Steve’s Journal #21-05. A very Frozen Walk.

Hi everyone, so nice to see you back again as we take another look at my journal entries. Since we are experiencing some cold weather I thought maybe a cold weather adventure would be good. Let’s see what might be awaiting us today…

Well, here it is, January 2nd, the sky is a most brilliant blue today, and the sun is glistening off that pure white snow. It is -50F (-58C) this morning and I checked with my brother to see if he wanted to go for a walk. It took a bit, but I managed to convince him it would be a great adventure. We got together and we were dressed as warmly as we could be. There was barely a foot of snow (30cm) on the ground, so walking was easy enough. We kind of planned out a route to follow, and we actually told someone what we were doing and where we would be. So off we go heading slightly uphill across the buried granite rock with beautiful, tall pines all around us.

One good thing, there was absolutely no wind that day, so it took a little while for those freezing temps to start penetrating through our clothes. We came to a hill where my brother thought we should turn around and head back. But it wasn’t hard going down this hill and it would be easier coming back up I assured him. He looked at me like I was crazy. How strange. Anyway, down we went and at the bottom of this hill the trees changed from pine to poplar, very tall and straight. We continued walking along and came to a large beaver pond. Hmm, we could walk around it, but that would be a lot of extra walking, and we were getting cold by this time.

It’s so cold the ice on that beaver pond should be quite thick now, so we both agreed that crossing the pond would be the best way to go. I will insert this here: never cross a beaver pond even if you think the ice is thick. It’s a dangerous thing to do. The ice is never good on a beaver pond! There are air pockets which keep the ice from forming thick and solid, so they break easy at those points. Also the beavers swimming around going after food stored underwater can keep the ice from forming solidly. And never go close to their lodge (house). Anyway, off we went across the pond. We heard some cracking, but nothing major. But we stopped. Should we keep going, or turn around and go back? We decided to keep going. It was only two more steps that we took and the ice gave way! It’s amazing how much you can think of in such a short time.

Like realizing we are about to become completely soaked, it’s -50F, we are about 3/4 of a mile from heat. We would be frozen before we got back. Anyway, down we went. That had to be one of the most weird feelings I have ever experienced. We went straight down with a thud onto the bottom of the pond which was about 4 feet deep (120cm) at that spot. We just stood there for a moment. Then we realized there was no water. I got down and looked under the ice, no water anywhere under there. Just ice floating in the air. Apparently the pond had been drained and the beavers trapped just after it froze over. So the ice remained in place, until we came along. We continued on our walk and made it back, we were only gone about 2 hours, and we were very cold by that time. But it was a beautiful walk, and quite an experience.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little entry from my journal today. Please join me again next week and until then, have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin. (pictures are not from that walk)

©2021 Steve McLeod.