Whispers of Love ~~~

A Botanical Symphony that fills the forest with harmony~~~~

I took advantage of hubby sleeping in late on Wednesday and went for a morning forest jaunt. I was just amazed by the colors and the light.

Maple trees in morning light:

Gooseberry bushes blooming:

Apple Trees doing their beautiful thing:

Mayapples or as we called them May Poles:

Tulips in the yard:

Stunning Trillium on Hay Valley Trail:

Bellwort on Hay Valley Trail:

Truly, I cannot get enough photos of these Virginia Pinks before they disappear!
In the pine forest at Hay Valley Trail:

There were hundreds of Trout Lilies plants, but I only found one that was blossoming!

Hay Valley Trail:

[Other things that are going on at our farm? Not much. 

I built another two summer lots for both the little stud pony and the mules so I can do a bit less mowing. I spent all morning working on fencing and then took the afternoon to work on cleaning up the little flower gardens.

I brushed all the critters with a shedding blade until my arms fell off.]

It is the weekend now so I may take a day just to chill out!

I 'yam Twila-wila!

I 'yam going to start at the end and go backwards. I mean why not? Or maybe sort of in the middle.

Sometimes I lose my train of thoughts and they get jumbled around.

Chuck, can I call him Chuck? He prefers Char--lie. Any way, my little pal and I rode in the car together and it worked! I sat on my bed in back and he sat in his car seat up front. 

We went back to the Big Reserve.

Oh wait. I forgot about our day of rest and hunting fungi and slime mold. I wasn't interested in it at all but the Grandma showed me how to sit patiently while she fiddled with her camera thing and explored itty bitty things.

I gotta admit. She's weird. Some of the stuff she looked at was boring. I thought the mule poop next to it was delicious but she only let me have a quick bite.

Anyyy wayz.

We went on a trail called Hay Valley. I don't know what that was but there were a lot of deer smells. A crazy man on a mountain bike came down and around a sharp hill turn and almost ran us over. The Grandma grabbed me and Charlie ran in circles. The man apologized and said he was going too fast. His fault.

Whatever. I got scared.

The rest of the hike/walk/sniff fest was pretty nice except when it seemed to get really hot for Charlie. We had plenty of water breaks and rests. I learned to drink out of a large lid that the Grandma put water in for us. I even shared with Charlie!

Charlie gave the Grandma a signal that he was tired so she picked him up and carried him for a while, especially when we had to go through longer grass. Charlie's legs are very short. But since he is so little, he climbs under logs while I have to jump over.

But I like jumping. The Grandma says I have jumping beans in me. I don't what that means either.

We were so lazy when we got home, we just laid around.

This morning the Grandma said we needed to go for a sunrise walk to take some pretty pictures.

I guess my Mom and Dad really miss me, so I am going to go back home. I hope Charlie lets me come again and visit so I can eat his food, push him around, and lick his ears. Mostly I liked hiking with him. He is so brave and unascared. 

Dad called me Twila-wila in a post so maybe I 'yam 

Twila-wila
the adventurer-er.

Time Out!

I've been watching the weather and for the past few weeks, it has sort of sucked. It has been hot/humid or rainy/stormy, it seems nearly every day. Any day that it is decent has been a lawn mowing day.

At least with most hot nights, it has cooled off enough to open the windows and enjoy fresh air. Hubby needs the AC so he can breath easier during most days.

Sunday morning was foggy again, but nice and cool. I helped hubby get his breakfast and since he was doing okay, I decided to try something different.

I left early, just after 7:30 to go hiking. It was sunny on our ridge when I left, but very foggy on the drive up 131 along the Kickapoo River. That is normal for our area. 

My goal was to continue working on the Trail Challenge and I had figured out a route that I wanted to take which would complete two very long sections of trail.

I parked and headed out in the fog.

Bridge 10 and the Kickapoo River:

The trail head for Hay Valley Trail [heading North] can be found on Dutch Hollow Trail just a bit south of Bridge 10 on Dutch Hollow Trail.

I was doing Hay Valley from Dutch Hollow going north 2+ miles and then at the intersection for Bail Out trail heading east to Hwy 131 and back to where I parked.

I am so happy that I invested in super moisture wicking light weight pants and shirt. Many parts of the trail go through tall grasses and other weeds. The pants actually resisted the water for a while, but eventually I got pretty wet. 

I didn't mind as I figured the pants would dry off. I wasn't uncomfortable at all and I kept on trucking. I figured the trail would go into the woods soon and I wouldn't have to deal with waist high wet grasses and weeds.

Foggy forest just above the River.

Spidey Webs!

The Muck Hole!

The Muck Hole was a bit of a challenge and it was here I sort of wished I wasn't hiking. It was here that I wished I had thought to bring a 'hiking stick'. Oh well.

Shoes and pants can be cleaned so I made my way through and it wasn't as bad as I expected.  I crossed a shallow stream and was back on my way up towards the fog and the ridge.

Bluff edge overlooking the River
below which I couldn't see

because of the forest canopy.

More cool spidey webs!

Other noteworthy parts to the trail. 

A rubber bridge or perhaps you'd call it a boardwalk. 

I wonder if my mule would walk 

over this? 
I doubt I'll ever know

as I have no truck

to pull our trailer.

Neat Rock Shelter! 

This is worth checking out in

the middle of winter!

A hole in the rock wall!

A place to chill out next to 

the rock ledge 

and cool creek water.

I found the intersection of Hay Valley Trail and Bail Out Trail. I've had two hikers with me that I've taken past these signs. Finally I got to check out Bail Out Trail.

It is noteworthy that it was probably an old road at one time. It is rather straight and wide.

I traveled this section rather quickly and came out on Hwy 131 as planned. The walk back to where I parked was easy and not unpleasant.

Route:

Things learned. 

Early morning is great, but I need to be prepared to get wet in the morning dew. 

The bugs were minimal except when I stopped in areas with tall grasses. 

Cool mornings are the best in my opinion. However, I really want to do this hike in each of the seasons. 

I'm looking forward to a late fall or early winter hike. And of course, a spring hike to see all the amazing spring flowers along Hay Valley Trail.

Section 40 is definitely going to be one of my favorite trails.

I was home by 10:30, just as hubby was waking up from his morning nap. 

My timing was perfect and I had my inner peace restored.

Hay Valley & Washout Trail ~ Trail Challenge

Hay Valley & Washout Trails, Sections 41 & 44. 1.86 miles & 1.30 miles respectively. Not extremely difficult, but nice long uphill and downhill grades.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome back to Hay Valley Trail. 
Bill and I headed out from the trail head from Campsite U.

We are trying to get Charlie on all of the trails with us. It might be a BIG feat for such a little dog, but he is a surprising little hiker. 
He does wonderfully in cooler weather, don't we all?

This is trail section 44 which is a gradual but steep uphill climb . According to the maps, it appears that the climbs are up and down of about 200 feet.

Without the leaves and undergrowth obscuring the terrain, we could see that we were going around rock formations. 

If we weren't on a time schedule, I'd have gone exploring once we made the switch back at the top. But both of us have responsibilities.

We found the stone foundation just as Aurora and I did last week. This week there was a surprise waiting at the base of the foundation.

Ginger plants in blossom!

When we got to the intersection #10, I explained to Bill how the Bailout Trail went south and ended back up on Highway 131 just north of Bridge 9. Following the Hay Valley Trail would take us south towards Rockton.

Washout Trail would take us back to where we parked our vehicles. We'd have more gradual uphill sections and down hill sections that would take us across a small stream.
The Trout Lilies were just appearing in the valley.

 

In some spots, these spotted leaves were spotted all over along with so many Blood Root blossoms and Hepatica.

Below is one spot along the Washout Trail, Section 44 that had an amazing amount of Maypoles or Mayflowers sprouting up!

Our total hiking distance was about 3.5 miles.

Section 42 from Campsite U on to Billings Creek Trail head is a 1.87 mile walk alongside Hay Valley Road to County Road F. We will save that for a day we feel like walking on roads.

That area will still be scenic. There is the river to cross at Bridge 6 and some pretty little ponds alongside the road.

Next to where we parked the Virginia Bluebells were all along the roadside coming up alongside the Cow Parsnip which has white flowers in the spring. Wild Parsnip has yellow blossoms. It is a good habit to leave all wild parsnips alone while they are blossoming. 

The Trail Challenge actually has 3 road sections which I am okay with as ... back in the old days we had to ride the roads to get to different sections of the 'Government Ground' as it was called before it became the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

Hay Valley Spring Hike

It was time for our second Annual Spring Hike at Kickapoo Valley Reserve. Fellow Blogger Aurora [equine expressions] and I studied the weather and decided to go for it this week.

Not only was she early to our meet up place, she said she didn't get lost. 

Once we started, our Trail Master kept us on the right track.

At first glance, the trail may look a bit mundane and even boring. But it isn't. Spring feels a bit late this year, but ...

...it is slowly emerging and with a few warmer days it will explode.

If one looks closely, the flowers are emerging on certain hillsides.

Bloodroot

Dutchman's Breeches

Fiddlesticks
--Ferns

Hepatica
[see the fuzzy leaves?]

Wild Photographer
on the loose:

 

We stopped a lot and just soaked in the forest sounds. The day was a bit overcast and at times the sun peeked through but we just walked, talked, and admired everything along the trail.

And photographers who hike together will often grab a candid of the other person. Aurora was no exception. She caught me playing with my Legos.

What was I doing? Well, I was setting up a Lego BigFoot inside a 'cave'. However, I wasn't sure that he should have a fire inside a hollow tree.

The place I really wanted Aurora to see was the old foundation.

This was a much better place to discover Bigfoot.

Photos by
Aurora!

And this is what I was shooting. I found Bigfoot!!!! He was taking a photo of me!

We spent a lot of time looking at this foundation. It may be the only remains of one of the farm buildings that were purchased to make way for the dam that didn't happen.

We took our time and strolled, stopping often to look at things. I never even glanced to see what time it was. I was enjoying everything so much. Female human company AND the great outdoors.

Pussy Toes

this plant had

me stumped until I recalled

finding them before!

Shining Firmoss

If I'd had my way, I would have not even gone back to my vehicle. I would have waved a magic wand and become a woodland elf.

That outing relaxed me so much, it lasted through the weekend. I'm so chill right now I could just melt right into the ground and enjoy the misty rainfall.