In which we finally get out of the driveway and go for a ride

The roads are mostly fine, but...

...the parking lots--including parts of the parking strip at our house, and the parking lots at the trailheads--are still awful. 

GAHHHHHHH!

We went anyway

It was cold.

Should've worn my warmer gloves

The ground was frozen, slushy, or slimy.

For some reason, I looked at my tall boots and then put on my short boots.

In the spots where the sn*w has melted, a cold wind whistled around the edges of my helmet.

I totally forgot to grab my scarf.

Many of the trails are blocked by fallen trees and branches.

I brought the loppers.  Should have brought the saw.

It was glorious.

Both of us were so glad to be out!

Fee snorted and stopped at several tall piles of sn*w along the road away from the trailhead, but once we got on the single-track she put her ears up and her head down and off we went as if she'd been worked steadily for the last month, instead of having just one bareback-for-a-few-minutes ride in the pasture out of the entire month so far.

When we got back to the trailhead, I sussed the parking lot and wasn't happy:  sn*w and icy bits everywhere, not a clear single-track to follow up the hill to the road.  Grrr.   I put the Reindeer into 4x4 and off we went, just as if there was nice sand-and-gravel underfoot instead of that white junk.

(If I'd been driving the dastardly blue Ford, we'd probably still be stuck there.)

We ain't elegant, y'all.  But we can get out there, and get home.

And that is Good.