Although it’s been relatively warmer the last few days than it was a week ago, the word “relatively” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Temps are up in the 20s from the single digits. I still had to wear several layers to go for my weekend hike in the arboretum, starting with thermal long johns, and I still had to wear snow shoes to get around on a lot of the trails, but it was so very satisfying to get out of the house and tramp around in the woods for a couple hours this morning.

I don’t usually hike through the southern half the arboretum in the summer. The northern half is much prettier when the wildflowers are in bloom, but the southern half has just as many interesting trails weaving this way and that through the thick woods or out across the prairie grass, and when it’s covered in snow it’s just as beautiful as the northern half. And as a bonus, it’s not as crowded as the more popular northern half.