There’s definitely something about the extremes I’m adapting to here in West Virginia.
The first was the summer, when it was the humidity that sucked the energy out of one’s body; now it is the deep cold.
When I first came to West Virginia almost a year ago, that trip was so cold. It actually shocked me how cold it was at night. I was prepared for the temperate winter of Western Washington State, on the Salish Sea. Wearing a thick all-wool sweater and scarf. And was I always cold? Yes.
We flew back west, and I marked that as a “fluke” somewhere in my mind.
We arrived in early spring, where the weather was like back in Washington. I got a few weeks before the heat started.
This past summer, I learned to function in the heat and humidity, to keep going. And by the end of summer, I was back outside.
I enjoyed what passed as late summer and early fall.
My oldest and I got out and did hikes, tried out recipes, and products. Almost back to normal.
Then the cold came.
And I realized…I was not acclimatized to it.
In the PNW, we would get “cold” temps for a week at max, then the cold pattern would get blown out by a warm Pineapple Express. It rarely fell below freezing, as it was also seldom above 75° in summer.
This morning it was 24° most of the day, till it finally cracked 32° for a few hours. It will get cold once the sun sets in an hour. It was snowing this morning, the arid snow that comes with those temperatures, as the sun rose.
I thought about it and realized we haven’t had a night above freezing in quite some time. Welp. Looked at the forecast, and this is to be my life for the foreseeable future.
I’ll get used to the cold. Because if I don’t, I won’t get out to hike.
Probably about as soon as spring starts poking its head up in April. Right?
Just a lot to learn. An entire year of acclimatizing.
And someday this will be my normal. that I am used to.
But for now, I might need an actual jacket to hike in.
~Sarah