It's Cold!

A winter cold snap has descended, and it's cold walking the trails, just plain cold! Winter mitts, scarves and even long john weather.

It's cold enough that almost all the streams have a frozen skin of thin ice on them -except where there's a corner in the stream channel, or a bit of stronger current. Not enough ice to step on of course; even a lightweight dog would break through the ice into the black frigid water below. But the ice is enough to collect a thin layer of snowflakes on top, sometimes with a shelf of thin ice a few inches higher along the edge, from a higher water level a few days ago.

I often wonder what the deer do to survive in weather like this. I picture them shivering in the cold, but of course they evolved in this climate, so they must have some mechanism that lets them feel comfortable. Other mammals, like our own dog enjoy the snow, jumping in snowdrifts, and just lying in the snow, but I shiver madly when it gets down to 10 below.

Just walked the loop to the meadow this morning. For some reason the last stream you cross on a board someone's placed there is not frozen; it must have a stronger current than the others. We did see deer tracks along the trail by the north edge of the meadow, but no-one else about in these temperatures.

.... Later .... Temperatures have moderated a little, and we walked all the way down to the main Hanlon Creek Spring to see if it was frozen, but it had no ice at all, even around the edges. Neither did the tiny southernmost tributary, which actually had bright green leaves of watercress still growing in it - while the temperature is nearly 10 below!