River Ice

On Monday, the 12th, the river had alot of open water, but ice still covered most of it. This pic was taken on Monday. You can see a few people anxious to get out on the water already had their boats out on the beach. Or possibly, they were never put away last year.The Ice Classic contraption was still holding on the ice. Again, this was on Monday. The ice melted slowly away rather than breaking up like it usually does. I'm not sure who won the Ice Classic, but whoever it was got over $6000.
The Ice Classic clock finally tripped on Tuesday morning at about 9am. There really wasnt much ice flow, but there were a few chunks here and there. People have said that this year was the lamest breakup that they could remember. It was more like a meltdown than a breakup.

On Wednesday evening, they had the Breakup Party. They had hotdogs and live music. There were quite a few people there, but by the time I got there after the 8th grade dance it was pretty much over. Dont have a stage handy? Just drive up a truck and call it a day!
On thursday, I took my kids on a field trip. The guy at the national weather service said that some of the ice from up river was running. We had some down time in our day, so I took the kids down to the river and we took a walk on the beach. It was a gorgeous day, warm enough for a t-shirt.
People were already out on the river in their boats. They had to do some maneuvering around the ice flowing. I think this is a neat picture.
Here are a few chunks of ice flowing down river. This is the ice that was blocked up in Akiak, about 50 miles or so upriver.

On Friday, I heard that there was some ice running down river, so I went to go check it out. Sure enough, just like ice cubes in a glass of water, all of these huge chunks of ice were flowing toward the sea. They were flowing pretty fast too. I will post a video from school tomorrow.
The beach that we were on the day before is under all of that water! The water level rose several feet at least! You can see there are people out on the river bringing in logs that are flowing down river with the ice. There are no trees in Bethel, so these logs that flow down from the interior where there are trees are a pretty hot commodity. You can see the ice piled up on the far side.Now that the river is clear, life begins again for many of the residents. People are itching to get their boats out and do some fishing. Many people will spend the next few months out on the river or at their fish camps.

Me? I cant wait to come home for the summer. I cant wait to wear shorts and sandals. I cant wait to walk through the grass barefoot. I cant wait to see trees and flowers. I cant wait to feel the warm of the sunshine. I cant wait to get a tan. I cant wait to grill up some brats, crack open an ice cold beer, start of fire, and hang out with my friends! See you guys in 6 days!