Colder than Cold

I don't think you ever realize what it's like to be cold, until you're stuck in it, with no way to warm your frozen fingers. When I was working as a Geologist taking water samples in Northeast New Jersey, there were a few February days that made me re-evaluate my sense of cold. Fortunately I had that experience to lean on when I woke up Sunday morning. Nothing could ever be as bad as the winter at Earle.

We fell asleep to rain and wind, and the temps when we rose were easily in the mid-30's. No fire. Wet wood. What do you do? Try anyway. I rummaged around the area and somehow found some kindling and a few bone-dry pine branches which Jamie used with fire-starter to get us rolling. Once the fire was going, we warmed our hands and began cooking up some oatmeal.



Shortly after breakfast, the sun popped up and started warming the lake, and I snapped a few shots of our babbling friend.





Josh had a BBQ, with his parents and some friends, planned for 3pm, so after my short photo expedition, we quickly packed up camp and hit the trail out, but not after our watch-bird showed up for a final goodbye.

A large bald eagle claimed residence on Heather Lake, and I had seen him the day we arrived. Just as we were strapping on the packs, he flew over the site and perched on a nearby pine. I really needed the tripod to get the shot I wanted, but that was left behind during the initial packing to conserve weight. As I was snapping away, he dropped down and flew across the lake, and I managed to get a few decent shots.