In 2016, we began a tradition to backpack Zaleski State Forest on Thanksgiving.
This was only our second year of this new Thanksgiving tradition. During our afternoon hike, we passed 4 day hikers (and a dog) and 1 other backpacker. This gave us hope that we'd have the campsite at Area D to ourselves. This year's high temperature was about 40 degrees and the low was below 30. During our trek I accidentally stepped on a garter snake, which was a surprise (and startle) with the cold temperature. This was my first time encountering a snake while backpacking but am thankful it was only a harmless one. We got to our vacant campsite and set-up our tent; changed out of our damp base layers into dry ones; then, foraged in the forest for firewood. We cut enough wood to burn for the entire evening. After a hot meal, we sat by the fire and enjoyed our surroundings. We heard coyotes howl in the distance after the sun set. Since most of the trees were bare of leaves, we could see the sky was clear. We ventured away from the fire a couple of times to view the starry sky. I've never seen so many stars before. I saw 3 meteors in these short stints into the darkness. I slept well in my mummy sleeping bag, balaclava and hat. Sometime before sunrise, I heard more coyote howls. I woke to the first trail runner that was competing in the day's race through Zaleski, (another annual tradition). A few more runners trickled through while we packed our gear. As we hiked out to the trailhead, we passed about a dozen trail runners of various ages. They were jovial, even the runners attempting 50 miles that day. We left them to their business as we journeyed to cut down our Christmas tree.