Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Ice.... Everywhere....Sleep......Nowhere

Peter, that would probably have made me feel better if there was video.

...and no *almost*.

That front step of yours is hazardous no matter what the weather, Peter. I don't know how you handle it in the ice. All y'all take care, ok?

Speaking of ice...

My family took advantage of the pleasant weather yesterday and went for a hike on a nearby mountain hill. Little did we know what would be waiting for us when we arrived. Despite the fair overnight weather at our house, there must have been quite an ice storm just 15 minutes away from our house, because the entire forest was coated with a glistening layer of ice. Even though the sky was mostly clear, it was raining in the forest due to melting ice.

About midway through the hike, the sun really came out and accelerated the that. In addition to water droplets, pieces of ice started falling. Thankfully they were no bigger than coin size pieces and didn't hurt that much when they hit a body part.

Here I am enjoying the surrealness with Gracie on my back. (You can only see her cool pink boots.) I'm sporting trekking poles, since the ground was a bit slippery and I didn't want to fall and smoosh my passenger.


Here's Steven pointing out an ice-encased young tree.


Here's another small tree not far from the bush.


And here's Steven holding up a piece of ice shaped like the leaf it was just clinging to.


The only one who didn't have a good time was our dog. She's under the impression that trees shouldn't drop things on her.

I've never seen anyone use two hiking poles before... odd.

Bren R.

Did anybody ever accuse Peter of *not* being a bit odd ... ever?

When you have two kids, you need a pair of everything so seach kid can get one when one inevitably asks if he/she can use it and the other wants one, too. (These poles are height-adjustable.)

But the dual-pole thing is pretty handy in challenging terrain. It was a bit overkill for this hike and they did quickly end up in the kids' hands. When they really came in handy was when I was hiking in Zion National Park (southwestern Utah) back in early 2003. The terrain is almost entirely sandstone, which can get slick when wet, and especially slick when icy. It the middle of a hike with some rapid elevation changes, a quick storm came through that unloaded a couple centimeters of snow pellets. My wife and I had an interesting time getting back down to the ground.

Sean you need to drive a couple hours North.
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This is the 4th snow day in the last 6 school days.

We had a thunder snow storm here last night. It was freaky watching the lightning and snow at the same time.

That looks cold, Michael! We've managed to hold onto the snow in the mountains for a good couple of weeks down here. Looks nice from far away, but not something I'd want to deal with on a daily basis.