9-10 Trail and bluffing

As you can see by the 'map' of my walk with Charlie, we ambled and rambled. We took our time to explore off trail as well as explore the trail.

The 9-10 Trail has two river access campsites. I'm not sure I'd want to camp with the skeeters. However, what cooler way to find a campsite than to Kayak or Canoe to it?

Since the Kickapoo is so prone to flooding, there are warning signs at the trail head for those who hike/bike/or ride their equine in. I imagine a person could walk their tent and camping stuff into these sites much easier than trying to drag their equipment up the hills.

However coming in from the river would feel so much more remote.

Canoe or Kayak access to camp S.

The trail is fairly wide to start with and nicely forested. Charlie lead the way.
This part of the trail is basically a way of keeping equine and other trail users off the highway between Bridge 9 and 10. Thus the name, The 9-10 Trail.

We broke out into a mowed path with the woods on one side and a corn field on the other. 
Yawn.

I turned around at the end of the trail not far from the trail head of the Big Valley Trail where it meets Hwy 131. We walked back. And then I kept an eye out for an old equine trail. They are faint and hard to spot, but the deer and other critters still use these old trails.

I ducked through the underbrush and ...

there it was... no words really to describe the feeling here...

and then there were the mushrooms...

and

Charlie was rather unimpressed. 

But he tolerated me saying ... ohhhh....

ahhh

Charlie LOOK!

Unless I said 'Cookie', he was just going to sit and watch me. What a good little trail dog.

We found our way back out and I headed across the bridge to check out part of the Dutch Hollow Trail. I found an old alternate route that was no longer maintained.

Charlie and I paused to find a safe way down off the bluff.

We finally found the old trail down.

More 'shrooms...

We headed back to landing #10 and crossed the 9-10 trail off our list. However, I do want to go back once the leaves have fallen to see all the rock formations in all of their glory.

And find 

more old

trials.

Valley Fog

 

Sometimes I just wake up so darned early. I checked the forecast and saw a little car icon where it looked like the car was disappearing into fog. The first time I saw that icon I thought it meant "Disappearing cars".
I wish I had the icon to show you, it is pretty funny.

The sun was beginning to rise so I hopped in the 'Ru to take a drive to the ridge and see if we had fog on the ridge or in the valley.

The fog would be in the river valley from the looks of things. So I headed to the highway that follows the Kickapoo. Highway 131 is a twisted curvy road that is in the valley. During floods parts of the highway generally have water over it. On the ridges the sun would be shining, but in the bottom, it would be fog.

There are very few safe places to pull off on this road. But there is one spot that is wide because the road has been repaired so many times. They put a black top coating on the side of the curve so the water wouldn't wash the shoulder gravel away when it overflowed from the backwaters.

I have always wanted to stop and 'shoot' this particular spot in Infrared during the day and also during the fog times or as the fog was dissipating. 

And there I was.

So...yeah, I really dig this old tree that lays on its side!

...and it was amazing.

The Sandhill Cranes were just casually walking about looking for food.

I pulled out my Infrared Camera and decided to try a few shots.

The cranes walked around and into the frame!

The peace and quiet in the fog was fantastic. The only thing I heard was the occasional vehicle on the highway. 
I suppose they glanced at me and just shook their heads. I noted a gravel road not far off that I could park in next time.

I'm looking forward to it.