The Sound of Ice

Winter is a quiet season. The leaves have fallen. The geese have flown south. The blanket of snow silents the landscape.

Along the river though I heard the sound of ice. In the spring you can hear it creak and groan but I heard an entirely different sound. as small sheets of ices would float down the river they would slide by, spin, and collide with the thin ice layer that hemmed the water in. The sound that sliding by made was almost eerie.

It was a small noise. It was not a crunch or crash or grinding. It was almost a "slushing"as the ice edges slid past each other. It was an interesting and totally different sound. One that one can only hear a few times a year. It was one I first observed the prior year. I arrived in Wisconsin right after Thanksgiving and got to watch the rivers freeze. I first observed that slushy grinding then and saw it again this day.

The image here is of the semi frozen Trempealeau River. Mount Trempealeau rises in the distance and is where this river flows into the mighty Mississippi. It was yet another day of having the entire park to myself.

Me and the quiet sounds of ice on the river.