On a day that felt more like mid-March than mid-February, Martin and I headed out to Ledges State Park a bit southwest of Ames.

At the end of the day, we headed to an overlook over the Des Moines River and the cloudiness broke for a time, giving us an awesome view of the river valley.  It’s still rather shocking to see the river this low.

We spent most of the day exploring up a small creek that enters into the river.  Knowing that it is only a few inches deep made for great fun trying to stomp through the ice and listening to the glistening sounds of the ice as it cracked and splintered below our feet.

In some spots, a clear layer of ice situated on top of the whiter fractured ice gave an optical illusion of floating on air with out boots.

The ice was particularly slippery today and was good for running and sliding, especially downhill where a bit of slope gave us even more speed.

On this 35 degree day we were surprised to see many of these bugs scooting around on the surface of the ice.  Any ideas what they are or what they are doing on the ice in winter?

Finally, the obligatory self-portrait.   Thanks to Martin for letting Dad have an excuse to go out and play in the woods for an afternoon!