The workmen finished repairing the damaged section of the boardwalk about 2:30 p.m., then Becca got the leaf-blower out and blew the boardwalk clear of debris. She did a beautiful job. Most of the boardwalk looks like this now. Thank you, Becca! What a difference! Still, there are parts of the boardwalk that are still covered with ice. Thick ice. Some of this ice measured out at one inch thick. It's going to take at least several days of warmer temperatures to melt that ice.
I spent four hard hours trying to clear the ice from the boardwalk today. I started down the short side of the loop trail and, after four hours, had not managed to clear all of the ice from there to the Brooklake spur. I didn't go down the long side of the loop trail at all. I kept working at it, then giving up, then sitting and resting for a few minutes before going back and tackling it again, but I finally had to throw in the towel. I simply didn't have any energy left. I'm almost 66 years old, after all! I don't have nearly as much stamina as I used to have in my younger days.
Where I was unable to remove the ice all of the way across, I tried to at least clear one side of the boardwalk so that people could get through.
You wouldn't think that would be necessary, especially since the boardwalk is roped off and posted with a "closed" sign. Still, I was halfway down the short side of the loop, vainly struggling to remove the ice, when two women came cruising by, for all the world as if the park was open to the public.
My hard work was well rewarded, even if I didn't manage to remove the ice from the trail. I saw buffleheads and ring-necked ducks swimming on Brooklake and a bufflehead and hooded merganser swimming on Marlake.
Dark-eyed juncos were hunting in the meadow grass.
While there must have been twenty or thirty robins working the grass in the orchard, with one sitting in a nearby tree on guard duty.
And a downey woodpecker was all over what we used to call rabbit-run. With a tap-tap here, and a tap-tap there, here a tap, there a tap, everywhere a tap-tap. It was hard to get a picture of her because she didn't stay in any one place for more than a couple of taps. By the time I'd locate her, she'd be flying away to another tree.
I'm totally exhausted. Jason Gerwen says that he doesn't want to re-open the park until all of the ice is off of the boardwalk. After struggling with it today, I don't think the ice is going to go away until the temperature goes up way above freezing and stays there for a while. Rain is supposed to move in tomorrow and stick around all week. If the temperature goes up into the 40's that should do the trick. I'm pooped. I plan to let Mother Nature finish this job. I'll let you know when the ice is gone!
Teri I. Lenfest
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