Cool paddle

Laurie's Beach

Well, finally got a chance to get on the water, the first time since December 1st. It felt great.

It was cold at put-in (-5 C) but the wind was still and it was going to warm up to -1. The calendar says its not winter yet but winter has arrived early. I got warmed up quickly and the cold air felt invigorating. Perfect, no flies!

I've paddled this stretch many times but, oddly, I always find something different to shoot. The snow and icicles alone add something from the summer scenes.

Above, Laurie's Beach is the only access the Town of Paradise has to the seashore. Its not much of a beach but quite pleasant in summer. Not so inviting today though.

Topsail fault

The Topsail fault runs along the shore between St. Philips and Topsail. The fault runs through dark volcanic rocks, foreground rock, of the Harbour Main group here. The lighter rocks in the cliffs are chloritic schist caused by the grinding of volcanic rocks in the fault zone.

Icicles all along the shore

There wasn't much snow along the shore but plenty of icicles. Here they're white but a lot were brownish. The brown indicated the icicles were created from surface water that picked up dirt because, even though it was freezing, the ground had not yet frozen.

Cascading icicles

I stopped on this pocket beach for a quick snack. I hauled the boat up out of the reach of the surf right up under the wall of icicles. There was a bit of broad open swell that was dumping waves and washing up on the beach and there wasn't much room on the beach out of the reach of the wash.