Saturday Stroll

This is my third "real winter," and I've tried to be better about getting out and enjoying some of the benefits of sub-freezing temperatures.  Yesterday Daniel and I decided to take advantage of the relatively warm, non-windy weather and walk across Lake Mendota.  After a brief discussion, we elected not to walk all the way across the lake- I think it's about 5 miles in diameter at the widest point and presented the problem of how exactly we would get home.  Instead we cut across Mendota Bay and hiked from Picnic Point to the Union Terrace.


View Untitled in a larger map


Here's a few pictures from about the half way point.

The capitol and isthmus part of the city:

Back toward the west side of campus where we'd come from:

The far side of the lake that we elected not to walk to:

Me + capitol building:

Walking across the lake was actually kind of hard because there was about six inches of snow we had to wade through.  It was not very slippery- more like walking through really loose sand.

Our walk allowed us to get up close and personal with some of the crazy ice fishing culture.

This is either a trap or just a warning ice fishing hole plug:

And in case you were worried about us falling through, there were ATVs driving around out there, and this is the kind of heavy equipment the fishermen were using to make their fishing holes:

The union from the water side:

It was great to get out in the afternoon just to be outside.  It feels like forever since I'd done that.  I've also gotten in three outside runs in the past three days.  Sadly we are forecast for more snow and cold the rest of the week (low of -8 on Wednesday- boo!).  Gotta get the vitamin D while I can!

Hope you are having a good weekend, too.  I *think* we have the comment situation fixed.  Fingers crossed.