“Let us love Winter, for it is the Spring of genius.” - Pietro Aretino
Ever since I first read this quote on a box of Celestial Seasonings tea, I have reveled in how clever I find the thought of it. And if you do ponder it, one might find how true it is. I do, anyways - for it is both the end and the true beginning of Nature’s cycle. The life and health of many living things depend on good precipitation and snowpack as well as a long cold dormancy to rest and be able to spring back into a life filled with abundancy when the time comes. I have found that for myself, it is the time when I allow myself to rest without guilt and also the time when I can reset, rejuvenate my thoughts and creative ideas. And of course, hopefully get out and play in that beautiful snow a bit! (Which is also a great way to keep one in shape - think “Summer bodies are made in the Winter” - there really is no better way to prepare for extremes and physical challenges like getting out in the Winter playground!). And so, in this sense, my Winter is a chance to form the genius that bursts me back into life come Spring.
That being said, among the many thoughts of “genius” I have this Winter is the idea of fulfilling a goal I have had for several years - to accomplish backpacking in every calendar month of the year. I spent a few years accumulating the gear I felt necessary to be able to at least begin to overnight in the Winter, most of it taking advantage of end of season sales. Then last year(2021), I felt the time had come to give it a go. We ended up having several ample snowstorms hit my neck of the woods from late January through late February and I took full advantage getting out twice in February and once in early March. As I sit here still today, it went very well and I LOVED it! It brings me back to the joy of being a kid again on an adventure filled snow day :-) It also left me with only January and December yet to achieve backpacking in.
On Christmas morning, one of the gifts Anna, my fiancé (yes that is new news in my life that I will elaborate on in a later post!) had for me was a book by Norwegian writer, Torbjørn Ekelund titled A Year in the Woods. In a nutshell, he goes on one self-described “micro-adventure” each month of the year. That does it, I thought - “this is going to be the year that I make that happen as well! I hope for some months to have either multiple outings and/or an extended adventure, but at the very least I can get out for one night each calendar month of 2022.” I hope, or should I say one of my many hopes during this experience will be to gain a closer understanding of both the dramatic and the subtle shifts in Nature as the days, weeks and months go by. I expect it to broaden what I glimpsed in 2018 while hiking the same trail during every calendar month of that year. So far, I am 2 for 2, having just returned from an outing the past two days. But I will share more on February later. I want to start at the beginning and highlight my January adventure now. Please enjoy, excerpted from the pages of my journal…
January 27th and 28th - Loyalsock State Forest
“Sipping my coffee in the grand snowy silence at my ridgeline campsite above Ketchum Run. Last night was cold and dark, perhaps and most probably the coldest night I have spent in the woods, quite fitting for January! I stayed relatively cozy though bundled up in my sleeping bags (yes bags!), a candle in the snow for ambience, and for dinner some warm and comforting chicken and dumplings washed down with a fine porter and some sips of bourbon.
I awoke today pleasantly surprised by a light dusting of snow on my tent and snow gently falling through the Hemlock forest around me! I guess that Nor’Easter pushed a little further West after all :-) I have just been quietly sitting here in the snow, just being in this Winter forest, so silent, frozen and at peace…
Shelter for a night and a day - January 2022
Hiking in yesterday, I learned within minutes, and with joy as there is much more snow up here in the mountains than in the valley at home, this was going to be a snow shoe adventure, not a micro-spike hike. And so an immediate pause was in order to re-equip. ‘Ok, now we’re having fun’ I thought as I meandered my way through the snow-draped, frozen forest. All stream crossings were tentative but successful steps across the snow laden ice that all but completely deafened that sound of the water flow underneath, only barely exposed in small gaps here and there. In fact, the quiet - aside from the crunch and sloosh of my snow shoes and sound of my breath - was all that could be heard.
And so it was that ever so peacefully I decided roughly 2.5-3 miles in that a certain patch of towering Hemlocks on a ridge resting above several frozen features of water flow clutched to the cliffs along Ketchum Run was going to be my home for the night.
Well into nightfall as I sat cozy in my camp chair and sleeping bags, I noticed the faint twinkling of stars in the forecasted cloudy night sky. The speckling in the Hemlock canopy openings was a welcome surprise but no doubt allowed the temperatures to plummet a bit more into the teens than expected. But it also accentuated the dark of night. Cold and Dark - January - yes, perfection!
So quiet, I just let my mind drift into the oblivion of night. Every now and then a faint hoot or howl would break the silence - owls, coyotes perhaps. Such beautiful darkness. Eventually the cold would let me know it was time to get bundled up inside the tent.
When I woke this morning, peering at the weird shadows on top of the tent, a little tap of my finger would reveal with giddy delight that it had snowed! In fact, it was snowing!!! And it would continue throughout the day. And even better, it was so delicate, a dry, powdery snow (thanks to the cold) that I can just sit here in the open air of the forest, wrapped in my bags enjoying it without getting or feeling wet.
My cozy little nook off of Loyalsock Trail - January 2022
And so there I sat indeed with my biscuits and gravy with sausage crumbles and hot coffee, breathing in every breath of that clean, pure, piney air for as long as I could until I knew it was time I must move. I applauded myself for realizing this was a moment to be savored for as long as possible, to forego other hiking possibilities this day and just be in this moment - the calm silence, the falling of the fresh snow, the smell of the pine, the barred owl calling ‘who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?!’
Forest view at my campsite - January 2022
Everything cloaked in new snow.
Once I was able to pull myself to my feet, get packed and get moving, I enjoyed more moments frozen in time. Frozen waterfalls that is. I knew this is what I wanted to photograph - a scene I actually came first to know last March and now presented again, but more dramatically on this excursion. Along the cliffside rising above this stretch of Ketchum Run is an ice blue frozen cascade, and this time heavily draped in snow - a scene of pure Winter majesty.
Freshly dusted forest and a frozen over waterfall under there! - January 2022
Frozen wall and fresh snow along Ketchum Run - January 2022
After capturing my moment in time I would more diligently get to the snow shoeing out, and just in proper time as the temperatures would plummet well into single digits and sub-zero windchills come nightfall. And now I was a bit wet from sweat and the constant grazing of my enormous pack against the hanging boughs of Hemlocks dropping their snow down over me and slowly but surely adding weight to my beast of a satchel. I do not have the proper gear yet for sub-zero’s!
Alas, I safely got out of the chill and back to warmth, a great January adventure under toe!”
All my best until next time,
Brandon
P.S. - Since I never posted any, here’s a few extra gems from my time out there last Winter!…
Alan Seeger Natural Area - February 2021
Frozen Fir forest - February 2021
Encased in ice - February 2021