Muscatutuck Icy Ramble

Dave and I took fat rubber up to Muscatatuck to roam around. PJ was supposed to go, but some stuff waylaid his plans.  The various recent storms suggested that this area had more snow as opposed to our sleet, so I assumed there would be 6"+ of snow of the ground. Instead we found the roads ice-bound, with trucks having packed down the snow to an icy mess, and as the pics depict, much of the what should have been a 6-10" base had whittled down to crusty slush. We had to ride along the very outer edges of the road to avoid the ice, which poor David didn't early on. Ouch! 

After that we took to the paths for some off-road rambling. The Mukluk was getting the job done, but Dave's 2.2" Contid on the Fargo actually did a better job cutting through the crusty snow. Along the roads we used the Mukluk as an ice breaker. Forward Ho!  I did a little birding which is listed below. Afterwards we visited the customary Waffle House for our post ride.  Good stuff, I can't deny. Maybe the best of the week

There's a singleton Sandhill Crane somewhere in the grey.

Love that crooked, frozen creek backdrop.

Indicative of the coat of rough ice we had to work with. As seen, we hugged the gravel patch to the left.

Dark-eyed Junco (1st sighting)
N. Cardinal
Downy Woodpecker-3
C. Chickadee
W.B. Nuthatch
G.B. Heron
Sandhill Crane-1  (squawking singleton lost from the posse)
A.Robin
A.Crow
C.Goose
Hawk- too far to ID-Innumerable hawks along I-65, too
lots of little brown birds I couldn't get a look at without glasses or binocs (which were erroneously in backpack, as I had forgotten to attach handlebar bag)