Chasing Upstream After Eagles

When my friend Sue and I agreed to meet today at Moreau Lake State Park, we didn't know where we might hike.  All we knew was that it was a gorgeous day and we wanted to be outside under that perfectly clear, radiant blue sky, preferably on a trail in the park.  But after we got talking with park staffers and heard reports of eagles feeding on a deer carcass up near Hadley on Stewart's Pond, that's where we headed instead. 

We hadn't even left the park, though, speeding along the Hudson River on Spiers Falls Road, when Sue called out, "There's an eagle on that island!"   Of course, we pulled over to get a good look.  Can you see it, perched in a tree out there?

Here's a little closer look, thanks to my camera's zoom.  Not a very clear shot, but at least you can tell it's an eagle.  We tried to sneak a little closer, but the eagle took flight and disappeared downstream.

So we continued on our way north, finding the Hudson again at Corinth and following the river upstream to Hadley, where the Hudson meets the Sacandaga River.  We then followed the Sacandaga upstream to Stewart's Pond, where, sure enough, we saw that deer carcass out on the ice.  No eagles were feasting on it, though.  Breakfast must have been over.

We got out of the car and walked the length of the Stewart's Pond Dam, a massive earthen dam set among truly stunning scenery of river, forest,  and mountains.  We were hoping to catch another glimpse of the rollicking cloud of Snow Buntings our passing had scared up from the grass, but somehow they'd managed to disappear completely.  We couldn't miss the large raven that flew right over our heads, fanning its wedge-shaped tail and croaking its greeting, and then Sue's eagle eyes saw another large dark bird soaring above the distant tree line -- a large dark bird with snow-white head and tail, our second eagle sighting of the morning!

Our next stop was a few miles further upstream to another large dam at Conklinville, above which the vast Sacandaga Reservoir extends for miles, rimmed by conifer forests and rugged mountains.   We never saw any more eagles here, but that didn't stop our spirits from soaring.  Who wouldn't feel uplifted, surrounded by such natural splendor?

Sue works afternoons, so as midday approached we headed home, stopping in Lake Luzerne to have lunch at the Waterhouse Restaurant. (Very good!)  We got chatting with the restaurant owner, who, when he learned what we'd been up to, told us of many eagle sightings along the Hudson north of Lake Luzerne.  Sue and I looked at each other and grinned.  We didn't even need to say it:  There was our next adventure!

Frazil Forms on the Rivers

Saturday, January 15:  Still very cold today, but not so windy as on Friday,  and we even had some bright sunshine this afternoon, so I had no excuse to not get outdoors today.  I drove up to Hadley, where the Hudson River joins the Sacandaga, hoping to catch sight of eagles fishing in the waters kept open by turbulence on both rivers.  No eagles in sight today, but I still saw a fascinating phenomenon:  the formation of "frazil" ice in the turbulent waters.

Both rivers were running full and fast today.  Here's the Hudson as it roars through a gorge at Rockwell Falls.

Here's the Sacandaga in full rowdy flow as it charges toward the restored Bow Bridge that joins both sections of Hadley. The two rivers come together just beyond the Bow Bridge.

At the confluence of the two rivers, I noticed accumulations of slushy ice that had congealed into the distinctive cakes or pans so typical of the special ice called "frazil."  This is a kind of fluid ice that forms when turbulent water throws droplets into the frigid air, where the droplets form crystals and fall back into the water.  The frozen droplets stick together to form thick mats that build on themselves, often creating "hanging dams" that obstruct the river's flow, causing the mats to rise and be deposited along the river banks.  Certain stretches of the Hudson to the north of here are renowned for amassing huge accumulations of this ice, sometimes as thick as 15 or 20 feet.

I climbed down the snow-covered bank to the water's edge and followed the Hudson upstream from where it joined the Sacandaga.  As I approached the bridge that joins the villages of Hadley and Lake Luzerne, I noticed a thick raft of what looked like heaps of snow just downstream of the bridge.

Here's a closer look at that raft, which is not snow at all (we certainly haven't had anything like this amount yet this winter), but rather an accumulation of frazil ice.

I then climbed up the bank and out onto the bridge to observe the river from above, looking downstream.  The river was flowing freely both above and below this frazil raft, so the frazil had obviously not "grounded" here -- an unlikely occurrence, since the river is exceptionally deep at this point.

Walking over to the upstream side of the bridge, I looked directly down to where the torrent, constrained by steep rocky cliffs on both sides, suddenly explodes in a froth of swirling whitewater.  I wondered if frazil ice was forming just as I watched, since I saw milky trails of slushy ice collecting into a mass along the right bank.   This mass would grow in size until its edge reached the swirling current, which then swept much of the slushy ice downstream as more began to accumulate in the shelter of the bank.

This process was rather mesmerizing to watch, and I could have stayed there a long time, but my face grew numb and my nose started dripping from the cold wind.  So I took a little video to watch in the cozy warmth of my home.