Overcast with temperatures near freezing. The forecast wind wasn’t evident where I was.
I wanted to check out the falls fork of Indian River for ice before temperatures warmed too much.
I expected the trail to be mostly ice free. I was incorrect.
The rain prior to this cold snap was sufficient to melt most of the snow off streets and sidewalks. I think in places where little remained, the dry conditions caused it to sublimate despite the persistent cold.
Probably due to more snow and less melting, there was still plenty of packed snow-turned-to-ice in places along the trail that didn’t have good canopy cover.
I slipped several times. Once I completely fell, but fortunately landed without damaging much (maybe got a little bruised).
Walking up the trail, the river was ice free. I did enjoy some of the ice formations on rocks and logs above the river.
The falls fork did have ice, but it was very different than I’ve typically seen.
Lots of ice, but little of it solid
The top of the ice was at least a foot above the water level. In some places it may have been more than that. There seemed to be very little solid ice.
The bulk of the ice almost looks like it could have been accumulated snow that recrystalized, but temperatures were much warmer than freezing when precipitation last fell.
I suspect the formations I saw have name, but I don’t know what it is.
I'm guessing the surface glaze must have formed when the water level was higher. It may also be possible that the unconsolidated ice below grew from below and pushed it up. Either way, I am puzzled about the processes that gave rise to this atypical (in my experience) ice
My best guess is the river level was significantly higher when the freezing started. Perhaps it was turbulent enough that ice couldn’t really form a solid surface very easily. It may also have started dropping relatively quickly.
It was clear the ice had started to collapse in places as well. Temperatures were still below freezing, but not by much. I don’t know if that played a role or not.
At an inch or two thick, this ice block was an exception to most of what I saw on this hike (but more typical of what I would normally expect)
Due to ice conditions, I wasn’t able to reach the water without risking wet feet where I looked at the ice on the falls fork.
The main channel where the water from the falls fork joins in with the west fork has shifted a little upstream on the west fork.
I was able to get there and check water temperatures. The water coming in from the falls fork was right at 32F.
Only 6ft away, the water coming down the west fork was 42F.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
