Every year it’s the same old whine – “I wish I could be there when the ice breaks up on the river”. Well, I could have been there and I wasn’t. While I was home, the rest of the ice decided to move off without anyone to witness it. I took some shots today while a streamer from Lake Huron was busy dumping a surprising amount of snow onto the park.

Some comparisons are in order to show the changes:

January 29, 2013

January 31, 2013 the grass has been demolished by ice moving ashore.

January 29, 2013; track through the wild area. Houses once occupied land to the right of this photograph.

January 31, 2013; track is buried.

Until 1954 and the Hurricane Hazel disaster, more than a few homes were quite near this location  by the Humber. I wonder how regular incursions of ice affected them and their properties. Residents at the time must have had some pretty close calls.This is a fairly average depth of ice to float ashore but the extent of it is quite surprising – further along, the ice actually covers the bike path.

Hard to see where it is but ice now covers the bike path.