It has been a few years since I have been winter camping. I met Matt for an overnight camping at Thomas Burbine Memorial Forest which houses a disc golf course, nature trail, fishing pond and a lean-to. It was a short and easy hike to the lean-to as we dragged our sleds filled with camping gear and firewood. Matt and I had camped here at in March of 2020 at the outbreak of COVID. During that visit the lean-to was plagued by mice – which annoyed Matt as he stayed in the lean-to but were just noises to me as the mice scuffled in the leaves. After a brief inspection we declared the lean-to to be mouse free. Staying in the lean-to made life easier as it provided seating and made packing up in the morning much more convenient. Overnight temperatures were in the high twenties and we received a slight snowfall – just enough to make sliding the sleds out easier and reveal the deer and fox prints made that morning.

The day after this popped in my head:

No hooting owl
Or coyote’s howl
No breeze across my face.

A day’s gone by
I don’t know why
I find I still think of that place.