The ravine's creek has been released from its freeze-up following several days of milder weather accompanied by snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, rain and again snow. On Monday we had a ferocious snowfall, sufficient to restore the level of the snowpack which had melted in previous days' rain, and making for a delightful landscape in the forest. But that very evening freezing rain began falling and continued throughout the night.

When we set out yesterday afternoon for a ramble in the winter woods, it was in a fairly light by then freezing rainfall. The street had been ploughed but it was still full of snow and ice with deep ruts where vehicles had passed. And when we entered the ravine our first steps on the accumulated snowpack crashed through a thick layer of ice. Jackie and Jillie, two miniature-sized poodles, are light enough in weight to ensure they don't crush the ice, able to slip along over it securely, but we certainly did; the trails had been filled in with the snow of the day before and iced over by the freezing rain that followed and we were the first to break new trail at that juncture.

Each step taken crashing through a layer of ice to secure firmer footing on the snow below the ice represented an effort. A dragging effort of emphatic thrust and breakthrough and pulling ahead to the next step. A leisurely walk this was most definitely not; it was arduous and tiring. As we got deeper into the woods, however, the ice crust was far less thick requiring less energy to punch through. And as we progressed the effort required to do so became less energy-centric since others had been there on the main forested trails before us, unlike what we had encountered at our own street entry and beyond.

While we were on flat terrain this new challenge to the security of their footing hadn't presented as a problem to our little dogs. On the incline of the hills, however, a different story prevailed as they began slipping and sliding. Jackie, because of his sense of curiosity and adventure, got himself too close to the edge of a slope and slid helplessly about a hundred feet before coming to a rest down below where a trail led him around and back up to where we stood. Jillie seemed to be more sensitive to her surroundings, steering clear of vulnerable areas.

Tree boughs were weighted down by the presence of ice all over their evergreen needles, necessitating that we bow low as we passed under them. We half expected that we would come across the ice-weight effects from trees groaning under such unaccustomed weight, particularly from immature trees and those on whom the ice had gathered in abundance, but we saw no casualties this time around, as we have in the past.

There was little wind and the temperature was slightly above freezing, so it was a comfortable enough ambiance, although the need to be alert to the potential for slipping-and-sliding even with our trusty cleats bound over our boots kept us busy. On occasion, in the distance, on other trails we could sight from time to time, we would see others out and about with their dogs. On one such occasion we watched as a large dog attempted to scamper up one of the hills as he no doubt normally does, only to slide back helplessly to where he had begun.