Baby, It's Cold Outside

It has been cold here the last week or two. The temps have been in the low 20'sF/-6C and below but nothing like the town of Craig where it got down to -39F/-39.4C last night. Now that is cold. We have been cold enough for me to do something stupid without even knowing it though.

My husband and I take our dogs for walks along the river no matter what the weather is almost everyday of the year. At this time of year we are always the only ones down there and we have cut a nice 12-inch wide trail into the snow. We have walked on that trail enough times to pack the snow tightly and drop the trail about eight inches below the surrounding snow. This has given us a nice surface to walk on.

Yesterday we were on trail with the dogs when I noticed Duke off the trail and on point in a clump of reeds. When my husband noticed Duke he walked over to see what Duke had found. I decided to follow him and stumbled my way through tall grass, deep snow, and fallen bushes. Some of the stumbling was caused by my walking down a small incline. We were in an area that was protected from the snow and once I reached the bottom of the incline I found the snow only two-inches deep and walking very easy.

When I reach my husband and Duke I looked around in confusion not recognizing just were we were. I didn't think I had ever been at this spot before and I wondered why. Then I saw the beaver dam. I looked around again and realized we were standing on the beaver pond. What I mistook as a weather protected area was the river. That small incline had been the river bank and we had just walked out on the ice to a group of reeds that normally would be growing in the middle of the river near the beaver dam. I was afraid to move, just in case the ice wasn't thick enough to support us, but noticed deer tracks in the snow and decide that if the ice was thick enough to support the weight of four or five deer crossing on it then it was thick enough to support us.

It's funny how a different view can change how you see a place. I have been walking along the river for so many years the impact of its beauty had dimmed. But standing where I now stood, I could again see how beautiful it really was and I could also see how lucky I was to get the opportunity to see it that way once again.