Minty Fresh - Day 18

  Let's just say the weather forecast was a little off today! It was supposed to clear after a little overight snow. Instead we got one of my personal "favorites," freezing rain. Well, it made the grass look like a big mint gumdrop.

My trailer host for this leg of the journey is Deb, and she took me to the trailhead this morning.

I started hiking in Marshall with a little over an inch of snow. Not enough to bother with, and not very slippery.

But the freezing rain started very quickly. There was a long road walk, but thankfully it didn't have much traffic because the only good footing was in the strip where tires had been. This view of the Kalamazoo River gives a feel for the bleakness of the landscape.

After about 10 am, it was all about the ice.

Fortunately, the roads never got seriously slick. Ice is always beautiful, I'll give it that.

ET's cousin was watching my progress. I think he was wondering what the heck I was doing.

There were a lot of things I would have liked to take pictures of, but my hands were too cold to keep taking the gloves off, and I didn't want the camera to get that wet. See parts of this route in the summer at Softshell Turtle.

I ended up doing 18 miles today. Total so far: 264 miles. My feet and legs feel pretty good. Got a long road walk done that local hikers don't like. If you are going to do a nasty road walk, might as well do it on a nasty day, right?

See Brownie Sets the Pace