Hiking & Geocaching: The Big Ice Walk ... or not

After the latest cold snap we thought that the Bras d'Or finally had enough ice for our "big loop" walk. We called Tara and she and the Beagles came up and we set off up the lake road to give it a hook for the first time this winter. It was a pretty warm day and when we got to Crawley Lake there was a bit of slush on top of the ice. The trail looked like it was used quite a bit over the past few days by ATV's and we met up with a couple of bikes as we made our way around the trails. We made it around the back loop and down to the Bras d'Or. We got out on the ice but soon realized that it didn't look very welcoming. There were a few brave souls out around there fishing hole but there was a pretty big skim of water on the ice in places and as we made it around the first bend of the shore the ice looked pretty black, not a good sign. Even thought there was a pretty good cold snap the ice was still pretty thin in places so we changed our minds, but instead of walking along the West Bay Highway we backtracked up the trail to Crawley Lake. The hill from West Bay Highway to the lake is a pretty steep climb and by the time we made it to the top our legs were burning pretty good :-) Caoimhe entertained us for a stretch by deciding to drag along a stick that was at least twice her length. Hopefully we will be able to make the full loop that we walked everyday almost last February.