Sunday February 11, 2007 was another cold winter day in metro-Detroit.  Even though it was cold it was clear and we were looking for a reason to be outside.  Still not the best weather for bike riding so we decided to do another winter hike.  The temperature was approximately 13 F when we started around 10:30 am.  Just to make it even a little cooler there was a decent wind swirling around the park.  

Joining me this day were Bob and Pete.  I can’t remember what Steve was up to, but for some reason he couldn’t participate.  This weekend we went back out to Stoney Creek to do the lap around the lake.  At first I was a little concerned that I hadn’t dressed warm enough, I was cold when we started.  Usually I warm up to a comfortable level once we have been moving at a decent pace for about 15 minutes.  After this initial stretch I did warm up and if I had another layer I probably would have been too warm. 

Since we have been hiking out at Stoney Creek somewhat often we have started to recognize some of the regulars.  There is an elderly man and woman we seem to see every time we are out there walking.  What is interesting about this couple is the man is tall and thin and has a distinctive gait about his walk.  He never wears a hat and he always has on just a thin jacket.  I don’t know how he doesn’t freeze.  He also wears blue jeans which aren’t the best at breaking the cold wind.  Once when we were passing by we mentioned how cold it was that day and he commented that it sure wouldn’t be this cold in Florida.  He made another comment about Florida another time, making us wonder if maybe he was visiting from Florida.  He certainly didn’t dress like someone from a warm climate.  The woman he walks with is dressed more bundled up like most others out walking in the cold winter.  Must be this guy was thinking about Florida the whole time he was walking and in his mind he was walking in warm Florida weather and not cold Michigan weather.  Maybe that is how he stayed warm, by having warm thoughts. 

The more I think about this subject of convincing yourself that it isn’t cold outside brings to mind another hike we did about a year ago.  You may even remember this story, it is about a hike we were doing one winter day with snow on the ground.  The sun was out and Pete decided to take off all his top layers to get some sun.  We were out at Bloomer and Pete was hiking topless.  Here is the link to that old story if you want to reminisce.  I kept asking Pete that day if he was cold without a shirt, and Pete kept telling me he was plenty warm.  I think he convinced himself it just wasn’t that cold out that day. 

Back to February 11, 2007.  We had only been walking for a few minutes when Bob tried to get me and Pete to walk faster.  Pete was complaining that his hernia was bothering him a little and didn’t want to go any faster or he might have trouble finishing the whole 6.2 miles around the lake.  Bob asked if we minded him jogging ahead.  We told him no, go ahead we didn’t mind.  Bob took off at a nice jogging pace and soon he was out of our sight as he made his way around the path bend up ahead.  We figured at some point Bob would turn around and jog back to us to finish the hike together.  Pete and I kept walking and walking and Bob never did return.  We also thought we might find him sitting on a bench relaxing at some point further along.  But, this never happened either.  Finally we figured we would just meet him back at the car in the parking lot at the end where we started. 

With out a half mile to go before we got back to the parking lot I noticed a van that looked very similar to Bob’s come slowly driving up toward us on the road that parallels the path we were hiking.  It not only looked like Bob’s van it was Bob’s van.  Bob pulled up on the shoulder and asked if we wanted to hop in or finish the full loop.  We had gone plenty far and we crossed the shallow snow covered grass area toward the van.  We finished our hike right there after about 5.5 miles.  Once in the van we were heading out of the park looking for a place for lunch. 

Since Stoney Creek Roadhouse is close and right on the way home we decided to stop there for lunch.  It just came to me that Steve was traveling this day for a work trip to Mexico, and that is the reason he couldn’t join us this day.  I certainly enjoy Steve’s company on our outings, but I must admit it is a little quieter without Steve.  Another thing we don’t have due to the lack of Steve is a bunch of pictures to share, matter of fact we don’t have any pictures from this hike.  Even though it is fun sharing pictures it is extra work and with how busy I have been lately I actually don’t mind not having to do all the extra work to create and post the picture page.  We had a nice lunch at the Roadhouse.  It was near empty when we arrived.  We had the whole place to ourselves for the first part of our lunch.  I think we got there right when they opened.   

Following are the statistics from this hike, Bob went the full 6.2 miles and Pete and I did about 5.5 miles.   
David Lindquist