Gone Hiking

Saturday looked like another dreary winter day. With very little snow and a 'brown' look to the frozen mud and woods, it wasn't exactly cheery looking.

I decided that it would be perfect for Charlie and I to head to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve to get my new yearly pass. Honestly, the $20 fee is reasonable as far as I am concerned. I don't mind paying it for access to about 8,600 acres of unique landscape.

I feel pretty lucky to live within a half hour's drive to get there and choose a good trail to hike. Last week the neighbors and I 'did' Warner Creek. This week Charlie and I were going back to Wiester Creek.

I just packed water and some emergency supplies. I wore a bright red cap too as there is public hunting allowed on the Reserve.

I am horrible at taking 'selfies' with my camera. However I thought it would be fun to see how Charlie's attitude about 'road trips' has changed over the past year.
I pulled over to snap this. Note that Charlie is indeed looking as if HE were the Navigator!

He now understands that we are travelling somewhere when I put his harness on. The past few times he has run to the passenger side of the Subaru and waited for me to set up his car seat.

I got to the little parking area and snapped the leash on Charlie. Off we went. I found it a bit unusual that the 'Ice' signs were not up, but it didn't bother me, I knew where we were going.

I let Charlie loose and immediately he took off following the tracks of a raccoon. I called him back and snapped up the leash. I doubted he'd find the raccoon, but I didn't want to take the chance that Charlie would corner him. Charlie is tiny and a raccoon...well, much bigger than Charles.

I wanted to head down Wiester Creek to the place last year where we'd seen what we dubbed the Orange Sherbert Ice Formation.

I took an old horse trail that ran just above the creek. The trail hasn't been used by equine in at least 20 years, but the indentions are still evident.

I think you can see why I like hiking in the winter time.
There is also the bug factor.
No Bugs!

Charlie suddenly stopped in the trail and stood as tall as he could.

Of course I expected him to say...'DANGER!' He didn't, he just listened and looked. Across the valley a combine fired up and started to work a corn field. No danger, just noise.

On we went until we came down to a draw with an ice flow.

Fresh tracks of raccoon among other kinds. They followed the ice flow to the creek.

Coyote tracks:

I stepped into the middle of the creek that had a little rock island.
And there was the ice in various stages of melting and forming.

Last year I couldn't get near to the orange looking ice because of the brush in the way and the shape of the creek itself.

Hopefully we will get some good weather for the ice to become 'more creative' and exciting.

Charlie and I hugged the bank and used an old trail to walk along the creek as far as we could heading back.

We found some interesting patches of ice hugging the crevices of the rock formations.

We spent quite a while here just sitting.

I had a lot of things to mull over and this was the perfect spot to do it.