A Bloy and his Blog

It was a great day for a hike yesterday, so I did a little exploring and headed to New Glarus Woods State Park.

read the rest of: November hike

Despite the threat of rain, I decided to do some exploring today and visit a park I’ve never been to before, Yellowstone Lake State Park.

read the rest of: Yellowstone Lake State Park

Today (where I live) the sun was shining and the temperature was in the low 60’s. I was lucky enough to have the day off and I got to thinking… this could be the last gasp of Indian Summer. I did have chores to do around the house, but they could wait. I decided to take a drive out to Governor Dodge State Park, which is about 40 miles west of my house.

read the rest of: Indian Summer or The road to Winter

It was such a beautiful day today, I decided to head out with my camera and find some signs of Autumn.

read the rest of: Looking for Autumn

With a fresh blanket of snow on the ground and the sun shining, I thought it was a good day for a hike. So, I found the box my snowshoes were in (yes, I still have boxes to unpack) and headed over to Elver Park. The largest park in the city of Madison, Elver Park is only about two-thirds of a mile from my house and one of the reasons I chose to live where I do. While the wind was a little brisk today and the park full of sledders and cross country skiers, it was great being in the outdoors and hiking through nature again. Something I haven’t done for many months. There was even some solace to be found: watching the snow sparkle in the sun as the wind blew it off the pine tress I was hiking through.

When the wind on my face told me it was time to head home, I reluctantly did so, but not without feeling the charge of energy I get from being in the outdoors.

I’ve come to realize that being outside in nature is very important for me and my psyche. This fact really becomes apparent to me in the middle of winter (when I’m not outside as much as I am in warmer weather).

Thanks to a nice blanket of snow that fell over the past few days, I was able to strap on my snowshoes today and hike around the nature center and adjacent park near my house. I wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the winter conditions. There were people cross country skiing, sledding, snow boarding and tobogganing. You might wonder how a person can enjoy the beauty of nature around you with all those people around? That’s the great thing about having snowshoes.

read the rest of: A winter hike

I know I’ve been complaining about the lack of winter weather here in Wisconsin, but I must admit today was a gorgeous day. We had mostly sunny skies and a high temperature of 55 degrees (that’s 27 degrees above normal)! In the afternoon I decided to spend some time out in nature and went hiking at a local nature preserve. Apparently I wasn’t the only one itching to get outside because there were quite a few other people with the same idea. Luckily the Schlitz Audubon Center is a pretty big place with lots of hiking trails. It was a little muddy, but great to be out hiking through the woods and along the shore of Lake Michigan. Now if I could only go back there with my snowshoes…