We’re into our first cold snap of the winter, and suddenly, ice is everywhere. Aly went out yesterday morning armed with an ice ax, eyes protected by goggles, to break the ice in the rain barrels. She was concerned about the buckets bursting, but mainly, she loves breaking ice. She hacked holes in the covering sheet of ice in each barrel to make sure the freezing didn’t rupture the buckets.
Aly the ice breaker. Sorry it's fuzzy. She doesn't like having her picture taken, so I had to snap it quick (Photo: Mark Zeiger).
When we hiked out, we decided to go early, forgetting that we needed to wait for the tide to fall. When we arrived at the bay, the water was too high to cross, so we canoed. On the way across, we encountered ice floes, some of them several inches thick already! On the trail, many of the seeps on the trail had turned to ice. Coming home on a lower tide, the upper beach was well coated with ice, treacherously slick. If this keeps up, we’ll be wearing ice grippers on the hike before long.