Arctic Blast Hits Niagara Falls area

 Had a pretty good week.  Was able to work out all seven days.  Five of the days walking, and two days on an exercise bike while I was on the road overnight for work.  A week ago on Saturday the temperatures hit 5C and I spoke about all of the mud on the trails.  This weekend we got blasted with some arctic air from the North.  Yesterday six of us started at a place called Dain City which is just south of Welland and hiked along the Welland Canal to the middle of the town of Port Colborne, and then back again.  The hike to Port Colborne was not too bad as the wind was on our backs, but we had to walk face first into the headwind all of the way back.  I had so much ice form on my face that it actually became hard to see.  The temperature was -18C with windchill.  The hike lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes and covered about 16 kms.  Today (Sunday), it was warmer – only a windchill of -13C.  I skipped my first Sunday hike with the club since I joined in September choosing instead to walk locally.  I went 7 kms and wore my backpack for some practice.  I find that I walk a lot slower when I have it on.  The first three kms were very cold, but after that, I had the wind on my back.  The pictures are from Saturday's hike.