On the Icy Mission Flats Beaches
As winter progresses, the beaches in the valleys start to clear, leaving a combination of sand/gravel bars and ice shelves. By mid-February we can hike routes in these areas. the Mission Flats area has extensive winter beaches, but the TransMountain Pipeline work has closed off some access, so we park close to the landfill and hike back upriver.
The trails through the cottonwood scrub forest were icy but I wore microspikes for the icy areas:
The ice was breaking up close to the river and cracks were showing, with some sections calving off. I hiked along the shoreline past the two islands, then looped back on trails.
This was the first of several late winter beach hikes, with more planned each week.