Today we took the dog hiking on the Luce Line Trail. We walked about 5 miles on the trail. The greatest obstacle of this undertaking was the temperature. The temperature was zero when we got started. (FYI:Minnesota tends to be cold in the winter) The temperature eventually warmed up to two degrees. The below pic was taken at the conclusion of the hike, and yes that is ice on my head and face.

Monday I spent the day ice fishing on Lake Minnetonka. It was cold and windy but we spent most of our time inside our ice house. We caught our limit of croppies today and have a fish fry planned for tomorrow. The snow has started to fall here, 6 inches is forecast for the overnight. The snow just seems to pile up around here. I’m sure we will get back out on the lake later in the week.

I was back on the trail Saturday. We started at West Virginia Route 7 and moved North down through the valley, crossing the Shenandoah River, through Harper’s Ferry, and crossing the Potomac River into Maryland. We also hiked 3 miles down the C&O Canal. We finished section 1 of West Virginia and Section 7 of Maryland. We did 9.6 miles today in 3 hours 12 minutes. Re will resume the trail after New Year’s when the weather is expected to be much colder.

Saturday we continued our trek North on the Appalachian Trail. As always we started where we left off, Virginia Route 7. Today’s hike was 13.5 miles through a very rugged section of the trail. Most of this section is along the ridge separating the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia from Virginia. The weather was clear and cool and provided great views of these mountains. Next week we arrive in Harper’s Ferry, WV.