Earlier this week

The nice weather on Wednesday prompted Charlie and I to take another long hike on a familiar trails called Little Canada and Ice Cave Trail. It is a 'lollipop' loop. Meaning
one circles like a lollipop at the far

end of the trail and comes back 

on the same trail.

Charlie took his time. He slowed way down and did more investigating of the sides of the trails. We saw deer, heard some birds, but mostly the hike was quiet and subdued.

I'd taken the first leg on a maintenance/hike trail which cut off about a 1/2 mile of the beginning of the trail. When I got into the huge pine stands which were planted by the previous land owners about 60 years ago I saw this cool vine.

There are quite a few stands of white pines in this area as the farmers who owned these lands had planted them in the hopes of harvesting them for lumber and profit. Alas, the state moved in and they moved out. But that is another history lesson for this area.

Walking through some of these stands makes me wonder what those who are care for the Reserve plan to do as the pines age out and fall over.

I came to several spots where that has occurred over the past winter and just was curious.

We stopped at Charlie's stump where I've placed him often over the years when we've hiked this trail together. I don't know how much longer this stump will survive too.

The winds were pretty cold but when we dropped into valleys we stayed rather warm and when we walked on the ridges we were cooled.

We walked through the endless pines, the wind played music in the top branches. I stood and watching the boughs sway back and forth.

Below is one of the double ice caves or in geologist terms, rock shelters that are below the trail in a deep dry run. Actually a bit of water trickles through the rocks creating an ice curtain in front of 'cave' and thus earns its name as an Ice Cave.

Here is my neighbor Bill in the cave on the right in the winter of 2022. That was probably our last winter hike together.

It is a tough climb down into the shelters and tougher coming out!

Still, it is worth it!

Below are a couple of trail signs indicating that these trails are horse and bike trails. When I see the signs upside down like this I always think about a horse meeting a bike and freaking out. You can make up the rest of the story.

However, the rule is, pedestrians AND bikes stop and step aside for horses. Bikes are to pause for hikers also but rarely does that occur. I won't go into that now. 

This is the view that looks toward the river towards the end of the lollipop loop. I just like the combination of colors.

When I reach this spot in the trail, I nearly always pause to see if I can get a 'good' shot of these trees, roots, and rocks.

The weekend was planned with new areas to explore that most people don't even seem to know about! 

Jason the Geologist was coming to visit and had a plan....

Stay tuned....