Winterruption

I've lived in Ontario most of my life. I'm familiar with the January Thaw.

It's not necessarily a given, but it's common enough to deserve the capitalization.

What I'm much less familiar with is January flooding.

We'd been warned about the coming rain. I knew it was going to suck, as there's precious little that's worse to run through than cold rain. I held out faint hope it all might turn to snow instead, as a big coating on the trails would mean I could finally get my snowshoes out for the first time this year - the only other "recent" time being all the way back in November.

No such luck.
I totally gave the guy coming the other way a high five, though.

Setting off for the market on Saturday morning in a downpour at 11c/52f, I was prepared to get soaked. I was less prepared for the ground to have thawed and become completely saturated with rain, turning the usually hard-packed trail into an energy-sucking mire of mud.

At least the Blair section hadn't been consumed by the river...yet.

I struggled a bit with the soft ground, not having had much chance to build any snow running fitness yet this season. The rain continued to fall as I trotted down the paved multi-use trail along Blair Road, and puddled at the head of the trail as it dove away from the road and into the woods.

The water was distinctly chillier than expected, and splashing through it took just as much effort as the mud.

The humid air wasn't exactly easy to breathe, either, so I resigned myself to a ride on the struggle bus and stopped here and there just to get some air and take it all in.

There were definitely some neat things I got to see along the way, too, like mist rising from the remaining ice in the marshlands beside the trail.

There's also seldom any water visible from this spot - usually just during spring thaw.

Devil's Creek Falls was - of course - running great guns under the fresh influx of rain.

Even overflowing its banks slightly at the top.

The main falls were thunderous!

Further downriver, the rain began to ease a bit - looking back upstream I could see the mist piling up on the remaining shelf of ice on the west bank.

What looks like mushy, grey ice is actually all mist.

It was even more dramatic on the lower part of the trail - down in this section, the Grand River deepens and its current eases significantly, allowing ice to accumulate much more rapidly and survive much longer than the swifter flow upstream.

I could actually watch the mist drift off the ice on the far bank, floating lazily downriver on the wind.

Reaching Riverbluffs Park, I thought I might be in for a treat, so went to investigate - sure enough, the tiny, seasonal waterfall was flowing! I've only managed to catch this a handful of times in the decade I've been running this trail.

Usually only seen during a major spring thaw

Trotting along the paved pathway beside the river as I neared the end of the trail, I saw chunks of ice floating on the meagre current toward the dam...and then realised that some of those white and grey objects weren't ice!

I rather rue only having my cellphone as a camera, as it's difficult to make out the 2 adult and 4 juvenile swans from this photo.

As I crossed the Grand on Park Hill, I was stopped in my tracks as I watched huge chunks of ice driven by the swollen river break into pieces as they washed over the dam.

It was rather more impressive in person than my cellphone photo time-lapse

The rain began to pound down in earnest again as I hit the Mill Race and the riverwalk.

With more mist rising off the Grand along the opposing floodwall.

By the time I'd reached the market I was thoroughly sodden and had very squelchy shoes.

Thanks to my vest, though, I did have a dry spot or two!

The rain continued to fall all day, and into the night - I got out for a second run on the roads by streetlight, after the temperature had dropped to 1c. In total our region received over 100mm of rain; almost 4 inches!

Not. Pleasant.

I knew it was supposed to get even colder overnight, and hoped that things wouldn't ice up too much. I was still hoping for a return to snowshoe running conditions!

Once again: no dice.

Just enough snow to make things look pretty

I got out for first run right away, a full 17 degrees celsius (almost 31f) colder than it had been just 24hrs prior...and one step outside our front door was enough to tell me my worst fears about ice had been totally warranted.

So spikes happened.

I figured that the conditions meant I should probably get the trail run I so richly desired in before dark; it's much easier to see treacherous ice or bits of nasty, frozen mud in daylight, so I had brunch, made this year's pair of screw shoes, and tried to figure out the best place to try my luck.

These actually would have been ideal for the first run, but I'd been screwing around instead of screwing in!

I decided on the Linear Trail - it was close to home, so the least amount of driving I'd have to risk with potentially slippery roads. It was also mostly fairly well up above standard river levels; I'd never actually seen it flooded or washed out.

Tanker came along to go for a walk, I threw on my "tire chain" spikes, and we pulled up to the trailhead.

Well, there's a first time for everything.

Yep, that's flooded all right.

I mean, I'm not a total weenie...but this was not happening.

The Speed River had apparently jumped its banks significantly - the trailhead in question was more than a metre above normal water level, and at least 100m away from the actual shoreline. We decided we'd drive downriver a bit further to another access point, by Preston High School and a water treatment facility.

No go there, either.

I have a rule: if there are ducks swimming on it, it no longer qualifies as a trail.

So, I noped out and ended up running on the road instead. The only part of that I didn't hate was that I got to try out the new screw shoes, which performed perfectly.

I managed to get a bit of urban trail in after work on Wednesday, but I've really been itching to get out for a proper romp among the roots and rocks, and I'm still hanging for some snowshoe running - I've got races coming starting in a fortnight, and almost zero training in!

Fortunately the river levels have receded through the week, and it looks like we're in for a big dump of snow tomorrow, so hopefully that will set me up nicely for some proper winter fun and frolicking!

I've had enough of this winterruption..