Ice Hike

**Note – All the colors in the following photos have been semi-altered**

Sunday afternoon Sean and I took the hounds for a hike at Marsh Creek.

The dogs really needed it, and Sean was anxious to try out his new pack. We’re doing this little winter hike/camp thing in the Adirondacks in March, and he’s itching to test his stuff.

I told him to load it up with a few full water bottles, then stuff the rest of it with pillows for shape.

For  a little extra adventure we decided to check out the lake ice a bit.

Discovering how solid the ice was, we continued along the shore a ways. Notice Gretchen’s belly protector? After Yoshi ripped a gash in her own chest running through the woods, I decided it was time Gretchen got a little more protection.

I love the reflection of their vests in the ice. It didn’t really show in the original. Only when I started playing with the brightness/contrast did the reflection become more prominent. It made Yoshi almost too dark to see, but all the other aspects of the photo I thought made it worth it. Check out the branches in the top center.

Then this frozen fist-wide crack we’d been following became a little less frozen and made some noise, so we headed back to the woods and the safety of the trail.

Nothing makes ice look really cold like the color blue.

At the dam we stopped to turn around. Come to find out, Sean used more than water to weight his pack.

Maybe it was the beer, but I put his pack on for the hike back. It really was a comfortable pack. Navigating the icy and muddy trails were never a problem with it on.

Back where the lake narrows, we decided to cut straight across and avoid going all the way around.

I got back to shore as soon as I could. Sean went on for what he thought would be a better crossing.

I think this one may have been the only one not altered. Looks like it could use it. it’s too drab.

He was wrong. The gap only got bigger, wetter, and noisier as he went parallel to the shore.

Finally he cut his losses and jumped.

Now it’s Gretchen’s turn.

Again features were sacrificed (i.e. Sean) to bring out the texture of the ice. See how ‘wet’ it looks in the background? I didn’t notice that before.

Then everyone jumped again.

Yeah. I just stood on the shore the whole time waiting to start laughing when someone got wet. Luckily it’s not too deep here and the cars weren’t too far.

All-in-all, a good hike. Now Gretchen’s ready for another.

– b