You may have noticed some lights atop the hill at Fort Lincoln lately…not every night, as I discovered this weekend, but most nights. They’ve got one of the blockhouses adorned with white Christmas lights, the one that sits on the edge of the hill nearest the river. It’s quite easy to see from Fox Island, actually. I could take a picture of it from there…but that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

Thankfully my friend Ken was willing to take a hike up the hill in the single digit temps and wind to take some pics of this event. We dressed warm, stowed our camera gear in my truck, and made our way south. State Parks pass firmly affixed, we entered a serene and completely abandoned park and began our walk at the bottom of the blockhouse hill.

The hike itself was great, and not even cold, other than the fact that my Airwalks wanted to kill me. They’re great shoes, but apparently use anything other than a dry surface to try to pitch me on my head (or worse). Once we got to the top, however, it was a matter of parking the tripods in the right place and snapping away. I’d get the shot set, activate the shutter, then stuff my hands into my gloves for a few seconds. We got a pretty good variety of photos and were able to have free run of the place until we finally started getting cold. That wind sure does bite!

We walked back down the hill (okay, I skated as much as walked) and hopped into the nice warm truck for a drive past the Schaaf house and back into town. Neither one of us had done our fair share of photography lately, so this was a great time for both friendship and our favorite hobby.

If you’re in the mood for a hike and have five bucks or a state parks pass, hoof it on up to the blockhouse! I recommend swinging through Fox Island recreation area first and looking across the river, just in case their generator ran out of gas. It would be a real bummer to brave the cold for nothing!