As Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog woke up to make its artificial unintelligence prediction on the arrival of spring, we also came out of hibernation to do our first hike of the year in Carley State Park — one of the smallest state parks in Minnesota. Surprisingly, this was our only second hike in that state park. The first hike was in the late fall of 2015. The temperature was in the mid-20s, but we bundled ourselves up before heading out. We were excited to test our new micro spikes with more aggressive traction than our 9-year-old steel-coil ice cleats. Our 2.5-mile hike took less than 2 hours, looping around the entire state park. However, our aging bodies suffered soreness the next day.
