Jan dropped me off where the trail crosses M-89 just North of the Kellogg Biological Station Forestry Farm and North East of Battle Creek. I walked North toward where she had picked me up the previous afternoon.\u00a0 I was stiff and sore but had no bruises, sore toes, or blisters.\u00a0 The first hour was in the woods and then the farms and research plots of Michigan State University on Kellogg donated research land.\u00a0 It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny once again and then becoming more beautiful with a few snow flakes that turned into a couple of inches on the ground.\u00a0 The temperature was about 35 degree Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n
When she picked me up five hours later her first words to me were, \u201cYou need to get cleaned up.\u201d\u00a0 Looking in the car mirror my cheeks were frosty and rosy red. I was dripping frozen nose snot, and generally looking like a wet muskrat.\u00a0 We stopped and shivered for lunch.\u00a0 When I got home I crawled into the hot jet tub and promptly went to sleep for 90 minutes soaking away the cold and aching muscles.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t make the mistake thinking it was awful!\u00a0 It was incredible!\u00a0 The trees and bushes were covered in luminous white snow.\u00a0 It was perfectly quiet.\u00a0 The solitude was holy.\u00a0 There was no movement from houses I walked passed, almost no vehicles on the road.\u00a0 The world was silent.\u00a0 It had nothing to say and could do nothing as Winter kissed the earth one last time before Spring burst forth.<\/p>\n