Ice Art

Friday of spring break week dawned gray and overcast, but within hours, the sun was peeking out and temperatures were warming right up. We hadn't been out on an adventure in a while, and things have been pretty quiet at work, so I took the day off.

My husband and I packed our daysacks and some chairs and a cooler, and we headed for the Little Juniata, a place we discovered back in early October. It turned out to be a day of railroad tracks, bridges, high green water, and ice!

The first really cool thing actually happened on our drive there. We ran some errands in Tyrone, and on our drive to the Little Juniata, I suddenly looked up to see a number of very large birds over our heads. And I looked closer to discover that it was a huge flock - maybe two dozen in all - of wild turkeys!

They flew from the other side of the river, over the water, well above the road, and then landed in the woods on the other side of the road. I didn't have a camera in my hands, and it happened so fast, there wasn't time to grab one. But I saw lots and lots of turkey tummies lit by the afternoon sun - I did, I did!

Now, back to the hike. It's been a week of thaws and freezes, and the water dripping down off the rocks has created some amazing ice sculptures. It had been extremely cold Wednesday night and all day Thursday, so the sculptures were very firm early in the afternoon when we arrived.

However, as we hiked, the day warmed up. And as we sat in our chairs watching the trains (yes, there were many!), we heard quite a few crashes - the sounds of the ice around us thawing and falling. By the end of the afternoon, there were nothing but ice nubs left of most of the sculptures we'd passed. You might have thought we'd dreamed it, but I have proof!

And the song? What better song to accompany the freeze (and eventual thaw) than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, with Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. This version: live at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1975.