The chinook had eaten a lot of the snow along Jumpingpound Creek.

The big meadow where Sibbald Creek joins its flow was almost entirely bare grass. The south-facing flanks were all tawny brown while even the treed, north-facing slopes had patches of snow-free ground.

Over along the creek itself, there was much less ice than I had expected. From the bridge just downstream from the Dawson trailhead I could see the creek flowing more or less freely with just a thin coating of ice. It was fascinating looking down at the water trickling along and watching air bubbles caught by the flow as they bounced along under that cold, papery coating.

Downstream from the bridge where the water slowed a bit, layers of thicker ice had formed. Fallen leaves showed where the water had frozen and momentarily blocked the flow before it broke free and added another icy layer that dammed itself as it froze, broke free again and so on. Downstream from that short section, though, free flow again.

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There were patches of snow in the forest but I could see where the warm wind had melted the snow into puddles where leaves, loose spruce needles and lichens had accumulated. Since then, the puddles had frozen and held them in place.

There likely hadn’t been all that much snow among the thicker stands of trees in the first place, their close proximity to each other keeping most of the flakes from making it to the ground. Here I found some purplish-red patches of bunchberry leaves while near them, still-green strawberry leaves contrasted with the browns. Like down along the creek, moss added a soft yellow-green glow to the forest floor and I found a single leaf — geranium, I think — that was green, yellow and brown, a colour scheme for any season that happened to come along.

But up where the creek bends around the Dawson day-use area, I found another consequence of the chinook.

Looking........

© Calgary Herald