View from the dam at the foot of Union Falls, the next lake over from Silver Lake. It goes Taylor Pond, Silver Lake, Union Falls. Taylor Pond and Union Falls were created by dams. Anyway, this shows the process of iceout. The ice gets dark, you get excited, then there's open water. Silver Lake's ice is starting to get dark. That means the snow on top has melted. Yahoo! My date for the iceout pool is April 18. Ken and I went through the dates last night and he said probably no one has a real chance until around the 20th (he thinks). I said I hope it's the 20th because that's Bill's date. Ken is the judge. Every granule of ice must be out of the lake before a winner can be declared, and only Ken can decide when that is.

The mountain in the background is Catamount. The children in my family were always discouraged (if not forbidden) from climbing Catamount because "Doctor Webster's sister died climbing that mountain." Turns out tons of my friends routinely climb that mountain and Henry and Jenica climbed it, and no one died. It also turns out that Dr. Webster and his sister were bushwhacking, fooling around and not on the trail, she slipped on some rocks and yes, she did fall to her death. So much for terrifying children with horror stories.

The hill in the foreground is rocky bluffs on the other side and they are at the head of Silver Lake. They're famous--we've all been "up the bluffs" a gazillion times. There's a really pretty view from there. The boardwalk trail continues beyond to the top of the bluffs. I love looking down on the lake, watching the waves and even (sometimes) boaters. The fall color from there used to be spectacular. Not so great now, some logging's been done.