Snow Hike

by Rocky Shire

Two hours later this stream was rushing  about 2-3 feet deep.

Winter and spring struggling for supremacy.

As afternoon temperatures neared 60 degrees snow became rushing water everywhere.

The Elk River Trail's own waterfall.

By 2:00 PM water was cascading from every ledge and overhang.

The art work of Mother Nature.

*****************

March Snow on the Elk River Trail

     The trail wherever you find it really is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. You never do know exactly what you are going to get, what you are going to see or what is going to be different or unique even on a trail that you have frequented more than any other.

     This happened to my good friend, Phil Morris, and I when we hiked the Elk River Trail at Elk City Lake a couple of days after a five inch snow fall in the Independence, Kansas area in the middle of March. The snow fell wet and very heavy on Friday evening and by Sunday morning the weather forecast was for warming temperatures so Phil and I hit the trail at the Oak Ridge trailhead and headed west slipping and sliding in about three to four inches of  wet snow. We did so with high hopes of not kissing one of the countless rocks or boulders waiting at the other end of a slip and fall. As we hiked west toward Elk City we found the trail clothed in  the last vestiges of an aging and shrinking winter wonderland. Concentrating on the trail we failed to notice that the snow was disappearing rapidly as the temperatures rose quickly toward a high of about 60 degrees. We came to the sometimes waterfall at the bend in the river about two mile from the end of the trail. This day it was indeed a waterfall with the usual trickle of water from above transformed into a torrent rushing to make connections with the river below us.

     By the time that we headed back to the trailhead the winter landscape had been replaced by a water spectacle on every side with water cascading off the rock ledges and overhangs that you would normally see only if you had the misfortune of being caught on the trail in a torrential rain.

     On the return hike we were treated to serene and beautiful reflection pools left behind by the retreating snow.  We were also challenged to find a way to cross  rushing streams two or three feet deep that earlier had been nothing but a one or two stepping stone rivulet.  Easiest and ultimate solution to this dilemma?  Wade water up to our knees and hope that the only thing drenched was our feet.  Fortunately we only had to hike another half mile with the squeegee effect in force in our shoes.

     Phil and I agreed that it would be virtually impossible to duplicate this hike because of the rare combination of conditions that made this particular hike so wonderfully unique with its diverse elements of natural beauty and the forces of nature at work in unusually peaceful harmony.

[All photos by Rocky Shire]

[For Phil]