Wind and Ice

January 15th (Wednesday)

The wind increased over night and remained strong all day. In the morning, with the mountain behind Ocean Falls glistening in the sun, it was beautiful to watch the walls of dusty snow being blown off of the top of the mountain. Although we had only been getting mostly 25-30 knot winds, it was amazing how much stronger the winds felt because of the denseness of the air from being so cold.  The impact of the wind felt a lot stronger than what 25-30 knots felt like in the summer. 
 When I spoke with my parents in the afternoon, from the pay phone, they told me that the wind at Cathedral Point, which is out in Burke Channel and usually about the same as the wind in Dean Channel, it was sustained winds of 117 km/hr gusting to 134 km. We were very glad that we were not out there.  The waves, the wind chill, and the freezing spray, would be incredible. There was a hurricane force wind warning in effect for the Central Coast for the day, and it was the first time that we had seen that in our time on the coast. Hurricane force winds start at 64 knots, and the forecast was for up to 65-knot winds, so it was only just on the edge of them issuing the warning, however, it was still the strongest wind forecast so far this winter. Up until now the strongest had been 55 knots.
We were very glad to get to do our Spanish lessons in the morning. It was so good that it worked out for us to use Ken’s internet to fix our language program problem while we were at his place yesterday.
We went out for a lovely, little hike in the afternoon. I was stopping constantly to pull out my camera to take pictures of the many beautiful ice and snow formations. The ice around the rocks of the river from the dam had gotten a lot thicker, and ice was beginning to form around new areas as the water level in Link Lake dropped and the flow of water coming over the top of the dam slowed. 
 Ice forming at the top of the flow over the dam.

We followed a trail up past Link Lake to Lost Lake, and as we climbed, the snow got deeper. 
Lost Lake

Because it had been so cold and dry for the past couple of days the snow was either frozen, or dusty powder and squeaky. The trees were so cold that the branches sounded like wind chimes made from the icicles. 

The gusts of wind were blowing through the trees, and although for the most part we were sheltered from the gusts, the tops of the trees were swaying wildly and the noises from the cold trees were amazing. It had been a long time since either one of us had been in such cold and dry winter conditions. It was beautiful!  
Snow blown from the rocks.

We crossed over many stream beds along the trail, some of which were obviously fast flowing rivers during runoff time. However, at this point they were either bone dry or mostly frozen. One stream in particular, came down a cliff face to the left of the trail, and then it went across the path at the bottom of a deep trench, which had theoretically been washed away over the years. The waterfall down the cliff was a solid wall of ice, and the stream was fully frozen. Link Lake was also frozen, and quite beautiful. We saw one set of rabbit tracks that seemed to follow the trail up to the lake, but we saw no other signs of life.  
Link Lake

As I write this, it is now dark outside, and we will be making our dinner soon. Our power just went out for about 10 minutes before coming back on. Hopefully that will be the only time tonight. Although we have been very pleasantly surprised at how well our electric heaters are doing at keeping our boat warm inside, considering the cold and wind outside, it is amazing how quickly we begin to feel the cold when the power goes out. We can have a fire on at any time, and we can also run our diesel heater for some extra warmth, but it is very nice having the electric heaters keeping it consistently warm. It is especially nice at night and in the morning when we have to get up, to have it be 14-16 degrees instead of 6 degrees, like it was when we were at anchor at Calvert Island during the last cold spell before Christmas.  

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