Winter to Spring

A friend of ours has a lovely farm along the South Nation River, between Jessup's Falls and Plantagenet. We head out there for visits every couple of months and have even kayaked past the property in one of our first YouTube videos.

In addition to old barns and heritage buildings, our friend has cleared some of the surrounding woods to create hiking trails that he uses for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter months. And in January, a few of us slapped on some snowshoes to take to those trails.

As we started on the trail between his farmhouse and the river, we reached a bridge that our friend had built over a brook that ran from the north side of Highway 17 to the South Nation River. We had been over the original bridge many times, in the summer and autumn, but it was really in rough shape, with lots of decayed wood, and so last summer our friend built a new one.

Any time we had seen the brook, it was small and fairly shallow, and not much to worry about. The new bridge was bigger and was positioned a few metres away from the original one, which our friend dragged off into the woods, nearby.

When we reached the new bridge, which was covered in snow, we became a bit disoriented. The woods on the other side seemed thick and deer tracks ran immediately to the right of the far side of the bridge, where the woods seemed to open up.

Our friend wasn't with us on this trek, as he was hosting lots of people for a brunch. He knew we had walked that trail last fall, so he wasn't worried that we'd lose our way.

Being the first person in the lead of DW and three other friends, I thought the path might follow the brook, so as soon as I crossed the bridge I turned right and followed the deer tracks. And that was a mistake.

As soon as I stepped on the snow past the bridge, I immediately broke through ice that was under the snow and found myself in the brook. I was deep in it.

Luckily, I was dressed appropriately. I wore my high rubber boots and ski pants that were quite water resistant. I could feel ice-cold water rushing over my feet but I was dry.

DW used hiking poles with her snowshoes, and passed them to me so that I could brace myself as I tried lifting my feet out of the brook, hoping that I could plant them on solid ice and snow. It was a challenge, as more snow and ice fell on top of my snowshoes, making them really heavy. But because I was in no peril, I took my time and was able to get myself back on snow.

The group and I found the proper trail and were able to continue our trek without more issues.

Last weekend, our friend invited us out to his cottage for another brunch party. Most of the snow has melted and there would be no snowshoeing this time. But we did do a short walk to his bridge, as the spring thaw had really raised the water level in the brook.

When we reached the bridge, we saw that our friend wasn't joking. The usually mild, babbling brook was like a small river, complete with rapids.

My, how just a few months can make a difference.

Happy Friday!