Should I?

Keep track or not?

So far this year I've gone on a walk/hike every single day with the exception of two days with the dangerous wind chills. On some days I remember to take my cell phone and activate a free app called MapMyWalk. 

I don't always remember to activate the app while taking my daily hike/walk. 

When the temps got up to 11 degrees I thought Charlie and I should go check out the old ridge road on the neighbor's land. Part of that old ridge road is used as a snowmobile route in the winter.

I thought the footing would be nicely packed and I wouldn't have to break trail.

I activated the app and thought it would be fun to see exactly how far it is to the creek and back using the road and the old snowmobile road.

The footing was not great. Charlie decided about a mile in that he wanted to be carried and we trudged all the way to the creek. AND I mean trudged. The trudging was downhill and as I trudged I thought, this is going to be very difficult going back up.
Normally with good footing, this is an fairly nice hike, yes it is uphill but it is not difficult. It is a good cardio workout.

We did stop at the creek where I wanted to look for some beautiful frosty formations along the water. The snow was over my knees when I climbed down to look for ice and frost.

I got a few shots to prove to myself that I was there and decided to head back up the hill.

With the drought, the creek has really been diminished. It flows, but the grasses and weeds that grow along its bank have taken over.

Still, I like to just go down into the valley and listen to the water. The sounds it makes are so pleasing and relaxing.

Here is Charlie standing guard on the trail while I climbed down next to the water to try and get a shot of the frosted grasses.

Frosted grasses and multi flora rose growing into the creek:

Returning UP the HILL was

demanding. And exhausting.

I figured it would be with the slightly churned up trail. IF I'd worn snow shoes I may have had a better grip. 

I decided I wasn't in a race and took my time.

Of course, I've never mapped out this walk and checked the details carefully. From where the mile numbers are in the map ---> 1 and 2, to the creek is a descent of 300 feet in a half of a mile. One section is very steep.
In 2/10 of a mile the ascent from the creek is 100 feet.

Huh.
No wonder I was struggling! Did I mention that I was carrying Charlie too?

When I got to this point I heard a snowmobile coming so I scooped up Charlie and stepped off to the side of the trail.

What a nice surprise. The fellow that was traveling, stopped and asked if I was okay. Did I need a ride somewhere?

[OMG...did I look that bad???]

I replied that we were fine, just out hiking and I lived about a mile away. 

When he continued on I looked up and saw a Sun Halo!

Cell phone shot....

Well indeed! That alone made the whole trip worth it.

When I got home Charlie and I stretched out on the couch and snuggled. 

So in the end. I wonder if it would be fun to track my daily mileage -- when I remember to activate the app. 

My second wondering...

Snowmobiler to friends: So out in the middle of NOWHERE, was a lady with a tiny dog and a backpack walking out of the valley on the trail! Was SHE nuts or what?

So far with my 'tracking' this month, I've had 16 miles of hiking just around home. I missed those subzero days for obvious reasons.

Blind shooting!

This is what my cool weather 'gear' looks like. I have over the glasses snow goggles which really have been so helpful protecting my eyes against the white glare of the snow.

Unfortunately on a hard long hike, eventually my glasses fog up inside. This is caused by me pulling the goggles up to peer through the camera viewfinder and then settling the goggles back down.

Since I can't see distance well anyway, but can tell where I am putting my feet, I took my glasses off on Sunday morning and stuffed them in a case in my backpack. 

I had to take the battery out of my Olympus camera and put it in my mitten to keep it warm enough to hold a charge. My small camera pocket which is water proof was stuck in my inner breast pocket.

It was convenient to use, pull out, use Auto Focus/Snow Scene and squint to see a blurry landscape and press the button. 

View of a row of pines on the ridge top.

This is the snowmobile trail where it cuts through the neighbor's land and drops through the woods into a steep valley.

The light was beyond enchanting. The sun is so low in the sky that everything had an eerie glow to it. Add the ice/snow coating and everything also glistened.

As I went deeper and deeper into the valley, it got significantly colder. I navigated along the creek towards my goal of the Big Spring. When there is a sudden cold spell, the Big Spring will produce some of the most fascinating frost on the mossy rocks that are in the spring. The warm water from the spring [something like 45 degrees F] causes a steam affect when the warm air above meets the frigid air.

Sunny side of the valley along
the creek.

Shaded side of the valley along the creek.

I find it interesting that I took these two shots only minutes apart, yet the camera read the white balance so differently in the bright sunlight vs. the cool shade. Or...my yellowed cataract eyes just can't really see what the true colors are. I did try and run this through a simple program that I could 'click' on the white part of the snow and 'get' the proper white balance. 

And the difference in temperature from one side of the valley to the other was about 5 degrees and noticeably much colder.

The going was very difficult because the long tall weeds, brush, and trees were all bent over. I had to duck, weave, and push through places I didn't normally walk to follow the creek.

Getting to the Big Spring on a good day is quite the effort. Getting to in this terrain was a bit more difficult. However, I finally made it.

The Big Spring

I was facing the sunny side of the valley while taking this shot. I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is a slight fog above the water towards the middle of the photo above --- near the bent over trees.
Normally I can walk in under those trees and walk along the edge of the spring. 

There was no good way back out so I had to backtrack when I turned around to go home. I'd used up my allotted time away from the house and needed to get back.

Going home along the creek was an adventure on its own as all the usual trails up the valley were blocked by snowy foliage, bent limbs, and in some cases tree tops that had come down because of the heavy snow/ice.

I found one of my routes blocked by an oak tree top so I had to do some creek leaping to get around it. Finally I decided to brush bust and follow a faint deer trail up the valley wall.

The light was so amazing at times I just stood and looked at it. Even with no glasses and poor vision, the colors and light was incredible.

I got into the open meadow and headed on home.

My tracks across the Meadow.

I was really surprised at how well my little point and shoot
camera did and how well I sort of
was able to compose things even without
my glasses. Mother Nature

did the work. I just tried to 
record some of it.

I do truly love snow and winter. I am sometimes torn between snowshoeing, hiking, or cross country skiing. Generally I will pick the snow shoes as they do not limit where I can go. 

We are supposed to get a storm starting Wednesday evening, so I will have plenty of snow to enjoy. The roads and the winds will get nasty.

But we have food, shelter, and a full tank of LP. 

I'll just squint through my goggles and enjoy it.

Wrong Way Me

A friend from CrossFit asked if I could show him some trails to hike on. He is looking for some nice hiking trails to take his wife on. I said sure!

I've been asked by other friends at CF and they sort of have interest but then sort of don't pursue the request. I won't push anyone into hiking with me at all. It has to be their choice.

Bill and I set a date and time and went for it.

The above shot is one from Bill's cell phone as we started out the hike. The Reserve has many trails and some are very nice wide trails that are shared in the winter with snowmobile trails. Other trails over more sensitive areas are only for hikers. Many trails are multi use which really makes this a great place for everyone.

A person can choose to take tough trails or easy trails.

With the warm temperatures this past weekend, the snow melt was significant. It was obvious that the trails had turned to mushy wet footprints that with Monday's cold weather had turned the trails into icy rugged ankle twisters. 

I suggested we hike with Yak Traks and Bill agreed.  There was an ice crust on the remaining snow on the sides of the trail, but walking in that was harder than negotiating the icy footprints.

I'd taken a less traveled route and by mistake followed the snow mobile trail in the wrong direction I wanted to go in...but the footing was so much nicer! 

Hikers and snowmobiles share these trails and it was easier to walk on.

We went around a huge rock formation and Bill pointed it out. I said something like not recalling that on my last hike.

Then at the bottom of a long hill I stopped in my tracks. I'd taken a wrong turn. At marker 3, I should have gone left instead of right. Bill laughed and we made the executive decision to just double back as we had plenty of time.

That's Bill.
It didn't matter much to him that we were back tracking at all. He said the scenery was stunning and I had to agree with him.

IF I had used viewed my position on Google Maps with the Satellite choice, I would have easily seen that I was very close to where I'd parked just last week to hike to the ice caves.
My bad.
We could have walked out the the county road and hiked along the nice flat road back to where we had parked.

Both Bill and I decided we'd come back this spring and hike to the formation of interesting rocks we'd seen.
I was embarrassed that I'd taken the wrong turn and felt worse than ever about it after I realized that I could have made our hike back a bit easier.
Bill was such a good sport.

The end result was that we walked the less icy trails...AND Bill asked if we could hike again next week.
So I guess I didn't put him off after all.

I think Bill is getting his own map of KVR and he said next time he was bringing his compass.
I usually have one attached to my back pack.

I wonder where I left it.
Anyway two heads are better than one I think.

Moving right along

Sunshine thought it would be fun to take a little jaunt. After all it has been December since we last got out for any time together.

On the ridge things looked pretty good. It was a bit muddy but we went before the ground got too soggy.

My clever little red headed mule wasn't fazed by the icy snow mobile trail. She moved alongside the trail where the ground was good and solid.

When we go to the normal creek crossing area we just sat a bit and watched the water roar on by. Sunshine was happy to just watch and then after a bit we returned home.

My day didn't end there. I had watering to take care, Dixie to play with ... and then I couldn't resist the urge to go back to our creek bottom.
I could hear the waters tumbling and crashing from the house.

I was already muddy. I gathered up my back pack and set off. Rich was sleeping and I had supper in the crock pot.

This is a shot of my neighbor's pasture. This water comes from the area west of us and runs down towards the creek. There is a Dixie head in the right side of the photo.

This is the nice quiet little pond that marks the end of my property and the fence-line that should mark my neighbor's land.

Further downstream I stopped for a quick look around and then headed back home. I was wet and very muddy.

I had to take my pants off on the porch and leave them to dry. My sweatshirt and vest had mud splatters on them also.

I think that meant I had an awesome day.

The venison roast tasted quite wonderful. I think it is one of the best ones I've made.

Note to self though. Plant more green beans, carrots, and corn in the garden next year.