2.1.2025 Todays Adventure

Good morning, folks,

I am going to head out today to see if I can catch some water falls at peak flow. Now they are most likely muddy, but I hope the creek is wadable. Well, we will see. I am back packing my waders in and changing out in the field. The footing is going to be a mess because of all the snow melting and rain.

I was out here about a month ago and I could hear the water fall or falls. We will see how this works out.  The Grand River right now is approximately up two feet from where she was last night.

Her tertiary streams are running hard, but they should be wadable. The snow melt will still be fully affected. The rain has stopped and that will help.

These waterfalls I am looking for are always there, but you need a runoff event to show them in full glory.

I am going to make breakfast here shortly and head out.

I just popped my head out of the house, and everything was frozen. Now I will need to delay my departure from the house.

My footing while traversing the slopes will be tougher than I would have anticipated with this overnight freeze fest.

Stay tuned folks,

Sonder

 

I have returned from the hike. My goal was to find the creek that is in the park. With all the rain we had received over the past few days I was hopeful it would allow for the ice to push downstream.

I hiked into the park with my 120-liter Sealine backpack loaded. I had my waders, boots, wading belt, and camera equipment.

The morning temperatures were in the 20’s. I could hear the water moving in the creek, but it still had a lot of ice in it.  I looked at the falls on my way down and it was heavy with ice.  All the work I would have needed to do to make it to the falls would have been epic.

I also needed to worry about safety. Being down in a small ravine there would have been no escape if the water began to rise and all the debris came with it.  I would be caught in a littoral human washing machine.

The more I thought about it the worse my thoughts became lol so needless to say I chose to hump my pack and me along the shoreline of the Grand River.

As I ventured into the swampy abyss of the lowlands, I realized the beavers had been very busy. They had created huge beaver ponds.

Some of the depths I measure with my walking sticks being over 3 feet deep.  Beavers always surprise me with their engineering feats.

On a side note, I don’t know what the name of the thorn ridden plants I always see in these types of areas, but they were so thick you needed a flame thrower. Side note I will not be here in the summer because the thorns would be so bad so bad!

It was a short hike and making it through the field snow with a heavy pack it was time it call it a day.

 

I hope you enjoy the art work!

Sonder