I woke up a little before 5:00 am this morning & had a couple cups of coffee and browsed on the internet while my wife & son were getting ready for work. A while after they were gone for the day, I got the urge to go for another "truly naked" walk in the woods.
I grabbed my camera & went out the back door with nothing on but my camera strap. It was kind of a foggy morning, so I figured that would work in my favor for getting across the road without being seen. Going down thru the woods to the power line, I headed for the road. After checking to make sure no one was out & around to see me and listening to make sure there was no vehicle traffic coming, i crossed the road and quickly went down the bank on the other side & out of sight from traffic.
Now, i could relax & enjoy the walk. I hunt this piece of land, so I was hoping to bump into some wildlife during my hike. There is a place that, sometimes I have my wife drop me off near the other end of the property when I want to hunt back toward home and my goal for this walk was to get there & then back home making a big loop. It was a beautiful morning to do this. The fog lifted quickly & it was cool enough that I didn't get too heated up, but I was very comfortable,even if I stopped for periods of time to enjoy nature.
Well, I made it to the other end without seeing any wildlife other than one grey squirrel. I did see what I think was a couple piles of bear poo. Once there, I wanted to get right up to the road & touch the guard rail before turning back toward home. This road is not very busy & I didn't even see or hear any vehicles while I was near it. I touched the guard rail & back tracked back down the trail I had walked up. a couple hundred yards back, i split off from the trail i came in on & kept heading down the hill.
Toward the bottom of the hill, I turned back the direction of home but wasn't going to go straight there. I worked down along a creek & up to an old log road. There were a couple deer on the log road. I turned out to be a momma & her fawn. Momma disappeared from sight, but the fawn stood on the log road long enough for me to get a few pictures. I was planning to go in the direction of where the deer were anyway, so after getting the pic's, I walked straight toward the fawn. I didn't stick around very long & I just continued along my way.
As late in the day as it was getting, the road I live on had enough traffic that I needed to really be careful getting back across it. I wanted to cross the road a couple hundred yards further up where I would be able to do it more inconspicuously. Crossing there, though would require crossing yet another road to get back home, but that road is far less busy. After crossing the second road, it was an easy walk thru the woods back to my back yard & I was home.
This walk ended up being about 2.5 miles..... & I didn't even take anything along to cover up with. Nothing even for my feet!
That's the longest "truly naked" walk I've done now.
I do have a few observations. First, it's much easier to walk in the woods where the ground is covered with leaves than it is to walk on a dirt/stone road. Next, these kind of walks are best done before the temperature rises enough for the bugs & flies to come out. They were starting to be out by the time I got back home. It was almost 10:30 am when I got back. Finally, once you're in the woods, away from civilization you really get to relax & enjoy God's creations. I think that I enjoyed this walk thru those woods more than any other walk in a very long time..... if not, ever!
One footnote though; My feet do have a few bruised spots. I hope to get them more toughened up in the future.
Edit; My left foot kept getting more & more painful to walk on, so I got checking it & found a piece of thorn about 1/4" long sticking straight in. After I removed it, the pain while walking started to go away pretty quick.