Icy Riverbank Walk

We finally had some really cold weather here!

I know it's not really something you'd expect someone to say, is it? In the day we live in, I feel like people would much prefer constant 65 or 70 degrees all year round. For me, that sounds incredibly dull and boring! I love the fluctuations in the weather for various reasons. One of the reasons I love the bitter cold weather, besides the wonderful photos of the ice formations, is that it kills all the damn bugs!!

We finally got a decent batch of cold weather where we live - something that most of the country was experiencing. It was nice because it's feeling like an actual winter instead of one that didn't really happen. I know that there are other things to be grateful for, but for me this is one of them.

I do like to partake in some of the cool things to do during these super cold periods of the year. I don't ice fish, which is a little surprising since I do love to fish in the other seasons. Ice fishing is a little too cold for me. Ironic isn't it, where I just said I love cold in one breath, and don't in the other? That's a fun bit of juxtaposition!

With the bitter cold temps and ice though, that means that the lakes and rivers are finally freezing up! When the lakes and rivers freeze up, that means we can do some walking and hiking around them again. I don't plan on going across a major river like this one, but the small ones are traversable now and that means you can go to some different hiking paths which is pretty fun.

On the drive home one morning, I was pretty close to the river and I decided to say screw it, I need some photos for Hive and some photos to remember this winter from, considering I don't have many other ones at the moment seeing as we've spent most of the time inside doing things, so I took a little trip.

This particular river isn't as beautiful as the other one, but that's okay because it's a hell of a lot bigger lol so it's got a lot more to deal with. We've fished along the banks before, and caught some decent ones so thankfully I knew the spot to take a trip down from the road to the waters edge. I wasn't disappointed, because although this is a fast river, it was freezing up pretty well at the edges!

I was surprised at how much it was frozen because this water doesn't sit idle. It's got a long winding travel path down from the mountains so that means it picks up some pretty decent speed as it goes down and heads towards the ocean. There are people that sadly die in it every year because they underestimate how fast that water is moving, as well as how cold it is! Thankfully I had none of those foolish issues lol so I got to enjoy it in peace but it was a nice little jaunt down.

I love seeing the various ice formations that occurred. I was also pretty careful not to disturb them. I was glad that the only things that were disturbing them were the animals that were poking around looking for food, likely coyotes and raccoons. I saw a few tracks here and there but none of them were human, so I kept it that way by not leaving tracks of my own as best I could!

What about you, have you taken any walks lately? Were any of them in a cold spot like this? Let me know in the comments!