Last Sunday was a fairly nice winter day. We had recently gotten another foot of snow, and although some of it had melted, we still had well over a foot of snow. I had called Jim on Saturday to see if he wanted to go trompin’ in the woods. He was game, but had to wait for Sunday. So, Sunday afternoon, Jim and I headed down to the Towpath in the Valley to tromp out to the beaver dam area.

I love the beaver dam walk – it is about a mile to the pond, and I had seen it in spring, summer, and fall, but I had never seen it in winter. It seemed like a good quest to wade through a foot of snow to go see a frozen pond.

I was quite surprised to find that the Towpath had a well-worn path already. It was only four days after the major storm, and the walking was not difficult at all. I guess nature nuts like the beaver pond!

It was a pretty walk, and Jim and I chatted about work and about running (of course). We did come around a corner and see another couple of people ahead on the trail, and when we got to the pond there was a dad with two little girls (who were having a great time throwing snow balls into the mushy top layer of the ice). I was fairly surprised to come across people, especially where it was only a few hours to the Super Bowl, but for much of the outing we had the trail to ourselves.

Jim decided he had to test the ice, so he climbed over the rail on the walkway and held on while he lowered more and more of his weight on to the ice. It did hold, but it had “bad idea” written all over it.

I took a bunch of pictures, and we sat on a bench for a bit and watched the ice. We then headed back to the car. As we drove off, Jim had asked me if I had ever been to the Ledges park, and I said I had. He asked if I had seen the Ice Box Cave, which I had never found, so off we went to see the cave as a bonus.

The Ledges trails were far less packed down. I like the Ledges in that it has  rock outcroppings and a pretty decent forest. I was delighted to see someone had built a snowman on a ledge.

We wound our way down the trail, and Jim guided us to the cave. It was a good-sized crack, and it went back a far amount. Sadly, it was also really dark. Once you got in about 15 feet, you could not continue for the dark. Jim said that it went back another 40 or 50 feet. Next time, I’ll need to bring a flashlight.

We went back to the car and were treated to a pretty sunset. It was a good outing, especially given the immediate couch camping I was going to do to watch the Super Bowl.