New Year's Hike continued

After trying for a couple of days, the picture uploading is once again cooperating. Following are several more pictures from my hike; not all, but most of them.

Here are several pictures at the Middlefork River. I have canoed this section of the river several times and have waded it, fishing during the summer and fall. Even if it were warm enough, the river was much too high to wade on this day.  For any local folks, this is several hundred yards north of where the Johnsonville bridge was once located. The temperature on January 2 was in the mid twenties with the sun shining. I stopped along the river and just layed on the bank in the sun for a while, before starting back.

This is a shot zoomed in showing an overhanging tree with ice hanging into the water. If you look closely at the first picture or click and enlarge it, you can also see the tree.

The river had apparently been quite a bit higher, as shown by the ice deposited on the bank. Some of the chunks of ice were about 4" thick,

Emma chose a shortcut across the ice. If she could do it; so could I....so I also walked slowly across.

A Sycamore tree on the other bank. These trees with their white bark really show up this time of year.

As mentioned in the prior post, we had heavy snow cover for a couple of weeks prior to my hike. The leaves were all flattened to the ground from the weight of the snow; and were frozen, which made uncommon walking conditions.

This shot is of the ice edge of a very small stream that runs into the river. The ice was very thin and this is showing the water below that has fallen a few inches below the ice and also across the ice surface.

Well, not all of the snow melted! Here is a small patch on the north side of this tree that was in a low lying area and protected from the sun. One of the dogs took great interest in the hollow tree......and it is probably used by some small animal as a den.

Here are couple of shots of where a buck has rubbed small trees, marking his territory.

Looking uphill at a curvy tree. My guess is that when it was a sapling, a larger tree or limb fell into it, forcing it to grow this way.

Looking back downhill at the same tree.........

A carved tree with several initials carved, expressing true love; and a commentary that you may not be able to read that says "Rex is a dog."

It was nice winter day and just about the perfect temperature for a walk. I look forward to getting out there again; and a bit of snow would make it even better.