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."