February’s hiking summary will be breaking a rule that I didn’t imagine would be broken: it’ll lack photos. Let’s have a look why.

I admit I was wondering whether to even post one, given the photo shortage. As I mentioned in the monthly summary, February this year turned out to be a bleaker and moodier month than usual. Typically, at least one weekend in the month allows me some nice time in the hills, but the shifts between fresh snow falling, lasting for a day or two, then melting – often with rain in the mix – repeated several times.

Because of this unpredictability, I decided to cancel my plans to go hiking on the first weekend of the month, after some consideration. The second weekend was a bit more successful, even if devoid of snow, but at least it wasn’t as muddy. The hike I went on was a relaxing walk in the lower portions of the hills, which I spent at an easier pace, accompanied by my sister and her friend. We reached a lookout during the hike, but it was so shrouded in fog we could barely see the base from the top.

The best part of that hike was making some rough plans for going hiking together in summer, but time will tell how well we might manage to come up with a date that would fit me, my sister, and her friend with her partner. Even just 4 people can be a challenge at times, when we all have our separate lives.

Midway through the third week, we had an intense snowfall – the last for this winter, it seems. And while that was Wednesday and the hills continued getting snow throughout the weekend, it turned to rain by Saturday in the lowlands, and the quick shifts had left me with light cold that wasn’t fully healed by Saturday, so I decided to stay home again.

The final week of the month had, towards its end, brought some much-needed brightness. After three weeks of having barely enough sunlight, we’ve had a nice share of sunlight. That meant the last day of Febraury was welcoming for a hike, though the club’s plan for that date is typically light. The suburb walk at a brisk pace was refreshing and improved my mood considerably, but being in the suburban woods, I had no views to admire.

However, the forecast for March is much more promising. Even though the mornings are cold, the midday temperature rises up to +15°C, and sunlight is as common as clouds were in February. I’m planning to use it as much as my schedule allows. So, I hope the month will bring out some of the early flowers. By now, snowdrops are sprouting in large patches in the city parks.

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So, that’s it about my February hikes. I hope March will allow me to return to the normal way with photo-rich posts.