BONUS WEDNESDAY POST!
It’s winter. It’s cold. I thought it was time for a hike.
More specifically though, we were expecting a 50 degree day in late February and I actually did think it would be a nice day for a hike. Unfortunately the park I picked (called Greenwood) is 20 miles north of our home in Binghamton, NY and apparently receives apocalyptic amounts of snowfall. My husband failed to tell me this until shortly before we arrived while I was blithely still expecting our main problem to be mud. And ticks.
The last time I was at Greenwood Park was on an unseasonably cold day in early September to celebrate a friend’s 10 year double lung transplant anniversary. She passed away later that month so the memory of that day is a special one for me and I was thinking of her a lot on our 30 minute drive there. I said out loud how unfair it was, she was so young and how she worked so hard and never complained about being sick. My husband said complaining was what people did when they didn’t have any actual problems (yes, we were both surprised by how insightful this was). I spent the rest of the drive thinking about what things I complained about that weren’t actual problems. Like Mondays, and garbage nights, and how I can’t stand when people go 35 in a 55 on my way to work (this happens every day, I really just need to accept it.)
The park looked completely different from when I was last here in September. Everything was blanketed in snow despite this having been a mild winter so far. The beach and sandy shore were an indistinguishable wash of white. I had a hard time picking out in which pavilion my friend’s party had been held. We hiked about a mile. The three inches of snow covering the ground had a semi frozen crust so I could walk several steps on top of the snow like Legolas, and then my foot would drop through to the softer snow underneath. My husband wasn’t so lucky and had to slog through each step while our dog raced along beside us, oblivious to snow or our troubles with it.
It was a gorgeous Carolina blue sky day, surrounded by pines and the quiet of being alone in winter without the noise of any bugs or birds (or people). It reminded me how much I miss being outside and how walking in the woods brings an odd calm that I don’t really seem to get anywhere else.
Near the end of our hike we passed a skeletal teepee off the trail in the woods. Me and my husband spotted it at the same time and my husband said “uh, that’s creepy… do you think it’s the Blair witches’ house?” As he finished speaking I heard a little girl’s giggle echo from somewhere behind us. I picked up the pace and obviously didn’t mention what I’d heard until we had left the tree line and were back on the snowy beach on our way to the car. So Greenwood Park is haunted by a witch.
Action items for you:
Take a hike. No, I don’t mean get out of here, I mean go outside. I don’t care what the weather is like or if you just go to a local park or the Appalachian trail. Carve out an hour of your life, find somewhere with trees, and a path, and walk there. Just be sure you’re appropriately dressed. And don’t trespass. And wear bug spray, ticks are out in all seasons.
If you want to do what I did:
Greenwood park is located in Lisle, NY. It’s about a half hour North of Binghamton or an hour South of Syracuse. It’s open year round and they basically have it all. In the summer there are 6.5 miles of hiking, a playground, kayak, and canoe rentals, fishing, swimming, and 50 campsites with a bunch of other amenities. In the winter there are cross country ski and snow shoe rentals.
PS: Our dog pulls A LOT on walks but we’ve found that this PetSafe Gentle Leader Head Collar works pretty well for us to make sure he is manageable and we ALL get to have a nice walk, with no one (me) being dragged along behind.
