Now to preface all this, our weather here for this season (started Dec 27) has been anywhere from nice
 to el sucko big time (For those of you wondering where I am at, I'm about 30 miles due north of Allentown
and 50 due south of Wilkes-Barre.  I did get out for a few hours on New Years Day, it was high 40's
to start, dry and was in the high 50's by the time I decided to pack it in.  Really great day to be out.

Past 10 days we have had ice storms, followed by warmup, downpours, then snow then freeze again.

Today was the first day in close to 2 weeks without any precipitation, however the temps were running in
the low to mid 20's.

Got a little later start than I wanted to, (one of those when the alarm went off deals, the mind said move
and the body said, yeah right..). Headed over to the shop to get my gear, changed into my 18th century
outfit and headed up the Broad Mountain to the State Game land up there.

The main trail in (actually more of a service type road) had all kinds of trees down and was snow
covered with some ice underneath.  I started in, picked my way around the trees blocking the lane.
 It was tomb quiet, even though there were a few other folks out, based on the vehicles in the parking
area and the fresh prints in the snow.

I get about a mile or so in, when I hit a spot where there is big tree down and there is
water running across the lane.

You know the old saying that yer first instincts are usually right.  Well my first thought was to back
track and just head down one of the side trails for a bit.  But then I looked and thought I saw a way
that I could get through without getting the shoes too wet.  Started over and down I went.

Hit a little bit of ice with the heel, nice slow fall, didn't break or bang anything, except I landed in about
3" of water on my right hip.  Shirts, weskit, breeches, legging, glove and the lower part of my shooting
bag were all soaked in an instant.  Grrrrrrrrrrr.

So I headed back out to the truck. Stopped and unloaded Sweet Annie into a stump.  By the time I got
there, everything was frozen stiff (I was making sure that the breeches didn't freeze to my leg).
 So I peeled down a few layers, fortunately the truck was still warm, laid some plastic
down on the seat so I wouldn't soak that as I melted...

Sigh...
 
Everything is drying out here....

Always next year I guess.