Technically, this winter only started a few days ago, but we've already had a fantastic month of snow and ice. It is hard walking, though. Last week I went for what is usually an hour's preamble that took nearly three, thanks to the snow. The loop is a good one--into the woods at a seldom used chunk of public land, passing along cliffs looking through trees to the river, scrambling down a coulee with a spring coming from a tiny cave at its head, following a railroad grade to little Buttermilk Falls and finally returning a slightly different route. I'd wondered if the falls was frozen so that I could climb on it, but the spring water, that is bone-tinging cold all summer, shows no sign of freezing, so stubborn with its subterranean born temperature.
