St. Croix Thaw

I've been sad the past two weeks as the temperature has warmed. Yes, sad. It means that my good friend, the frozen St. Croix River is thawing.

I have been watching the areas of open water grow larger. Late last week, patches of ice began to flow in some areas.

If I were single, with no responsibilities, I honestly would have attempted running on the ice flows. Images of Ernest Shackleton were in my mind.

This week, I spotted an ice damn forming up near the boom site and have watched it work its way down river all week. Today, early this morning, it passed under the lift bridge. The entire river north of the lift bridge has thawed.

I'm sad. My running gateway is gone. A beautiful, silent, desolate trail is gone until next year. I regret not running the entire distance from Stillwater to St. Croix Falls/Taylors Falls. It was possible for the river was frozen the entire 25 some miles. What saddens me is that it is not even possible to attempt until next year.

Today, Marty mentioned that she knew I was sad about the river trail "passing away." She suggested I try running on the water. I told her that I had actually given it a thought.