hello guys welcome back heading on a little solo hike today by myself my husband is in
north dakota for work for a couple of nights and by the time you see this he'll be back
home been at home working all day feeling really cooped up and just want to like go
walk like i miss going outside and walking because it gets dark so early and like the evenings are
you know it's dark by five and it's already a little bit after three so i need to get my butt
in gear but it is a beautiful sunny blue sky day out there and i want to go take advantage
it's gonna be a little chilly i think it's only like 32 degrees but i'm just gonna roll with it
a little bit of wind i'm like i don't care i'm gonna just put on all the layers get dressed up
and go for a little winter hike just to get my body moving all right you guys where's my tried
and true columbia coat wearers i've had this coat for over 12 years and for some reason it's
still like one of my favorite coats because it's like long and thick and has all these
layers that can be detached i do have an under armour jacket that does it but i don't know
there's something about these classic columbia coats that are just they're still the best
all right we're ready to put this little neck warmer i don't really know what these are called
just to kind of help with when blackish as it is a little windy so
i have this to kind of keep my face warm and
got my mittens so let's go on a little winter hike
so just noticing now um it's only 14 degrees outside
the WeatherBug app on my phone was definitely wrong it is not 32 degrees out so a little bit
chillier than i expected but you know what i'm gonna roll with it we're gonna we're gonna do this
all right just got here oh my gosh it's so pretty with the sun it's kind of like setting which is
like my favorite time you guys you know i'm all about the sunset so i am at crane meadows nature
reserve which is located kind of right between little falls and royalton minnesota so if you
guys are in this area definitely recommend they have some really nice walking trails we come here
so many times a year um we have been here in the winter this is our second time now that we've been
out here this winter hiking and so excited to get on the trail so there's not too much snow yet it's
pretty pretty minimal at this point so nothing nothing that my boots can't handle here here's a
little info about the crane meadows a wildlife or refuge area there's lots of different trails that
go along this platte river here we have done this whole loop in the summer but now in the
winter time we pretty much just kind of either do this loop and or we might go up this way a little
so before i get on the trail here there is a little platform down here that overlooks
the river which is froze of course but i always like to come down here
so i don't do a lot of solo hiking because most of the time i have my husband friends with me all the
time when we are out and about but yeah sometimes when he's on workshops it's just nice to kind of
get out so when i got here and saw i was all by myself no other people are hiking it wouldn't
really matter if there was or wasn't um i always let my husband know like when i get somewhere and
then as soon as i'm done i text them and let them know i'm done and heading back home just in case
anything were to happen and here i am by myself in wintertime and 14 degrees even though he's in
north dakota right now we could get a hold of someone and let them know where i am
if anything were to happen so yeah but this is a really really
pretty park i'm going to show you some of these trails and the trees right now
so nice nice trails here goes right along the
platte river these are the gnarliest trees ever aren't they they're so weird
and oh my gosh you guys happy 2021 when you are seeing this vlog i totally forgot this will be
my first vlog of 2021. look at that sunset you guys oh i love sunsets anyways i hope you guys
all had a beautiful holiday season christmas new year's celebration we did a little celebration
with our family and some of our friends for both christmas and new year it was so nice
to be able to get together with them we're all very safe all of us are well so hopefully
that continues for the rest of the year with some pretty viewpoints of the river
look at those river views so in the summer it's really really pretty
this whole area on this side is like open meadows so if you're a birder
you guys want to come here we've also seen lots of deer we've seen fox has we've been hiking out here
i don't know about you guys but we haven't been doing much of anything we've been just you know
getting ready for holidays and just chilling at home and it's cold and i hate being cold
and my mood is affected so much when it's cloudy and you spend so many cloudy days too so when
the sun comes out like this it's just beautiful like oh i just tried my hardest to take advantage
it's a monday so even during the week try and take advantage as much as we can before the sun sets
definitely good i have this on definitely needs it
all right you guys so we just made it right here and i'm going to just keep going up and around
back down and then i am going to hike back along the river instead i go through the meadow area
just more tree coverage hopefully blocked from the wind once you get to this other section of
the trails it gets very wooded this is normally where we've seen like fox and deer and stuff is in
this wedded area honestly kind of waiting if i want to keep going on this loop because i
want to watch that sunset and i'm scared if i do this whole loop by the time i get back
to where we were on that first section it will have set i don't know
i think i might turn around yeah i think i'm gonna turn around because i don't want
to miss this outside that's what you call a professional sunset chaser right oh my gosh
wow we got some serious golden hour happening i'm so glad i turned around so i could see this wow
it just lights it up oh it's bright that's my shadow look how low that sun is already
going down so glad i turned around hey guys look at that back just in time
so yeah i just did this little portion it went about halfway here so
what is that about a mile and a quarter round trip is probably what i did but usually we go more
usually we go up into here but that's okay because i would have missed that right there
if i didn't turn around all right so now i'm gonna head back home and time for dinner i'm
still the only one here no one else can so it's kind of nice to have in the park to yourself
and always remember if you're out solo hiking by yourself be sure to let people know especially
when it's 14 degrees you want to be safe and you want to know your limits when you are out hiking
and if you are in central minnesota definitely come check out crane meadows
awesome awesome park great trails beautiful views didn't see any wildlife tonight but they're all
snuggled in and warm they're like who's this crazy lady out here walking time to head home
interesting thing this is my first time vlogging in the winter and i noticed when i got to my car
that my battery was at four percent and before i left it was at like 70
and i was like what the heck i don't think my phone likes cold
because as soon as i got it here in my vehicle and warmed up a little it jumped up to 50 so if
for all those cell phones here um your phone may not like the cold weather so um battery life can
dwindle when it's really cold it looks like so fyi are you guys that is a wrap here on my little solo
winter hike awesome little hike and 14 degrees got to see the sunset and no complaints there wherever
you are this winter i hope you are out enjoying it so stay tuned for future vlogs and if you haven't
already be sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for future videos and also you can
come follow me on instagram for more behind the scenes see you guys later and happy 2021