Winter Walks

Ever heard the quote “American’s never walk, it’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.”?

I saw it on my twitter feed from a hiking account that I follow, and I thought “huh…that’s pretty accurate”. If you want to be honest, depending on where you live there is a fairly small window of perfect weather to be outside. And, if your schedule is anything like mine, when that window hits, you might already have other plans and miss it completely! Besides, I think that we can all agree that if we are waiting for the “perfect scenario” in anything in life, that will pretty much rarely come.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree that there are better times than others to get outdoors, but if you are dressed for the occasion and plan accordingly, it can kinda be pretty awesome!

So on New Year’s Eve 2017 I asked my sister if she was going to join me on my “first day hike”, she happily agreed. It was cold but we layered up and had a great time. We were not out for too long, so if you are planning to be outside in freezing temperatures make sure to dress accordingly.

Here are some pluses to taking a “Winter Walk”

No mosquito/flying/biting insects.
No poison ivy.
No leaves on the trees, which gives better visuals for bird watching.

Some extra fun things you can do on winter walks depending on where you live.

bird watching
take a journal, document what you see
follow animal tracks
skate on a frozen shallow creek bed (not recommending a pond, okay, we skated on a pond but ONLY around the edges, it was not frozen in the middle, DO NOT RISK IT).
see how many plants you can find
see the bird nests in the trees