I planned on visiting Dolly Sods for 4-5 days, but the weather looked too crazy especailly for a muddy bog. So I headed south for by usual plan B - Deam Wilderness in southern IN. I gotta say, I am finally bored of this place. I think I've seen every square inch including most of the time bushwhacking. Still, the weather was completely dry, sunny and cool. 19° the first night, then nice gradual warming with highs in the 30s and 40s.
Lunch break at the ruins.
I wasn't going to make it until Monday here since I wore it out, like I already mentioned. So I headed north which was plan C or D originally to get into some early snow...lots of snow for early February.
That brought me to Fife Lake, MI featuring part of the NCT and Fife Lake Loop. The lake effect snow always impresses me with its random, pinpoint accuracy, but this time was pretty amazing. No snow to 10"+ within a few minutes of driving. Luckily the maps were correct and I hit it just right. I parked off M-186 and headed south. Basically just some wandering for 2 days/nights. Once I saw the forecast for 12"+ more snow on the last day, I decided to head out early on my last morning...real early. Plus I wanted to get my yard cleaned up before the snow hit here. I got back to my Jeep with about 3" of fresh snow so I obviously didn't get stuck. But the 3:45 drive home was intense...taking almost 5 hours. I passed wrecks everywhere down US127 and I69 up until about 30 minutes from home. That's pretty much every winter trip to MI, though.
"Nice" and "swamp" usually don't belong in the same sentence...but...nice swamp!
Anywhere from 6-12" while hiking.
Crazy early hike out in the snow.
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