Water, water

Last night's storm + melting on top of the snow and ice led to the exciting discovery this morning that, yes, the driveway to the Lodge washed out last night. Should you come by, you'll see that this leads directly to the lower parking area (as well as what's usually damp around it) being a pond. Unless you have a tall truck, consider the parking area CLOSED.

All the 400 acres of meltwater to the north and west are merrily running down the hill: the Cascades are ROARING today! Currently, the Cascades Brook stands at a foot even; from leaf wash, it looks like it was at least 1 foot 4 inches last night, possibly higher. The secondary stream is open.

Since daylight, we've had snow here, which is accumulating enough to give a bit of a grip on the trails, which otherwise are an uneasy mix of ground and ice-covered. Proceed with care!

At 9 am it is just over freezing: 34 degrees and rising slowly.
The barometer stands at 28.47 and rising.
Fire danger is LOW.

Slushy

It is very soggy out there today. Should you go out, we recommend waterproof footwear. In most cases, there is a thin snowcover that is completely water saturated. In spots, it will suddenly go up to your ankles, however.

At 9 am, it is 40 degrees and rising a bit.
Drizzling rain
The barometer is at 29.82 inches of mercury and steady
The stream is rushing past at 6 inches.
The Cascades are frozen still, but there's plenty of water coming down them, nonetheless.

Keeping an eye west

I should point out that if the weather stays this warm, the Cascades will open up and roar. So far, they're frozen, though they've definitely got water flowing through. That should only increase overnight, with this slushy stuff we've gotten today.

And one of the junior rangers fell in the brook today. Glad it was so warm!

Lovely!

It's a lovely Sunday afternoon out there; we just had a group including at least three dogs, one child in a backpack, and several adults head up the trail. The trails are SLICK, however, as yesterday's melting all froze last night! Proceed with care!
At 2 pm, it is SUNNY and breezy, just hitting 40 degrees.
The barometer is steady at 28.97.
The Cascades are trickling through the snow.

A bit of a photo

If you know what you're looking for...
He's behind the rock, heading away from you.

FOX!

And we were all so thunderstruck that we did not get a photo.
It just now (at 9:30 am) headed up the trail from the Olean Street direction, crossed the brook by the house, and headed north across the neighbor's lot.
It was acting normally, too.

Brrr...continues

The human barometers of the family can already feel the storm coming, 'though the actual barometer here is 29.15 inches of mercury and steady under bright sunny skies.
It remains frigid--20 degrees at 9 am--and looks to stay that way for much of the week.
The Cascades are an ice pile (pretty!); the brook is frozen along the edges, but still running through the center of the brook.

Fire danger is LOW.

Will we break freezing?

Possibly...
At 10:30, it's just breaking 30 degrees.
The barometer stands at 29.44 and RISING
Sunny blue skies
Fire danger is LOW
The snowfall from Wednesday night has been packed, but not yet to the slippery point, so the trails should continue to be in okay shape ('though there isn't enough cover for skies or snowshoes).

Snow?

Somehow I missed that we were getting snow last night, so the half inch or so that we got came as a surprise.
Colder today; we'll be lucky if it breaks freezing.

At 9 am, it is 26 degrees and slowly rising
The barometer stands at 29.23 inches of mercury and steady
Cloudy skies; there's still a chance for more snow
The stream is frozen in solid at 9 inches, but running through the center at more like 4 or so.

A bit of snow on the trails today, but nothing that will slow you down. Enjoy!