Within the past two weeks we received a 51 cm snowfall, followed within a couple of days by a thaw, a number of significant rainfalls, and a few arctic freezes thrown into the mix. We no longer know what to expect with our weather and what outdoor activity would be pleasurable, or even possible. Today, on March 1st, I was pleased that there’d been a recent light snowfall that allowed me to feel that snowshoeing would be worth the effort, rather than just hiking in my boots with Yaktraks: snowshoes allow me greater access off trail when I’m doing photos.
Today Kody and I went into the Carman Lake area (not far from Wakefield) and snow shoed over to Brown’s Lake and onto Carman Lake. I always love taking this trail because of the steep ridges and cliffs along the trail as you pass through what is referred to as “The Notch” and, because of all the exposed rock outcroppings. Today I could see all the indicators of the weird weather we’ve been subjected to lately: sizeable tree branches strewn across the trail that required removal for passage, low lying melt pools recently frozen capturing leaves in the clear ice, leaves blown into and covering the trail, glazy ice covering the entire snow surface, and, these icicles.
My eye was caught by these icicles up fairly high on the steep sides of The Notch and flowing gracefully over the rock face. A result of the melting thaw and the rain and frozen into this beautiful linear pattern, they were quite a contrast to all that was surrounding them. To me, they seemed to capture the essence of all the weather extremes we’ve recently experienced, and especially so as today was the calm before yet another winter storm predicted to bring us 20-30 cm of snowfall tonight. If the prediction is correct, tomorrow will bring another transformation to these steep sides of The Notch. While being outdoors like this brings me closer to the rhythms of nature, I find myself more often lately being directly confronted by the sad reality of our changing weather patterns due to climate change and feeling quite sad and powerless to do anything about it.
