Baby, it is COLD out there!

It was cold.  I mean really cold!
Okay it wasn't 20 below zero cold, but the air was damp and the winds blew down the valley length making it 'feel' quite cold.

My goal for the morning was to go to the big spring on the eastern end of the valley.  Walking with my back to the wind was no problem.  The snow was getting soft where the sun hit and it was hard where it was in the shadow of the hills and trees.

 
This made the footing a bit more interesting than usual.
I'd debated taking my snow shoes, but had planned on getting down in the creek to get some shots of flowing water, ice, frost, and anything else that caught my eye.

I did notice some small brown trout flitting about in the deep still part of the creek.  That did make me smile.
When I got to the big spring, I was slightly disappointed.  

One, my feet were cold, but two...the sun was shining down on the spring area and there was no heavy frost build up.  I would have to come back on a much colder day either when it was overcast or when it was late afternoon to catch the frost build up on the rocks from the warm spring waters.

No matter I still had other goals and one of those goals was to set up a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to capture some flowing water.  I used my small tripod that I'd gotten at Cabelas in the hunting equipment section. It served well for a camera tripod.  It was heavy duty and close to the ground.

I switched over to the south side of the valley to try and use the sunlight to warm up a bit and dropped into the creek to get out of the wind.  I could pick my way delicately over rocks being careful not to get into deep water.

The sun warmed me up and being out of the wind really helped quite a bit.  Although heading home I'd be hiking straight into it.

I finally found a spot that might work and spent the next several minutes figuring out what exactly I wanted to do.
 

Really ... I have no idea how long I spent setting up the tripod, kneeling in the snow and looking through the view finder...taking shots...shaking my head...taking another....blowing out air in frustration...taking another...moving the tripod...trying a different camera...attaching an ND filter...and so on and so on...twisting into a pretzel so I could see through the viewfinder...accidentally leaning over and putting my hand in the creek...wondering what drove me to do this...and then...

I got this...

Then I wrapped it up and decided I'd gotten what I'd come for.