It was a nice morning, though. A little warmer than it has been, and a lot more comfortable, even if that first part by the river is always the coldest. There was a good view again of the headlights shimmering on the water when I got to the part that runs parallel to the highway.
I made my way Northwest as usual to the point where I usually turn around, and did just that. But when I got to the part I've always wanted to go but couldn't because it was muddy, I realized I finally could. A week of below-freezing temperatures left all the mud frozen solid and all the water frozen in sheets.
That last one's my favorite photo of the day. But I was also happy to finally be able to get up close to this tree.
After that, I climbed up on what I thought was just a big hill of dirt that I've always seen by the mud, some more newly-walkable land stretched out behind that. And I have no idea what it was ever for, but a big stretch of that land is covered with large beams of wood.
Then I went further-than-ever-before to the East, and then realized what I should really do was go back to that first Northwest part and keep going. There's a gate you can climb through, but I've always turned back there because it was muddy beyond it. Not today!
I could have gone quite a bit further, but I'd already gone 5.5 miles and knew I was at least a few miles from the car, so I turned back. Some time when the weather's warmer and the sun's up earlier, I'll follow it all the way to the end.
On the way back, I got a good look at how icy everything around there really was. I could tell in the dark that it was a lot of ice, but couldn't really make it out until then.
8.26 miles in 2:56, 18,754 steps
After last week's backaches, I really only wanted to go about five miles today, but the opportunities to explore were irresistible. Hopefully I won't regret it, but tomorrow's a swim day anyway.
The drive home wasn't super interesting, but I processed the video anyway.
The rest of the day has been cooking, chores, and watching lots of episodes of Travelers on Netflix. I really like this show and hope it does well.