Signs of Spring

Yesterday we went for a drive down through the valley, stopping at Lake Eugenia.  Along the way signs of spring became more and more obvious.  The big one though is the heat of the sun and the length of daylight, and (though I can't quite believe it), this weekend is daylight savings time here.  That's practically the unofficial start of spring!

All these pictures are terrible frankly.  Something about the camera settings was way off, and the colour balance just isn't right - but the signs of spring is what we're looking for, and this is the first one, the Bighead River is open after spending much of the winter frozen.

We headed south up the Niagara Escarpment finding all the roads bare and dry, another sign of spring.

We also found all the little creeks were open too.  The first one here is Rocklyn Creek fairly hear its headwaters, draining northwest into the Bighead River.

A little further on and we passed Wodehouse Creek, this one draining southeast through the famous Wodehouse Karst and emerging from five different springs along several miles of the escarpment cliffs.  In a few weeks this will be totally flooded and raging downstream!

And when we got to Lake Eugenia the former meandering channel of the Beaver River was plain to see in the now exposed lake bottom.  A sea of stumps preserved underwater most of the year, ever since the hydro dam was built in 1914.  Ontario Hydro partially drains this lake in the fall to make room for the expected spring runoff every year.

Looking the other direction from the causeway the former river winds through the lake bottom for now, but soon the water will rise and this will look more like a lake.

The lake is pretty well surrounded by cottages now, many converted to year-round homes.

The little scruffy island was still there, as was the old stump.  Tomorrow a visit with the geese.