Bridges and Streams

..and adventures ...

I woke up early Saturday and peered out the window. It looked grey and overcast so I fell back to sleep. I woke up a few minutes later and got up to go make coffee. I didn't know if my guests would have looked outside yet or not.
Our Sunrise Date for going to the ridge and perhaps to the M Bridge might not be very exciting after all.
However I did find one of my guests awake. Daryl was sitting at the kitchen table reviewing something on his smart phone.

I said good morning and made coffee. We both glanced out the window and remarked that perhaps the sky wouldn't be very exciting for photographs but perhaps the lighting would be interesting.

And hey, it wasn't raining like the forecasters had predicted.

As we sat drinking coffee, Daryl's youngest daughter came down the stairs and joined us. We sipped our coffee quietly as to not wake anyone else.
We all glanced out the window as the clouds seemed to give off some color and a promise of...something...

In a flash, we'd grabbed our stuff and deposited ourselves in Daryl's Subaru. His family had been here enough now, that he knew the 'good' spots by heart. We drove to Kolstad Road and pulled in at the cattle pen.

"What about M?" asked Daryl. I shrugged. One can never go wrong with the trout stream. There was always the chance of fog, sun, cattle, and beautiful reflections.

The views of Bridge M never disappoint. It is one of my favorite spots to see the landscape change with the seasons.

I just love that clump of trees. Daryl captured the water and the bridge with an incredible eye. It helps to have another person's viewpoint when doing photography.

He is more adventurous than I am.

We decided to meander up the road and check out another spot near the J Bridge.
It did not disappoint.

We spent a good deal of time exploring and decided that we needed to come back and check it out with Daryl's wife and other daughter.

However, we first planned on visiting Jersey Valley. Those who wanted to hike could hike, those who wanted to fish could fish. It is just about the perfect Vernon County Park.

And of course we found more bridges...

Well, and parts of what used to be bridges. These trails were devastated in one of our 3 floods last year. The trails now circumvent these broken bridges. Except for the brand new snow mobile trail that goes over the South Fork of the Kickapoo River.

Fishing proved to be plentiful at Jersey Valley and ...

we got fish to eat!!!

Our photography group's theme for the week was "Bridges" so indeed we decided to explore more.
JJ Bridge.
Bridge Out.

Never underestimate the power of a flash flood. This bridge was nearly destroyed by the flash floods of last September. The rest of the bridges along this stream have also been compromised again and again over the past 10 yrs.
We just passed our 10 year anniversary of the August 2007 floods.

This bridge has been closed since last year and there is no funding from FEMA in sight.
In a way that makes me look upon Hurricane Harvery with a different set of eyes.
FEMA?
For the past 10 years FEMA was full of promises and slow to react.

However this area is so unique and I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.

For me it is a hiking a photography paradise.

I wonder how many bridges and streams I can photograph?

I won't run out of choices very soon.