The Lake
Today I dressed for this cold; three layers of wool, ultra thick tights, scarf, hat, down jacket, battery powered liner gloves turned on high and shoved into large outer mitts, sunglasses against the glare of the snow, hiking poles and small ice grabbers pulled onto the bottom of my boots. After putting a jacket on my dog, Rosie, we are ready!
The trail rolls over several hills for one and half miles where it turns into a cross road for the Interstate snowmobile trail. There are few sleds out there these days as there is very little snow covering the rocks. In the summer these trails are best for ATVs as they are more of a stream bed vs a road. But, usually, in the winter they are smoothed by the local snowmobile club's groomers to make for easy passage of sleds or, for me with xc skis. Today I walk with added boot spikes to grab the ice that acts like grease under the dusting of snow.
Descending a steep, long and very icy hill I come to the stream that is the overflow of our lake. To my surprise it’s flowing strong and open today. After so many days of below 0 degrees few of our streams are left without a thick layer of ice on them. But this one is singing and gurgling as it flows past. From here I turn towards the lake.
I’m on the most distant shore from our house on this side. The lake looks like a frozen tundra; an expanse of white and blue lay in front of me. Stepping out onto it I know that this ice is several feet thick and strong enough to support Rosie and me without fear of crashing through. Still, I always step a little gingerly onto this surface at first; testing my boots, the ice strength and my desire to walk across it.
The wind has blown the snow into deeper drifts along the shoreline with larger bald spots in the center of the lake. Coming out of the safety of the trees I can now feel the strength of the wind. While trekking in the woods I only heard its roar from the trees overhead. As cold as this wind and day is, the sun is brilliant, the sky cloudless and a perfection of the color blue.
The sun is warming the expansive ice body and creates enough heat for the ice to expand. This expansion and contraction of the ice creates the most amazing sounds directly below me. It moans and groans at times. Today it sounds exactly like a distant thunder storm with deep rumbling and booming. There is one loud crack directly under my feet that has me stop in my tracks and my stomach to clench. Rosie hears it and begins to leap straight into the air several times; bunny hopping this way for several feet. It’s hysterical as I realize these sounds have her thinking there is something underneath her and if she jumps at it maybe she will catch it. She comes up empty every time but for the mile long walk across the lake to home she will continue this dance often.
I’m a Northern girl and I love this cold, white and blue world.
These woods, mountains and frozen lake offer me the solitude and peace in a world that now holds fear and danger for too many. I have stayed away from the news. I do not support the regime that lied to all of us with a hand on the bible and stated an oath he and all the money behind him will not keep.
