Trekking on Ice and Snow

Dec. 27, 2011, solo walk on Long Bay (Cold Lake).

I parked in the beach parking lot of the Cold Lake Provincial Park and I started my walk from there. I took the most direct route to Long Bay which took me past the park sewage disposal facility and then down a bit of a bank to the bay.
I always proceed with some caution when venturing onto unfamiliar ice but seeing snowmobile tracks on the edge of the bay gave me considerable confidence. There is not much snow this year so there are large areas where the wind has kept the snow swept of off the ice. Clear ice looks black or dark and you can look down into it. There are always fractures, bubbles, or plant material in the ice which will give some perspective as to how thick the ice is. I estimated the ice on the bay to be about 1 foot thick.
On my walk I noticed a mound of dark material piled on the ice and I suspected it to be a muskrat ‘push up’. A 'push up' is plant material that a muskrat brings up from the bottom of the lake and pushes through a hole in the ice into a mound on the top of the ice. The mound insulates the hole in the ice which keeps the hole from freezing over and thus providing a place for the muskrat to surface for a breath of air. By working my trekking pole carefully through the mound of plant material I confirmed there was indeed an open hole beneath it.
Where possible I stayed to the edges of the bay where there was wind packed snow to walk on. It is much easier to to walk on the snow. There were also fresh tracks of the ubiquitous coyote in the snow. I suspect the coyote had passed that way earlier that day.
One objective of my walk was to go to a small island in long bay. I do not wear any ice cleats on my boots so on this day I relied on my trekking poles to provide added stability. I did slip a couple of times so I practice adjusting my centre of balance and the position of the poles as I walked. I seemed to find a method of walking that gave me reasonable stability on ice so I did not fall this time. On my course to the island I saw 2 ravens flying by, a fair distance away, who seemed to be engaged in a dispute.
As I approached the island I voluntarily walked on the clear 'black' ice just to observe the shapes and patterns frozen into it. The day was calm and hence conditions were perfect for walking in exposed areas like this. As I observed interesting patterns of bubbles and fractures I noticed curious patterns of tiny bubbles. The bubbles were always n a looping or even a spiral shape as though they were held by a filament much like a string of beads. No filament was visible. A curiosity indeed.
When I got to the island I walked around it and then took a break. I used my camp stove to heat up some lunch.
It seems that I didn't Blog much in 2010 but I have notes from last year and the last time I was to this island was on Dec. 25, 2010. On that day as I skied to the island and in one place I had to alter my course because I was breaking through the snow into water under the snow. I have encountered water on the top of the lake ice but under the snow cover before. It generally happens when there is a heavy snow fall early in the season. On this walk I used my GPS to track back on that same place where I had encountered the water. The place has lots of ice this year. Beyond that at the point of land at the mouth of Long Bay, where I had started my ski on Long Bay last year, there was open water that part of the route I had skied last Dec. 25 was all open water this year.
Since I could not walk on water I walked the beach and then I got onto the walking/skiing trail back to the park road. About this time there was a gentle snow falling. There is something serene about snow falling on a calm afternoon that invokes a calmness in ones soul. The short winter daylight was beginning to already dim so I took the direct walking/ski trail back to the parking lot.
With the sky now clear I observed the first crescent moon after the new moon and a planet as a drove south on my way home. A fitting close to a good day.

Total distance 8.87 km.
Moving time 2 hr. 47 min.
Stopped about 40 min.
Max elevation, 1926 ft.