2017 Warmer Winter
Winter `17 Catskill stream at normal levels of about a foot deep average.
Daytime temps above freezing and the kinetic energy of moving water
kept ice from forming in it this year.
In colder years the level would rise and the flow decrease
as sloshing liquid slowed and expanded into its solid state.
An easy coziness in 2017’s very mild winter involved fewer burning logs for warmth.
Only a few nights dropping into the teens provided some fortune
of finding shy ice hiding under rock overhangs.
The snow, hard packed by subsequent rains,
made deer trails look like ski indents where the wildlife slid down inclines.
Hiking would have been impossible without the spikes of crampons to secure my steps.