiful.

There’s a great lookout up there, that overlooks the confluence and up the Klondike River valley.

The sun was so close to peaking over the hill, but not quite yet! I haven’t seen the sun since November!

Wednesday it was even colder. I had to step up my wardrobe. It was time for snow pants. And my Skookum parka. And face mask. The air was freezing my tongue and the back of my throat. And my poor lungs.

On Thursday it was even colder. And I really thought about just doing some inside exercise instead. But as the sky started to lighten just before noon, a breeze started blowing. And it brought in a flock of little birds, red polls, that landed in the tree that I can see from my new office windows. They fluttered around, plucking birch seeds off the branches. How on earth can these little beings flutter about and not freeze solid into little birds-pops and fall to the snow beneath?

If they can be outside at -43C naked, I can surely do it in 3 layers of clothes. Let’s go!

It’s so quiet and beautiful. Although, at the same time, not quiet at all. The snow is so loud when it is this cold, and with a couple of layers over my ears, I stopped from time to time just to make sure no one was hiking behind me and wanting to pass by because there would be no way to hear them. Here’s a quick little short video I made of what it sounds like:

Friday was just as cold, but without a breeze! I had been alternating all week between the 9th Ave trail and Crocus Bluff. I finished the week strong with the 9th Ave trail.

There was some serious ice fog hanging over town, maybe from the diesel power generators running full tilt on the south end of town. The demand for power in the cold is high!

While I only met two people all week on the trails, someone’s been shattering all the low hanging branches. It’s so much easier to walk when sticks aren’t trying to poke out your eyes! It’s so cold that the alder sticks just shatter when you push them.

By the time I got to the dog park, there was a noticeable gold colour on some of the snow. What is that…. oh my goodness, the sun is about to clear the hill!!!

It’s coming back!!

How beautiful is that!

It was so beautiful and I was feeling great so I walked the entire dyke trail too along the waterfront, making for a 1 hour, 20 minute walk. There was so much frozen breath on me by the time I got home! Frosty!