It’s almost mid February and there haven’t been any ice walking treks unless you count ice fishing that one day in January.The 9 days I spent volunteering in Saranac Lake recently on the annual ice palace project involved a bunch of ice walking while cutting ice blocks and doing some work up on the walls. That falls under IPW though. Ice palace worker.I suppose I am referring more to actual swamp, pond, and creek type adventures as true ice walking. I haven’t made them happen like some winters past. If you’re confused at this moment about what I am writing about, then I suggest you look up some of my older posts about ice walking. The ice palace also. They’re easy to find and contain plenty of details.
Volunteering for the IPW was pretty predictable again this year with one big exception. We were working with much thicker ice due to the cold weather we have consistently been getting. I worked on the ice cutting crew first thing in the morning just like I have my 5 previous years there. We started out on day 1 cutting 14” thick blocks and by last Monday they were close to 20”! Work started on January 21st and there were 3 days of cancelled work because of extreme cold. It was definitely good weather for working with ice.
I helped work on building the walls for a couple days again this year. Slushing in the blocks to hold them in place mostly but I also helped place blocks too. I call that wall walking. It’s not a bad job but it’s rather physically demanding and a person must really stay focused. Falling off the top of the wall would not be good. It doesn’t take too long for 14” blocks to add height to a wall when you start stacking them up. One of the towers ended up being just over 30’ tall. Much higher than I was comfortable working.
I teamed up with the ice carving team again this year and actually was given more complicated tasks to perform. No carving but I helped create larger pieces of the sculptures by using a chainsaw. I work with them mostly as a laborer actually. Slushing things in place so they freeze in well. Cleaning up debris and keeping the work site organized. A fun activity was working to help create the ice numbers 2026 and going up to place them on top of the wall.
I was also tasked with cutting in access holes through several walls with a large chainsaw. Right up my alley actually so I volunteered for all the chainsaw work I could get. One of the volunteers saw me struggling with a smaller chainsaw and offered me his to try out. It’s a Stihl MS 500I with a 36” bar. A fuel injected monster! It’s powerful yet fairly light. Zane shot a video of me using it.
I really found my niche with the ice carvers this year and I hope to work more with them next year in 2027. They are a great bunch of guys who really seem to appreciate the help. Down on the ice field, working on the cutting crew this year was difficult for me at times. I won’t go into great depth or details about why. That’s not necessary. Let’s just say that it gets a little too intense and negative at times. It stops being fun then. It’s always taken some patience to work on the cutting crew but this year my patience was thin. Unlike the ice!🧊 Moving into next year I may reconsider my position as one of the volunteer cutters and put more time into assisting the ice carvers. Call it a gut feeling. A sixth sense revelation that maybe it’s time to branch out in a new direction.
My friend Patrick Bourcy showed up for 2 days to volunteer. Zane was there one of those days too. He joined the spudding crew on the ice field helping to free the ice blocks from the cut grid of the main mass. He had an incident down on the ice field also. I guess us Washburn boys from the valley are troublemakers! 😂 In the end everything worked out and we all had a great day. That’s what matters!
So as you might imagine, some time has passed productively this winter despite the frigid weather. I have kept cutting wood but that’s recently gotten difficult as the snow continues to add up. Things slow down in winter. That’s a given. Everything gets a little more difficult when it comes to outdoor type work. But with some perseverance, a person can keep moving forward. Some days very little gets accomplished. Other days are better. I find it best not to take tasks too seriously these days. Keeping firewood coming in is always a good use of time in the winter when it’s possible. I actually use quite a bit of wood to heat the Homestead cabin when I stay there. I banked the cabin with snow last week to help keep it warmer. It seemed to help.
I’m watching the calendar closely now. It’s almost time to seriously consider maple syrup season again. So a couple of ice walking adventures need to be considered if they are going to even happen. The annual trip to the ice falls really needs to be given a date. Why the hesitation you might wonder? That’s a great question with a great answer! The thaws in December and January did not result in great ice if what I can see of the swamp from the road is a good indication. I can see some open spots still.
We got a bunch of snow before things froze up well after the thaws had made some high water in the gorge. I had hoped for a deep freeze ahead of the snow but it never happened. And I know that all that deep snow on that swamp will make for some tricky trekking with snowshoes. Thus the hesitation. But time is of the essence. And I am ready to take a chance out there on the right day!
One thing is for certain at this point. It’s going to take some energy wearing snowshoes to reach the ice falls and even more if we go up to the Black Ash Swamp above them. But I am hoping that we can make that happen very soon. There’s nothing like a trip down the gorge of Beaver Creek to charge up the spirit batteries. It’s always worth the effort. And it’s great if you can manage to stay dry! 😂✍️