After moseying around December and January, look who finally decided to show up for the month February. Come on in Winter, sit down, freeze my ass off. Most of February was too cold for it to even snow. So, when things finally warmed up enough last week to dump a few flakey inches, I decided it was time to take Beth out for her first winter hike.

Now I myself am not a particularly avid cold-weather sportsman. I haven’t strapped on a ski in fifteen years and I have only seen snowboards in catalogs. The only time I have ever done any winter camping, it was on the south rim of the Grand Canyon in March. I was so woefully under-equipped for trip, I never did it again. Sometime in the last couple of years, however, I have come to enjoy the peaceful solitude of a winter day hike where, if the weather threatened I could quickly retreat to the cozy comforts of my waiting car.

After a brief re-direction from a Harriman Park Ranger, we finally found a legal parking spot and headed out into the trees. The snow pack was perfect for hiking — deep enough to level the terrain and solid enough to support our weight without skis or snowshoes. We made our way up and over two ridges before finding our way to the frozen edge of Lake Wanoksink (which I promise, is more romantic than the name sounds). Unfortunately and despite sufficient layering, the sun and the wind weren’t on our side. After a couple of hours with dropping temperatures, we headed back under threatening skies. Thank God for car heaters.