Hannah and toilet paper...

 So I promised a strange story about Hannah and toilet paper. 

I feel restless in the Fall season. I used to feel that time was slipping away from me. Perhaps it is the loss of daylight that occurs.

Perhaps, it is the trees dropping their leaves and the landscape going through a dramatic change.

Perhaps it is an internal clock reminding me that life is finite. 

I started to check emails, blogs, and Flickr. When I felt something slipping away. I put my camera in a backpack and grabbed my keys. The dogs were not letting me get away with leaving them again. 

We loaded up and off we went. Me? To seek something. I didn't know quite what, but it would come to me.

The sun came up, a bright orange globe predicting an unusually warm October day. 

I forgot the beeper controls for the dog collars. I forgot breakfast. I did remember leashes and my camera. 

The drive was so amazing. On the ridge, the day was bright and warm.

Along the highway next to the river? 

Highway 131 is twisty and follows the Kickapoo River Valley. I think I once counted crossing the river 13 times just getting to a town 12 miles away.

I ended up stopping at Big Valley.  I parked and we piled out of the car in the early morning light.

I called my cohorts to follow me and they complied. Hannah was frantic with puppy energy and must have left her brain at home. My destination was the small bluffs overlooking Warner Creek. I thought the morning light and the view would be worth the little climb.

My goal was the pine tree in the center of the photo below.

We followed the designated equine trail and then went off trail towards the bluff. Charlie walked by my side and Hannah bounced ahead with springs in her legs.

These bluffs that have a stream running under them along with the pines, the soil, the moisture, and the little micro climate have made this an amazing place to find fungi. And we did!

The American Yellow Fly Agaric aka Amanita chrysoblema mushroom! There were hundreds of them!

The beautiful ones are always so poisonous!

There were so many of them on the bluff. 

I was horrified to see that someone had walked along part of the bluff and had been kicking over these beauties. What the He11 is wrong with people? 

I squatted down to start photographing them, when I noticed Hannah had something white in her mouth.

I do have to watch her carefully. She tends to try to 'taste' everything, though not as bad as she used to. I was afraid she'd picked up a piece of the Amanita.

I ran over to her and hollered 'Drop IT' 'Leave IT'. One of those commands should have worked but didn't. She pranced around me chewing. Finally I gave her the hand signal to sit and she obeyed.

One more stern look and a soft 'leave it' and Hannah dropped it. Ugh. Gross. Disgusting. Used toilet paper. I walked back to where I'd seen her pick it up and as I toured through the trees I found other places that sported TP. 

I was so angry that I wanted to spit. IF I have that urge while hiking or riding, I do carry bits of TP, but I also carry a plastic ziplock bag to put the used stuff in. Disgusting. First the offenders kick over beautiful fungi and then they do whatever and leave their TP.

I moved on to the bluff site where I wanted to get a photo of Warner Creek.

And as you can see, someone was as interested in it as I was.

I got the shots I sort of wanted this shot looking east and the other shot looking west.

As we walked a little further down the trail, gunfire erupted in a few areas. It sounded like shotguns so it could have been Turkey hunters, but I did a quick check and there was also gun hunt for deer for youth and disabled people.

I wasn't in a good hunting area, but the bellowing of the guns far off shook poor Charlie.

We headed back towards the car. Hannah was not fazed by the noise at all and wanted to play in the water.

We waved goodbye to the bluffs and headed home.

The Reserve allows hunting on its land and anyone can hunt there. I've met some really nice hunters [bow, pheasant, duck] while hiking in the fall. I always stay out of the area during the 9 day deer gun season. 

The dogs got their adventure time, I found cool fungi and played on the bluffs. Hannah learned to leave toilet paper alone [I think], and a good morning was had by all.

It was time to go home and get those list of to do's done. We did pretty well. We were back home before 10am.

I still had a 'date' with the Mississippi Valley Conservancy to go to Tunnelville Cliffs and do a star gazing walk.