February has rolled in and we are experiencing a real winter for a change. Snow continues to pile up and getting the sugaring roads broke out shortly may be challenging. But the weather can change quickly if we happen to get a thaw. Zane headed up to our maple syrup buyer to pick up our returned syrup barrel from 2024. They never come back right away and it was a good time to pick up a few syrup containers etc. Getting prepared never hurts that’s for sure! I was hungry for an adventure though last Monday and suggested to Zane that we ice walk down to the ice falls in the Beaver Creek gorge. We would need snowshoes but that wasn’t an issue. I decided that we would use the side by side to shortcut the section of the creek where I fallen through recently. I made us a hearty lunch of pan fried walleye! Yum!We packed up our beaver stick trekking poles, a survival pack, and the dog before taking off through the deep unbroken snow of the main meadow. It was tough going and the side by side was at its limit in the snow. Fortunately we would have our trail to follow on the way back after our trek.We were excited and ready! It had warmed up and started to rain though. We decided to go anyway.
We dropped down over the steep ridge just off one of the meadows in a gap that breaks up the grade. I have used this gap for years to get to the creek. We took to the snow covered ice soon after and cautiously probed our way along. The weight of the snow had flooded sections of the swamp recently and it had frozen in a cold snap after. I felt pretty confident that the ice was much safer overall then it had been on my first ice walking attempt. But there were still tricky sections to negotiate. Old beaver dams and grassy bogs that don’t freeze well we’re encountered. But the main channel of the creek was good traveling for the most part. We found some otter sign here and there where they had broken through thin ice to reach the surface. Always good places to avoid! Lucky for us they were rather obvious despite the layer of snow covering the ice.
Our trip was a route we had taken many times to reach the ice falls over the years. It passed landmarks that had been named for reference points. The Island, The Small Tumbled Down Rocks, The Peninsula, and others. We left the more wooded section of the marsh and picked our way down through a more open spot known as The Wide Channel. The Wide Channel is some of the deepest water you will encounter in this section of the marsh if you are in a canoe. I trapped here as a teenager and was amazed at how deep it actually was here! Fortunately The Wide Channel will usually have some of the safest ice you will travel during the winter! But I warned Zane about the section of creek below The Wide Channel where it narrows down. It has a tendency to not freeze well some years and is best avoided. The creek consists of numerous areas of questionable ice most years if you follow its entire length. Spring holes that never freeze dump into the creek in several locations as well as smaller creeks that join in. Learning these spots is important if a person plans a more lengthy trip on the ice. These days I rarely make it past the Ice Falls themselves.
Once we reached The Wide Channel we got our first look at the northern Ice Falls on the left side of the gorge as we headed downstream. They were quite well formed and we got quite close but weren’t interesting in scrambling through the thick brush and bony rocks to reach them. We instead headed to the far side of the gorge to the first set of Ice Falls there. However they were far smaller than usual for some reason. Zane and I decided that maybe we hadn’t received enough warm days yet for them to grow to their usual proportions. Zane crawled up to them though and played around them for a few minutes. We headed down to the next set of Ice Falls. Set 2 I call them. They were quite well formed but also were a bit smaller then normal. But they are still pretty impressive!
We were in for a treat when we got to the third group of Ice Falls known as Set 3. They sit up near the cliff top and it’s rather difficult to reach them. We donned micro spikes for the climb as our snowshoes were not going to help at all. Once up the the Ice Falls we were able to crawl in behind the icicles in one spot. Very fun! We found some beautiful tiny ice formations under the rocky ledge. I took a rather rough ride down north ledge on the way back down and got a big bruise on my leg from hitting a tree. This was no place to be getting hurt that’s for sure! It had continued to rain and we were getting rather damp at this point. It was time to head out and we had quite a trek out still. I reminded Zane of “The Icewalker’s Motto: The distance in must be traveled out.” Always a good thing to consider especially if you take a good soaking from falling through! But we were lucky and no one broke through. Our beaver sticks probing as we walked helped us avoid the thin spots. It had been a successful outing and I was glad that we had been able to do the adventure together.
It’s difficult to say whether we will return to the Ice Falls this winter. We are planning another exploratory trip to search for what we believe might be an old lakebed over in Jefferson County near the town of Oxbow. I made an attempt two years but never made it to the right location before I ran out of time and energy. One thing is for certain when it comes to the Ice Falls! They never disappoint! Nor does the trek through the marsh where we encounter active beaver colonies and their dams. It’s always a treat to see the otter sign also. They enjoy a rather safe life in this frozen sanctuary. I find the ice walk down through the gorge to be a great battery charging event for my spirit energy. There’s always something to see and always something to observe. I have ventured here many times over the years and I never tire of it. The remote location of the Ice Falls makes them special and we never see other people when we trek there. Snowmobilers used to visit them back in the 1970’s but they have gone from the creek now. The gorge belongs mostly to the birds and other wildlife who call it home. I too call it home after decades of adventures here. A true set of MOONTABS exists for me in the gorge. And a connection to nature that is never broken. It is enough!✍️
