Icy Morning

Wasn't quite sure what to expect with conditions this morning given the torrential rain and warm temps yesterday and the cold snap that followed. It was a bit hard to tell in the dark at 6:00 am, but overall I was surprised that the trails were not as icy as I had anticipated and were softer than I would have expected. I ran the snowmobile trail up and over Mt. A. and then went out onto the groomed ski trail on the golf course. That section was decent, and my headlamp picked up a fox loping across the 3rd green - neat! Once I crossed the street to the Heath trail, I was disappointed to find that there hadn't been much traffic other than the deer. They had made a veritable highway in one section! With little traffic since the last snow, things weren't well packed and I kept slipping off the thin ribbon of packed snow into the soft stuff. There was also a lot of undermining and a fair amount of water under the snow. I sunk through a few times on the way out, enough for me to decide to simply retrace my steps and not keep going around the Heath. I took the road on the way back, which was actually fairly dry. It was a slow 4.5 miles with the darkness and the uneven footing, but I was happy that I managed to at least get out of bed and out the door! That is always an accomplishment, especially on a cold winter morning :-)