My first visit back to Salmon Hole this year was incredibly beautiful. The first February thaw had just begun and the river was echoing with the melting of the ice around the river bank. Snow is melting, damp tree trunks are rotting, growing mushrooms in the cold. Puddles form around trees where the soil has begun to warm up. Although it will not last long, this thaw was a wonderful thing to return too after a month away.