Thirty-five SR Walkers met in the Lodge lobby today. Thirty chose to follow the schedule and hike the trailess White Oaks Preserve on the west side of the Park. Five of us elected to stay on the trail and headed out to Eagle Cliff and Wildcat Canyon to see if we could find the sun. For the third consecutive week the sun did not make an appearance.

 From the trailhead on the path was hard, bumpy ice. Don't walk here without attaching traction to your boots.

 A trail bridge view up French Creek. The tracks show a lot of animal activity this past week.

 Look what we saw roosting above the dam ten yards off the boardwalk!

 The Army Corps brought in some help to reposition the new lock gates to make them more current friendly. These gates for the Marseilles and Starved Rock lock chambers will be installed this summer.

 Yes, all boardwalks and stairs are covered with up to one inch of uneven ice!

 The eagle was not disturbed by our first walk by, but this time he watched us carefully as we passed.

 There are lots of meltwater ice beards in the Park. These are in Pontiac Canyon.

 Ice on the headwall trail around the rim of Pontiac Canyon.

 A Bluff Trail view of the River Trail bridge over Pontiac Creek.

 The icy boardwalk approaching Wildcat Canyon.

 A west rim view of the disappearing icicle on the east wall of Wildcat Canyon.

 The upper Wildcat fall has lost its enclosing ice column.

 It looks like the 16-year-old aluminum snow steps on the Wildcat rim boardwalk will be replaced with galvanized steel as they fail.

 Water has sliced through both the icicle and the ice mound in Wildcat Canyon.

 The ice on Wildcat Creek will not support anyone trying to cross the canyon floor this weekend.

 A trail view of the boardwalk around the rim of Wildcat Canyon.

 Don't attempt the Campanula boardwalk without ice spike traction!

 A trail view of the east wall staircase in French Canyon.

 A trail view of the west wall staircase in French Canyon.

 A well striated (ice scratched) basaltic glacial erratic in its preferred habitat.

A very gneiss glacial erratic next to the Lodge parking lot. Geology humor - yeah, I know!

Time to end another overcast hike with a quote from William Arthur Ward,

"A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition."

Thirty Starved Rock Walkers (+1 dog) climbed the Rock, visited French Canyon, and slid out to Wildcat Canyon and back on a "snow globe" morning in the Park.

 A lodge veranda view of the Hungry Butte, our first stop.

 Walkers leaving the Lodge... 

 ...and descending the 150 metal steps towards the Rock.

The trail ramps two-thirds of the way up the Rock. Yes, every hiker wore traction strapped to the bottom of their boots. The poles make us hard to tip tripods!

 Then up the 66 steps to the top

 It looks like a squirrel beat us up here!

 A view of the Lovers Leap platform from atop the Rock.

The boardwalk around the top was snow covered, frozen, bumpy slush. Hard on the ankles!

 Now we are off the Rock and headed for French Canyon.

 This guy, in full winter camo, passed us on his way to the canyon.

 Walkers entering French Canyon. Not all of us chose to climb the frozen entrance.

 A view of meltwater icicles high on the west wall of French Canyon.

 A trail bridge view up French Creek.

 On the boardwalk bound for Eagle Cliff. You can see one of Ron's attached microspike boot bands. 

A Lovers Leap view of geese over Starved Rock.

 The upriver end of the Eagle Cliff platform.

 An Eagle Cliff view of geese in the Starved Rock pool. 

 A boardwalk turnout view of the SR Lodge through a white pine window.

 Walkers on the headwall trail around Pontiac Canyon.

 The last Bluff Trail dip before Wildcat Canyon.

 The Wildcat Canyon waterfall is close to forming a complete ice column.

 While sitting in the hotel cafe, I watched this woman slide down the hill out front THREE times with her crutches tucked into the sled. Her daughter carried the sled back up each time. Both were laughing loudly.

If you can end your hike in front of the Dining Room fireplace then you've had a good morning!

Time to end this "snow globe" walk with a hard quote from e. e. Cummings,

“The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.”

About thirty Starved Rock Walkers (no dogs because, too cold for them) drove to the Hennepin Canyon parking lot and hiked the East Bluff Trail out to Owl Canyon and back. A sunny, windy, feels like -5F walk in the Park.

A deep water-filled bootprint in the mud, now all frozen solid, sums up today's trail conditions.

Gathering in the puddled and rutted Hennepin lot, except the puddles and mud are concrete hard!

This inch+ deep puddle was solid ice with a frost speckled surface.

The bright sun and blue sky really hides the below zero windchill!

When walking with a geologist he will point out where the trail crosses an old coal strip mine. The white arrow on the right side of the pic is pointing to the coal seam. This was probably mined for personal use before the Park's 1911 founding.

A trail bridge view up Hennepin Creek under the Rt. 71 bridge. 

A winter trail glimpse of the waterfall on the headwall of Hennepin Canyon. This cannot be seen through the summer vegetation.

The turnaround point where the Bluff trail crosses Owl Creek and meets the trail climbing to the Parkmans Plain parking lot.

 This is bent "Indian" tree #3 along a fifty-foot section of the Owl Canyon rim. I suspect that all three trees were woven through a long-gone fence that kept hikers safely above the rim.

Today's walk caused a modification in a quote from Ruth Westheimer;

"Our way is not soft grass, it's a bluff trail with lots of frozen mud. But it goes forward, toward the sun."