Monthly Archives: February 2011

Not walking today, but I have some news for area walkers

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Ugh, I’m stuck at work today. Welly, honestly, I could have walked today if I really wanted to. But I’ve got the beginning of what is sure to be a three-day cold. I am optimistically hoping for a 24-hour recovery, though, so I am saving all of my energy for that.

But, anyhow, I did a a news release today from the Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department: Sanford Steps is expanding!

Yep. The program, which has been offering free indoor walking at The Sanford on Tuesday and Thursday mornings has added another day!

You now can walk from 7:30-9 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. For more info, call Gary Molck at 333-1859 or Samantha Parker at 333-1857.

Of course, it does not help Laurie and me, as we are afternoon walkers. But for early-bird walkers, I know it is welcome news.

Anyhow, just thought I’d share.

Check on us tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we will have made it outside.

A taste of spring — sweet!

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It’s quite a treat to have a springtime walk in February.

Neither of us even wore jackets today — just our hoodies and red sweat pants.  It felt really good to enjoy the air rather than buffer ourselves against it.

“It’s really nice to see grass,” Bethany pointed out as we walked along Irvine Avenue and noticed the large patches of lawn bared by the snow that was melting into the gutters.

It was a beautiful sunny day, too — just a pleasant walk all around!

Enjoy it while it lasts, folks!

:)

A wintertime hike at Itasca State Park

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While Laurie was working on Saturday (she did get outside for some of it, though), my little family went to Itasca State Park Saturday to get out of the house and take advantage of the warm weather. It was absolutely beautiful.

We bundled up the 2 1/2-year-old and walked toward the Headwaters.

My daughter was thrilled to see open water. She kept asking if she could go swimming…

We, of course, took the obligatory Headwaters photo, but we, er, passed on the chance to try to maneuver the rocks. I tried that once in February like 6-7 years ago. It did not end well.

Between the temperatures and the blue sky, it was just an absolutely perfect day to be outside.

We “hiked” along Schoolcraft Trail. Just keep in mind we were letting the toddler lead us, so it took us about 2 hours (almost) to walk 1.5 miles.

The trail is apparently most often used by snowshoers. And we wondered (albeit a little fleetingly) if snowshoers get mad when people walk on their snowshoe trails, like cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. But we encountered about 2-3 groups of snowshoers who all seemed nice enough. So we weren’t losing any sleep over it.

I have to say that if it wasn’t for the snowshoers, we probably would not have been able to hike at all. As long as we all stayed in the middle “packed” snow area, we stayed upright. But if we strayed just a little, the snow dropped about a foot and a half or more.

We made it to the lakeside. And learned that must be about where a lot of snowshoers turn around. The trail got much thinner and less packed after this.

(See? When you leave the trail, the snow gets awfully deep…)

It was just a really nice afternoon outside. There was some added fun in seeing nature through the eyes of a little kid. Lola was interested in every fallen tree branch and pine cone she came across.

On another note, I don’t know how you explain to a little child the concept of months. She has been asking for weeks now when she her little brother or sister is arriving. I keep telling her something along the lines of, “It will be a long time. When all the snow is gone.”

Well, the snow has been melting – quickly – from the driveway now. And she saw cement this weekend. So, that brought the inevitable question, “Snow all gone. Baby here now?”

* smile *

Anyhow, I don’t think Laurie and I are going to make it for walking today.

But we should get together tomorrow for sure.

Two years of walking — Happy Anniversary to us!

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The dirtier the snow, the closer we are to spring.

Today marks two years of walking for the Bemidji Trail Mix duo, and our third February.

Of course, there was no actual Trail Mix on Feb. 11, 2009, because we started walking with no intention to blog. We were asked to start a blog in June through Area Voices (which is looking for local bloggers — more on that later), but before then, we were just walking because we thought it would be a good way to lose weight and because it wasn’t running (we both hate running).

Starting in February really set the table for our dedication to walking in all sorts of weather. If we had started in June, we might have thought it made sense to take the winter off (which I guess would have made sense!), but a February start made that moot.  We were winter walkers from the start.

Sorry, not the best pictures today. I was trying out my new mini video camera and the stills aren't too good.

Neither of us started out as a winter walker, though. I don’t think either of us would have imagined that you could bundle up well enough to make December through February tolerable for an hour. Sometimes when I walk to my car to go to work, I think of how little it would take to freeze to death.  It gives me a bit of respect for winter, albeit the kind of respect you give a wild animal that would kill you.

But when I go to work, I’m not dressed the same as when we walk. We bundle up well — enough that we stand out from other people who are just walking a block or two.  On some cold, windy days, we just have eyes peeking out and we have to turn to find each other because our peripheral vision is caught up in hoods and scarves and face warmers. On some days, I feel like a kid stuffed into a snowsuit who has to waddle around outside.

The result is that we not only tolerate cold weather, we sometimes (at least when there’s little to no wind) get hot and have to take off layers.  I’m not talking about 30-below here — in that kind of weather, we can never bundle up enough to be in any way comfortable, but we can make a dent.

We haven’t avoided walking because of bad weather (if we can walk in 30 below temps, we can take anything this year dishes us out), but our outings have been sporadic this winter for various reasons. However, we have done four days this week, so it looks like we’re back on track!

Today was a very nice day and it sounds like the weekend will be good, too. We were talking today about people who hate the messy, slushy spring weather.  I say bring it on!

P.S. If you’re interested in an Area Voices blog (which utilizes WordPress),  visit the website at www.areavoices.com and check it out to see if you’d like to sign up. They are looking for bloggers in general, but are specifically interested in the topics of health, family, food, travel and money.

Deep in the Snow of Minnesota

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Bemidji has had so much snow, even the snowmen are getting buried. :)

We didn’t complain much today at all — we were just happy to not have the wind — and we had some spring in our steps. In fact, I took off my right glove after a while to take photos and never bothered to put it back on. We actually found it pretty nice, even though it was around 2 below. It just illustrates how frigid the wind chill has been lately!

This is one way to keep your iced tea cold.

This isn’t the greatest picture, but I took it quickly as we walked past. This guy made it down from the house in no time.  I guess he was cleaning snow off his roof, which is a pretty good idea. My parents had an old garage roof collapse last month and the building is now totaled.

I’m not sure how well this fits into the Stuff on the Ground category, but it looks like someone is losing something from under the hood of their vehicle.

(Been there, done that, don’t want to do it again.)

We didn’t take a mystery photo today, but our last one was a bit of the railing from the top of the Remax building on Beltrami Avenue Northwest. This historic building, which is just as beautiful inside as it is on the outside, was once  Bemidji’s post office.

Tomorrow is a special day for the Bemidji Trail Mix duo — it’s our second anniversary of walking. Hopefully it will be a nice day and we’ll have a a really nice walk. This makes it our third February! I wonder if we would have kept it up if we’d started *January* 11. :)

We’re getting tougher…

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OK, honestly, raise your hand if you’re shocked to see a Trail Mix update today?

Yeah … me too.

Today was COLD. OK, it was about 2 degrees. But it was WINDY. Or, if you go by the nicer forecast term, breezy. With the windchill (thanks to 21 mph winds), it was about -16, I think.

Cold.

But I am kind of stubborn sometimes. And I pledged to myself on Friday that I was going to walk more often. Be tougher. Less of a wimp.

So I called Laurie, told her it was definitely not above freezing and went and picked her up. I had already picked up my fire and cop reports today, so I thought a change of direction would be good. Like maybe a trail. In the woods.

So we went to that trail near Lincoln School. I don’t know the name of it, but I’m sure someone does.

And, for the first part, it was wonderful. We got out of the wind.

But then, stupid me, didn’t remember that the trail, you know, runs along the lakeshore.

While we were walking away from the car, the terrible no-good wind was at our backs. But we knew that when we turned back, it was going to get awfully miserable awfully fast.

So we enjoyed the sites while we could.

We even saw some snow art (not made by us, by the way)…

But, of course, we had to turn around at some point…

I told Laurie we would turn around at 12:30 p.m., thinking she might be a little upset since we hadn’t really been walking that long.

Laurie: “What time is it now?”

Me: 12:28 p.m.

Laurie: “Oh good.”

It was that cold. We loved being in a new location. But it was really cold out there.

It’s funny how once we did turn around, I stopped taking pictures…

:)

So that’s it for us today.

Thankfully.

I really enjoyed my warm lunch after walking today. And even though we might not have walked much longer than 30 minutes or so today, it still felt good being outside and moving around. Although I must say that walking on snow-covered trails does offer a better workout than concrete roadways.

Happy Tuesday night.

And we’re back to cold …

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Looks like the snow has a grip on this tree!

Bethany left a post on my Facebook page Sunday asking me if I was going to be back in town in time to walk today (Monday). She added, “Hey, it might be above freezing, too!”

Nice, I thought. I didn’t even bother to check the forecast. I bundled up reasonably well before her arrival, but when I popped outside to see if she was there yet, my forehead froze on the spot. So I popped back *inside* and changed to my big furry hat.

It was actually around zero, but a really cold zero, especially when we were walking north. It was nice that Bethany had to stop at the Fire Hall and the Law Enforcement Center for reports, because it gave us a chance to warm up a bit. But the walk from there to 15th Street was brutal. Fortunately, it got better as soon as we turned to go back along Beltrami Avenue, although talk soon turned to long underwear and winter face masks and our lack of both today.  (Actually, neither of us has a face mask, but I had one last winter that I bought at Gander Mountain. It was great — it closed with Velcro in the back and had  little breathing holes for the nose, which meant the glasses didn’t get fogged up by breath escaping from the top of a scarf. Somehow that mask did not surface with the rest of my winter garb.)

Snow is piling up this winter, but it’s important to keep fire hydrants clear so firefighters can quickly access them in case of an emergency. As city crews clear snow and ice from the streets, the Bemidji Fire Department asks residents to help by clearing a three-foot radius around hydrants. Residents can adopt a fire hydrant to ensure the the hydrants remain accessible and visible. For details, call Fire Chief David Hoefer at 751-8001.

I love how Kelly Skime (center) falls backward straight as a rail!

Speaking of the firefighters, when we buzzed to get into the Fire Hall today, Justin Sherwood hurried to let us in and observed, “You guys look cold.” We had walked all of two blocks! That did not bode well for the rest of the walk (but we obviously survived). It was hard to feel very justified in our whining, though, with Kelly Skime sitting there. He cross-country skis to work. In the summer, he kayaks. And both he and Justin were among the firefighters who recently jumped into Lake Bemidji during the Polar Plunge, where Justin chose the somersault approach. They are definitely more Minnesotan than we will ever be.

This is another view of the scene pictured at the top of this blog post. I just thought these snow piles looked like some sort of sentries or vague gargoyle statues  built around the trees. I think they looked more gargoyle-like in person, though. ;)

You can’t make out the detail very well on this tree trunk, but I thought it looked like a dancing person holding up a tree with its right hand. It seems kind of  poetic; a tree that looks almost dead gives way to one branch that seems like a tree itself. Trees just seem to find a way.

After our walk, this was our Facebook exchange, which after Bethany’s first response made her mom wonder if we were fighting. :)

  • Laurie Swenson When you said “above freezing,” did you mean “above zero”? (Not that it was above zero.) :P

    9 hours ago ·

  • Bethany Wesley And, for the record, I said it “might be” above freezing. Not that it was even close, but I at least didn’t PROMISE anything!

    9 hours ago ·

  • Laurie Swenson Some meteorologist you are.

    7 hours ago ·

  • Bethany Wesley Maybe I should say it will be -27 and sleety tomorrow … this way when it is positive 3 and “breezy” we will feel blessed?! :)

    7 hours ago ·

I can’t say the photos were very pretty today. The snow is dirty and the trees are bare. Our best photo is the puzzler. Isn’t that sad? :)

Have a great week! We’re a fourth of the way through February!!!!! (And I’m five minutes from midnight Monday night, so I can still technically say today!)

Diving back in!

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Or should I say, trudging back in?

After about three weeks (maybe four?) of taking a break due to too-icy walkways, Laurie and I did decide to get outside and do some walking this afternoon.

The temperature actually was at or slightly above freezing, so it was a relatively pleasant February day. My pregnant stomach keeps getting larger. So I was glad to be able to put on a few layers of tops and not have to try to stretch a too-small winter coat over myself.

We walked through town, taking Minnesota Avenue all the way down past J.W. Smith until just about it hit Bemidji Avenue/Paul Bunyan Drive.

Then, to avoid the busy roadway, we thought we would be smart and cut through the parking lot of the stone building (what is that anyway? bus garage?), except, of course, we ended up at a big ol’ snowdrift dead end.

This was the view to the left:

And this was the view to the right:

So we had a choice – climb and hop a snow wall and trudge through the vacant old high school property (sounds easy, huh?) or head directly left and cut across a half-block to reach the sidewalk along Bemidji Avenue.

We chose Option B.

And, boy, are we glad. The picture at the top of this post shows Laurie about knee-high in show. I had just made it out.

It was not super duper easy.

But we survived, as always.

We got warm. Until we turned along 15th Street to head north (right? I’m terrible at directions…) and the wind was directly in our face. I thought it kind of felt good.

Anyhow, we walked today. Yay us. I hope we keep it up more often. (But any lack of walking is due to my wimpiness, not Laurie’s.)

More so, I hope the temperatures stay rather nice and high (ish) for the next few weeks.

That would be nice.