Winter on the Athabasca River

Today was a nice sunny day after two weeks of bad weather. It was time to take Daphne, my camera, and me and go for a walk. I had been down this access road during the summer, but never in the winter. The walking was good! The temperature was mild at -8C or 17.6F for you non bilingual folks. I followed the road about a mile and a half, hoping to see some wildlife. There were lots of tracks, but no critters.

The road came to the river. There was lots of ice floating down with the current. This part of the river never seems to freeze completely.

 Here is more ice floating down along with some shore freeze.

About 2 miles down, I came to an Indigenous Peoples ceremonial site. I must be politically correct and not use the Indian word, even though most of thenatives that I know refer to it themselves.

 We are coming up on the shortest day of the year and here is the sun behind the trees at high noon!

 I stopped following the road at this point because the river was rising and the water was flooding up where the road was. The slush was about a foot deep.

Here is another picture of the ceremonial site. It is being used as there is fresh wood cut and the snow has been cleared. That's all for today. 5 miles of walking and now time for a nap!

You all stay warm!