Happy Birthday?

The roughfisher celebrates another birthday today. I'm old enough to be able feel the aches and pains associated with getting up in the morning that I didn't notice in my 20's, even after a bout of socially fueled binge drinking, but still young enough where I don't need to hear the snap of the glove during a physical examination. The present waiting for me when I awoke this morning? Over 6" of fresh snow.

The region has officially had the snowiest December on record, logging over 30" of snow this month. Typically the our region will average between 40-45" inches of snow for the season. That may not seem like much to you mountain folks, but you also need to remember that the snow here doesn't melt. With an annual mean temp of 39.7°F in Detroit Lakes, the average January high temp is 15.8°F and the average low temp -6.3°F. That is an average of 180 days of the year below 32°F, and 58 days below 0°F.

Cold. Damn cold.

Who knows what the rest of the winter will bring us, but what I do know, as I was freezing my ass off snow blowing the driveway this afternoon, is that all this snow has made for some excellent snowmobiling conditions. I'll leave you with a few photos from my ride at Maplewood State Park yesterday.






Cheers!

- the roughfisher