Travels with Charlie...

Charlie is about 13 months old now, and I've struggled for a while to get him used to car travel without getting sick.
In his crate he gets sick.

So I'd made him a DIY car seat and he liked it but still drooled and acted as though he was going to be sick at any time on most car rides. On the way home from our hikes he always curled up and slept, so I figured it was just nerves about going places. He never has acted sick while someone was holding him...

So!
Yesterday I decided to take him to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. He has proven over and over again to be an excellent little hiking partner. He is easy to take on a leash and is excellent at trail walking when I let him drag a line or leash. He still has issues with wonderful smells and ignoring me for those smells. But that is what a dog's life is all about. Smells. Charlie teaches me to stop and 'smell' the forest and look around.

On our drive to KVR he just sat in his car seat and looked around.
This isn't a very good photo, but I stopped to make a turn and grabbed a quick shot with the cell phone.

He was curious, but NO drooling or gagging!

When we finally got to our parking spot, he came alive and started to whine a bit. He has it figured out. Car ride = Hiking and Cool Smells.

I found the trail head for this section of the Cut Off Trail and we started along the rock formations. The snow, the big melt, and the big freeze had created a tail only fit for Yak Traks or cleats. Snow shoes would have worked with ice cleats, but I'd worn my Yak Traks.

What was amazing is that the Polar Vortex had cooled the rock croppings and the rapid warm up had created a frost on the surfaces of many rocks which gave the rocks an odd look as if they had white fungus on them.

Charlie forged ahead following the trail around this bluff ...

I was torn between taking closeup shots of all the ice and textures in this spot or just a landscape shot showing the trail along the rock formation. Ice formations were all around.

I just went with the 'Big' picture.

It was so overwhelming.
It was so quiet, except for the crows...
It was so peaceful.

The ice was beautiful in its own way, if you like winter.

We then turned and made out way back towards the stream and along a rock outcropping.
I walked between the stream and the bluffs.

The stark contrast between the ice and the frosty bluff was pretty neat. I didn't go any closer as there was water flowing under the ice between myself and the rocks.

Charlie and I made it back to the car and then we drove down and around the corner and parked.
We took another long walk to check out where Warner and the Kickapoo joined up.

There were Ice Shoves from the recent melt down and gnarled twisted wrecks of trees from this summer's flooding. Yet it was still beautiful.

We walked and took in the scenery.
When I got back to the Subaru, I set Charlie in his car seat and he curled up and fell sound asleep.