When The Snow Melts

Okay, back to business today. This is what I've been waiting to show you! I took these photos on a hiking trip, on the day the temperature skyrocketed, and all of our snow melted. A foot of snow on the ground was turned to water in just one day. This was in the morning of that day, and it had only just begun.

The rivers were flooded over in several places. As you can imagine, there was water everywhere. This top photo shows what I had to walk on then. This is from the front of the nature park. The trail is still pavement here. On most of these trails, there was a thick layer of ice. It wasn't easy walking on them.

This ice was really very treacherous to walk on. One wrong step and I'd be laying down instead of walking. You can see the shine on it's surface. On top of the ice is a layer of liquid water to make it even more slippery. It was like this everywhere in the park.

Further down the trail, where there was a little more snow, is where the melting ice was now flowing water. You can see the mist that's rising up. This mist is happening as a reaction of the rapidly melting snow and ice.

Down in that area there is water flowing in small streams that help the ice melt even faster. It's fascinating to see all of this mist floating around. It made it hard to see for any great distance in some areas. Some people may not like that, but it makes things more exciting and mysterious for me.

I've been to this place many times before, but there's always something new to see out here. One day there might be birds flying around, and the next day there might be mist and water everywhere. What more could anyone ask for? Well, maybe a sack of gold, but I know there's none of that out there.

Water is also collecting in any low area, and that also creates even more of this mist. You can see in this photo where the snow is turning rapidly into water, and there is more mist rising off of it. There were very many places like this in the park.

when I took this picture, I was standing on a trail that was a wet sheet of ice. It was threatening to turn into slush. I was walking in water flowing across the path in many places. Some of these areas on the path still had thick snow on them, and I was sinking down into this wet slushy mess.

This really wasn't very easy to walk on, and my legs still hurt from this several days later. Imagine taking a step onto four inches of snow. Halfway down it turns to slush. Then at the bottom is a wet slippery layer of ice. I had to take very careful steps. I got tired very quickly.

I was glad to stop here and take a few shots of this place. Where the water was pooling up on this place above, it was flowing across the path to lower ground. There was so much water that it had to go somewhere. Snow can pile up, but everyone knows that water has to go somewhere, and it will fill any low area up quickly.

This last one for today is one of the places the water had to go. It was forming temporary rivers in several places. These rivers were moving pretty fast, and they were kind of deep in several spots. Usually this area is only a little on the damp side.

I don't know who left the footprints leading down to the water. It looks like they walked right in. Maybe they went over there before the water was there. They look kind of fresh though. That person must have had very wet feet after that. I can't imagine even the best boots keeping the water out that well.

This post was just to give you an idea of the conditions that existed out there. There were very many interesting things to see that day, not all of them melting snow and ice. I'll be focusing on the events of that day in the next few posts. There were some exciting and even perilous things I have to show you.

There also were some great moments where I was relieved to see something that I didn't quite expect, but I was hoping for. You'll understand when I explain in a later post. There were also some other great encounters that make me feel like I truly am The Everyday Adventurer. I know you'll like these upcoming posts, so come back and take a look.


Related Posts (Take a look at these, you'll be glad you did.)

• Because Of The Huge Windstorm
• After The Blizzard
• Daylight Moon
• Unpredictable Winter
• The Mist