1/1/15 Sunkhaze Meadows NWR

Sunny and mid 20's . Decided to see how  trails were at Sunkhaze - ice is our main concern.

We did the Carter Meadow Road first and it was fine

But when we got to the loop that takes you to the observation deck we hit a lot of downed trees - unremoved storm damage.

This was only the first of many workarounds and there were also large patches of ice to get around.

The observation deck was surrounded by ice but I managed to get up for a shot of the meadows. What looks like water is clear ice. I had never before seen ice or more than very small pools of water on the meadow.

Once we got away from the icy area there the rest of the loop looked pretty good.

But we were soon into the same conditions we had on the first half of the loop.

More bushwhacking until we got back to the road. It took an hour and a half to get back to our car- I think the hike usually takes less than an hour..

We then drove to the Johnson Brook Trail. It starts with a blocked old woods road and that was fine. When we started down the trail to the left we encountered more of what we had just fought through and gave it up. Instead we walked toward the beaver pond .

There were lots of pools of water covered with clear ice that looked like water and  Kelley kept checking. Finally she found a tiny bit of water she could lie down in.

And I found some pine in not clear ice

Of course the beaver pond was also frozen. What looks like water is clear ice strong enough to support Kelley.

We shared an apple and headed back to the car. This part only took 45 minutes. It had been a pretty day but the trails were in poor condition and there was little water for Kelley. Still, we got our hike in.