Hanging in the Winter Woods - part 1 📷

Seeking the best scenery in winter usually means EASILY crossing rivers and streams, but for some reason, this stream was still open water, despite the weeks of cold well below freezing. Its the only creek around here I've ever seen with open water in the winter.

As a result, we had a tough time finding a place to cross and use log bridges to avoid the freezing water.

Click any photos to view larger versions.

Not far before the crossing, there are ski tracks, but we wanted to get FAR from here and explore the creek's canyon since its impassible in the summer without some ice to walk on. So, on we go....

Here is the terrain we were after, getting into the cayon some using ice and boulders to navigate our way upstream.

We had some places that were nearly without ice, which we were choked into almost being blocked, but luckily, we could use the ice bridges along the left side here to keep going upstream. Some really nice stepping rapids along the creek.

I found this narrow cave upstream and thought my pack deserved a photo on its own. The falled log we were able to use to climb up over the next row of rocks and keep heading upstream. It was pretty sketchy though, as the left side got up to about 8 feet high, and all somewhat slipperly from the ice.

Oddly, we found that someone had roped together this structure between the rock banks along the banks of the creek. I decided it was worthly of a nap, so climbed up on and rested for a few uncomfortable minutes.

Here is a view done the creek of all these cool rock slabs stabbing out of the banks. They are much larger they they look here, and some were just darn difficult to get around or climb over, but we did make it through to keep on explore, which I'll share more about soon!

I hope you enjoyed my photos and adventure, I'll post the next set from this soon! Please comment and follow!