Not miserable...just perfect

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.

- Roger Miller -

The alarm went off at 5am and, as usual, I woke up...(it's always a good day when I wake up...rolled over and fell out of bed then got ready for my run. It was cold and raining but I was still going to run...until I said fuck it, not today.

I toyed with the idea of getting back into bed but did some stretching and callisthenics training before hitting the rowing machine for a half hour instead. Shower, breakfast and by 6:30am I was sipping my second coffee thinking about what I was going to do on a day such as I was presented with; gloomy, cold and wet.

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I decided I'd find some tracks to hit in my four wheel drive and to hike.

Sometimes cold, rainy weather can be prohibitive however it's just nature doing what it does and I'm generally not afraid of getting out there in weather like this; I have the right gear so why not right? I packed some food and my JetBoil, so I could brew up some coffee out there, and hit the road with the intention of finding somewhere to hike, even should that mean walking in the rain.

It wasn't long before I was off the blacktop and onto dirt roads. In the image above you can see me stopped at a fork; should I go left to the more established track or right to the narrower and rougher track that led around and upwards to the top of the mountain, is what I was thinking. If you think I took the smoother road, you're bonkers.

I turned Big Dog, my trusty four wheel drive, to the right and headed up in low range to see what I could see despite the low cloud and rain.

I couldn't see much as the image above shows. This was about the only open place where a photo was possible as the low cloud was a little more distant; the slight breeze pushing through the valley was keeping it free of cloud although vision was still quite limited. I jumped back in the car and pushed on higher up and the cloud thickened once more to leave almost no vision.

At the top, I pulled over and, saw nothing once again; I'd say vision was limited to about twenty five metres and beyond that all I saw was the ghostly outlines of the trees shrouded by the fog, or nothing at all. It was quiet too, sound works differently in conditions like this, although I could hear raindrops in puddles, and pitter-pattering on the tree-leaves. I pulled my raincoat on, flipped the hood up and moved off on foot along a narrow path that went to the very top of the peak.

Along the way the track dipped down through gullies as it worked it's way around the mountain side, ever upwards. It was as I traversed one such gully, where I came across a group of kangaroos grazing. More than ten of them would permit me to call them a troop or court, generally accepted names for that number or more, but there were less than that so group works better.

They didn't seem to mind me being there although I was around fifty metres away so not too close. They seemed quite comfortable though, they obviously haven't been shot at lately or they would have been more skittish with a human around. I snapped a photo and moved on, they were happy to crop grass and ignore me. How many can you see in the image above? There might be a massive prize for the first person to get it right...or maybe not.

I hiked for almost three hours all up, a return hike back to my four wheel drive. Mostly I saw nothing as the higher I got the more dense the cloud, but it was a nice hike: Crisp, fresh air, lush undergrowth squelching beneath my boots, and no one else around. It would have been nice to have some views at the top but that's ok, nature doesn't do what humans want her to do and though many would say the day was miserable, I say it was perfect despite the weather.

Just as I was leaving, the clouds began to lift a little and rather than go home I made another stop to check out an area I often go to as I wanted to see how wet it was. It's pictured above and as you can see the weather had cleared well, but it was very wet underfoot. It was too late in the day for another hike so I snapped this shot and left...I may have driven around a little in those very wet conditions for some fun before I left though - Big Dog has an insatiable appetite for off-roading, like his owner. (If you think I didn't, you're bonkers.)

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Do you ever walk in the rain, or less than ideal conditions, by choice? I love doing it as there's never anyone else around and it feels primal to me, like I'm the only person in a world ten million years ago. Tell me about your walking in the rain stories or if you have been caught unawares by the weather...did it ruin your day or did you embrace it? Feel free to comment below.