Arkansas Sportsman

Cold weather matter of perception

I like really cold weather more than I once did.

Or maybe I like it as well as I once did.

Winter used to be my time. I loved the world at rest, or at least restful was my perception of it. For birds, rabbits, squirrels and other creatures, there is no rest in winter. It's a day-to-day struggle to find enough to food to eat to generate enough warmth to stay alive.

The woods seem quiet in winter, but if you listen, you'll hear the low hum of subtle urgency. Nuthatches, titmice, woodpeckers and wrens forage quietly lest they attract the attention of something higher in the food chain. I wonder sometimes if survival is more challenging for colorful birds like cardinals and, to a lesser extent, blue jays that stand out among the drab curtain of winter. If that's the case, then I appreciate them even more because they are about the only living color in the winterscape.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the temperature at my little corner of Hot Spring County was 6 degrees, with a projected high of 32. It will get progressively warmer through the weekend, and then it will get cold again, but really, it's no imposition for most of us. If you hunt or fish, you'll be out in the cold for a few hours before you climb into a heated truck cabin to drive to your heated home. Many of you work in heated spaces. You shop in heated stores and eat in heated restaurants.

While you're outside, high-tech fabrics and base layers keep you toasty and dry.

The last few weeks remind me of the winter of 1987-88, which was brutally cold. I remember every day of it because I lived every day of it outside while backpacking with my wife from Arkansas to Maine. We spent that entire winter walking across southern Missouri, southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. I specifically remember a long stretch in southern Illinois when the temperature hovered around zero. Every day brought ice or snow, and we spent that entire time camping under a pavilion at Giant City State Park at Makanda, Ill.

To ensure that we had water for drinking and cooking, we had to sleep with aluminum canteens and water bottles in our sleeping bags to keep them from freezing. When we crossed streams, we pulled up our pant legs and removed our footwear.

To keep healthy, we stayed in our tent when it rained, and it rained a lot. It took us 28 days to walk across the narrow southern tip of Illinois. We actually walked only seven days.

The daily routine was this. I rose early and jammed my feet into frozen boots that were as stiff and hard as concrete. Once I got a fire roaring, Miss Laura rose and prepared breakfast. We washed our dishes, packed our gear, erased evidence of the camp and walked all day, often through snow and ice.

I vividly recall a time we were stranded by a heavy snow on the Appalachian Trail, at Walnut Mountain in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest. I chased a bunch of ruffed grouse across a mountainside trying to shoot one with a pistol.

That day started warm and muggy. As Laura and I ascended a mountain out of the Pigeon River Valley, she announced that winter was over and cut the legs off her bluejeans and converted them to shorts.

Watching a dark cloud bank approaching in the distance, I warned against this. Within two hours the mountain was shrouded in cold mist. Snow started falling before sunset. Fortunately, Laura had another pair of long pants.

Th winter of 1988-89 was just as cold. We spent that year living in an old cabin on some family property in Faulkner County. We had no electricity or running water. Our only heat was an ancient wood stove that was perforated from rust. We stuffed newspapers in the cracks around the doors and windows to reduce the drafts, and we lived off the game we killed. It was a time of great freedom, but I had enough winter those two years to last a lifetime.

Winters have been a lot milder in recent years, and I didn't mind a bit. An idle heating unit is easy on the wallet, and easy on the environment.

I do love my seasons, though, and I must admit that I'm glad for a real winter.

It will make spring turkey season seem a little sweeter.

Sports on 01/18/2018

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