I'd finally resigned myself to the sleet and was pulling out my raincoat when the sleet changed to graupel-type snow. Snow=drier than sleet, so I was happy with that when I hit the trail and even happier when the precipitation stopped after less than 30 minutes.
Winter in Illinois means that everything is brown, and while I'm sure these trails are picturesque in the spring, there's just not much to take pictures of during this season, especially when it's cloudy, but before I hit the trail, I did take a picture of a special snack I had packed for myself.
This is the Big Musubi. I got hooked on Spam Musubi during our vacation in Hawai'i last summer but hadn't yet tried to make it myself. Since I don't own a musubi mold, I had to make do. The closest thing I had was a small loaf pan, so I ended up with Big Musubi, which is about 1.5x longer than a regular musubi. After about 2.5 miles, I was getting a little hungry, but the hike was finally becoming pleasant since the sun had come out, so I wanted to keep moving. Plus, I thought I would enjoy Big Musubi more if I were hungrier, so I pressed on.
At the point of the trail furthest from my car, I crossed a road and dropped down on the opposite side of the ridge I'd been walking parallel to. I immediately realized my pleasant hike was much less pleasant on this side of the ridge since the wind was hitting that side fairly forcefully. The trail on that side also got far less sun, and it was covered in snow much of the time. The windbreaker, gloves, and hat I'd taken off just a quarter mile before suddenly became necessary again, and the cold, shaded, snowy, windy trail was no place to enjoy Big Musubi. I should have grabbed another snack to eat while walking since I hadn't eaten much that morning, but I set my sights on having Big Musubi on top of McAdams Peak, another 1.5 miles on the windy side of the ridge.
By the time I got there, though, the wind had gotten much worse, I was grumpy from walking 5+ miles with no snacks and very little breakfast, and even more grumpy when I realized that I couldn't enjoy Big Musubi at the shelter at the top because there was no way to get out of the wind that whipped around all the corners of the little lookout building at the top of the hill.
You know those weather videos where the weatherperson is yelling over the wind to tell you how windy it is? That's what the top of McAdams peak was like. I snapped a couple of pics and chose a trail to take back to the parking lot.
As soon as I dropped down below the peak, I got out Big Musubi and had my snack as I walked. I had the wrong kind of rice, and it wasn't packed tightly enough, but by that point, it tasted delicious. I spent the next 1/4 mile scarfing it down and trying to block it from the wind.
However, Big Musubi came too late to save me from myself. My original plan was to get down to the visitor center and then head out on a different loop to add a few more miles to my total for the day. However, the wind and lack of snacks had taken away a good part of my gumption. All the trails led back into the wind. Almost before I made a conscious decision, my key was in the ignition and I was getting the heck out of there.
While I didn't put in the miles that I'd planned to, I'm still happy that I got in a few miles on a fairly hilly route with the full pack. Jeff and I visited this park last year, and the heat, hills, and humidity had made me very tired after just 3 miles on that visit. I'll still take chilly temps over heat, but the wind on top of near-freezing temperatures wore me down.
Soon after leaving, I felt that I'd let myself down by not doing as many miles as I'd planned just because of some stupid old wind, but when I looked at the weather when I got home, I could see that sustained winds had been 30 mph with gusts up to 43 mph, putting the wind chill down around 15 degrees. I didn't feel so bad then. I'll definitely go back to this park, though, since it has some of the sustained hills I need for my training.
Post-hike: On the way home, I stopped at the National Great Rivers Museum and the Melvin Price Locks and Dam. My primary impression of the museum is that it was toasty and warm. The area outside by the locks...not so much.
I also briefly thought about stopping at the Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower and climbing the stairs to the top instead of taking the elevator as penance for stopping my hike early, but I decided to save that for another trip as well, maybe when I wouldn't be afraid that I'd be blown from the top of the tower...
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