Caesar Pond walk

Looking toward the north end of the pond.

Immediately after arriving home from the Papermill Trail, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and headed over to Caesar Pond. This was my first full walk on the pond since it froze over. This winter weather has wreaked havoc on the pond as far as making it accessible to walking, and I don't know when it will be in good condition again. 

I must say that I was chilled to the bone during my entire 1.26 mile pond walk. There was a light, 8 mph breeze from the south which brought the windchill down to 9F, and I just couldn't warm up.

Talk about a low contrast afternoon. The sky was clouding over due to the impending storm, and I had a difficult time seeing the variations in snow depth while walking on the pond surface. I had to tread carefully as I occasionally hit a raised area of snow without seeing it, and almost went down several times.

Snow beaver mounds in the distance??? What???

Snow beaver mounds up close.

I spied snow beaver mounds, and it looked like the beavers had flooded the pond surface in the center of the pond! (Oh...this must be the work of busy Newcomer beavers as they cleared snow to create a nice skating rink;-)

South facing side of the only active beaver lodge on the pond.

East facing side of the beaver lodge

I headed toward the north end of the pond to check out an active beaver lodge.

Then, I checked out a few duck boxes. This one is on the north end of the pond, just west of the beaver lodge.

The trail is now closed and we don't get the needed snowmobiles through
to pack down the trail. Thus, it is now too rough for me to walk on.
This really limits walking in the woods which used to be my
favorite wintertime activity.

I walked from here to the west edge of the pond, and headed toward the entrance of the snowmobile trail (which is now off limits to snowmobiles as someone has purchased quite a bit of acreage and has closed off the trail...bummer.)

My foot print where it broke through to water.

As I approached the edge of the shoreline, my foot broke through some slush into the water. I am always amazed at how much heat is generated at the water's edge (due to the sun shining on it all day long.) Be careful if you walk along the water's edge on the western shore.

I decided to check out one more duck box before heading home, and walked toward the south end of the pond. This tree has given me so many good memories as I have seen birds nesting in this box, and on the branches nearby, over the years.