photo credit: D. Gallo

Location: Highland Recreation, MI

Hiked with: Darby

Route/trail: Haven Hill Lake

Weather: 18 degrees and windy

Duration: 1 mile, 16 minutes (that's all we could take!)

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: elevation 300 ft. gaining only 20 ft. the entire time

Sightings: frozen lake

Emotions, etc: the cold caused us to run part of the way which in the end 

felt exhilarating and so much better than all of the hotel treadmills I've been walking the past week

Location: Highland Recreation Area, Highland, MI

Hiked with: Gary and Darby

Route/trail: Haven Hill trail

Weather: 43 degrees, grey

Duration: 55 min. 2.33 miles

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: small elevation changes, patches of mud on the trails

Sightings: a hawk and the barn that was at one time the largest east of the Mississippi river. It was from Edsel Ford's farm that used to be on this property.

Emotions, etc: thankful for Sabbath

Location: Mill Race Park, Village of Commerce Township, MI

Hiked with: myself

Route/trail: the one trail through the park and some of the neighborhood streets behind it

Weather: overcast, 30 degrees, breezy

Duration: 45 min., 2.18 miles

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: very wooded, fairly flat, creek running through it that is a diversion of the Huron River created for the roller mill that used to be on this site in the early 1900's

Sightings: didn't see the ducks in the creek and they obviously didn't see me. My heart skipping a beat reflected their surprise departure when I was practically standing atop them.

Gear/food: note to self--need warmer gloves

Emotions, etc: despite the cold, it felt so good to be outside. The range of sounds coming from the moving water was captivating.

Thanksgiving Day Hike

Location: Highland Recreation Area, MI

Hiked with: Gary, Ian and the Barbour family

Route/trail: Teeple Lake

Weather: 30 degrees, overcast, flurries

Duration: 1.5 hours, 4ish miles

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: up and down gentle hills over frozen ground 

Sightings: snow!

Emotions, etc: First, thinking that if God had intended for us to rake leaves that this would be a monstrous job on these trails. Secondly, thankful for our children introducing us to new friends that we can spend this Thanksgiving holiday with. Lastly, glad to have a dog along. Abby the labby would have loved this type of hike.

Location: my driveway

Hiked with: myself and a snow shovel

Route/trail: up and down, back and forth, and an occasional round and round to break the monotony

Weather: 25 degrees, light snow and wind

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: one steep part of the driveway caught me off guard and I fell (gracefully of course-haha) to my hands and knees. That's humbling!

Sightings: many animal tracks in the yard

Emotions, etc:I actually like shoveling and find it refreshing to be outside on a winter day. We'll see if this is still the 'emotion' if we're shoveling through until spring :) In a week that I could take a longer hike this activity is a good compromise.

Location: trail behind Lakeland High School

Hiked with: myself

Route/trail: the only one that was marked...I wonder if it's for gym classes or the cross country team

Weather: 52 degrees but overcast as a sign of the cold front that's headed our way

Duration: under an hour...forgot to set Map My Walk to get accurate stats

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: mostly flat worn down grass path

Sightings: just the happy sounds of children on the elementary school playground

Emotions, etc: trying to be content that this short, fast walk (other than what I do in my 

neighborhood) would be the longest I'd probably have in this busy week

Location: trails behind Highland Public Library

Hiked with: myself

Route/trail: the initial trail surprisingly (actually disappointingly) led to a neighborhood. After walking the neighborhood I found more trails that seemed to be for ATV's. Last landmark was Downey Lake.

Weather: 48 degrees and partly cloudy

Duration: 2.94 miles in 50 minutes

Altitudes/elevations/conditions: little elevation changes with sandy trails that made walking slow at times but it was probably a better workout for my legs

Sightings: a woman putting up Christmas decorations (it's too early for that!) and a dog that walked with me for a little bit (this was delightful but made me miss my Abby the labby)

Gear/food: water

Emotions, etc: Thoroughly enjoying exploring this new area we live in!