Creek Inspector

Here is a shot of Saturday morning's rain gauge. It rained hard off and on between 1 AM and about 3 AM. Lightening flashed non stop as did the thunder. I laid on the couch and was alerted by my weather app that there was a tornado watch, a flash flood watch, a flood warning, and a severe thunderstorm warning.
Also there was a lot of lightening strikes.

Well, I just laid there and watched the show out the south windows with the Quiver Dog who shook everytime there was a boom. He watched too. I guess Charlie was curious about the lightening.

He twice asked to go out and twice turned around and decided to cross his legs and wait until the storm stopped.

I finally slept and woke up to silence and dense fog enshrouding our hollow. As things lightened up, I pulled on the muck boots and decided to go check on how the critters faired over night. 
Lil' Richard was standing in the driveway. He did have shelter from the storm under the front of the 5th wheel flat bed. But he had been busy rolling in the gravel to do his morning ritual of grooming.

The mules were walking around eating various weeds and grazing for the short grass. They too, had covered themselves with mud. It is one of nature's finest bug repellant and apparently it feels good.

I headed towards the creek checking to make sure no more tree tops had fallen onto fence lines. As soon as I stepped into the forest, the skeeters made their appearance and I pulled on the head net. I stopped half way down the trail and listened.

The summer birds were gone. No calls from the Orioles, Catbird, Wrens, and the Bluebirds. I heard a stray Robin. But the forest was a song of crickets and water dripping. I could actually hear water running in the creek which would be a first this year.

The shot on the right shows the creek bottom on August 8th and the left one was Aug 28th. The tiny arrows point to the same rock ... sorry that the shots are not perfect as far as being exactly the same.

The there is me. I set my little pocket camera on a rock and hit the self timer.
If you look closely it may be apparent as to how wide and high the furious waters ran. It moved boulders and logs.
Never underestimate the power of water!

In places where things got jammed up and then let go the clearing of the plants is more evident.

The kids had built a rock castle out of some rather heavy rocks here. It got washed away and the rocks placed somewhere else.

I am glad the creek was cleaned out like this it sure makes rock hunting more fun and spending time listening to the water is like hearing music.

Our temperatures at least have made a turn around. It was beastly hot and humid on Saturday, but thing have settled down this week. 

I can't wait to get back down into the creek and spend some time just mucking about now that the temperatures have become a bit more livable.

Charlie can accompany me then as he can travel without getting stuck in the weeds.

Hiking the Wintergreen Trail at KVR

KVR stands for the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

I hadn't hiked this trail since April, so I wanted to get out and see what it looked like in the summer. Plus when my Grand daughter and I went, we stopped at the ice cave and didn't go all of the way to the end.

The trail is supposed to be only 1.5 miles round trip which sounds pretty easy. The hike itself is not hard at all if you are used to hiking. There are no terribly steep parts that go on forever. There is a set of stone stairs that seem to be almost hidden in the summer growth, but those are the steepest part of the trail.

The trail promises 'views' of the Kickapoo River. However there is only really one spot to get a good view of the Kickapoo.

Here is the view we had in April:

This overlook not hard to get too and I think by the worn down trail that most people stop here and go back. I wanted to see where it ended.

One of the things I knew I'd run into was bugs. Lots of bugs. We've had a very wet July and the recent flooding and heavy rains along with the warm and humid weather has been a real boost to the mosquito population.

They were pretty ferocious when I got down on the trail to photograph some incredible fungi I found alongside the trail.

Coral fungi, a very beautiful and unique fungi.

Unknown type of fungi or mushroom. It was very brightly colored and worth setting up the tripod in the dark woods to get a steady shot. I fought off buzzing mosquitoes to get these fungi shots.

I was amazed to find Indian Pipes already. Normally I don't find them in the woods until later in August. However I found several spots where these were sprouting up. They are not fungi however and are plants that are related to the blueberry family and do not have chlorophyll which explains their white color and the other common name they are known by "Ghost Plant".

Here is a snapshot of one of the 'outlooks' over a bluff.  20 years ago the view would have been different. The view of the river would have been easier to see. You can see the river but it isn't what I would call a 'scenic view of the river'. Still it was fun to stand on the finger of rock and look down into the river below.

Once you find the stairs you end up on a trail that indeed is under a pine forest canopy. The trail is sandy and dry littered with pine needles. The walking is rather easy. 

On either side of the trail, the bluff does fall off quite steeply. It is heavily forested and I wouldn't recommend going off trail at this point.

Here is the end of the trail. I can see where people have gone down the bluff to explore but I didn't feel it was a good idea to try it by myself.
At this point you are on another 'rock finger' so to speak.

I was relieved to away from all the nasty buzzing bloodthirsty bugs and sat for a while at the end.

I will definitely do this trail again in the fall and  winter. I have snow shoes and ice/snow traction cleats that slip on over my hiking boots. Then I could say I've done the trail in each season.

Kickapoo Valley Reserve had something they call the KVR Trail Challenge. If you complete 20 Trail Segments you get some sort of little prize. I guess it isn't the prize I am looking for, it is the challenge of the hikes. With about 50 miles of hiking trails, I could easily get it done.

I explored the Reserve quite extensively by mule in the late 1990's while it was still run by the Army Core of Engineers.
I've changed over the years and now think a good challenging hike [with camera gear of course] is in some ways more fun.

In my opinion, there are more chances to simply stop and look around when on foot.

For the spring hike... see this post.
Spring...ing.

The Creek Bottom after a Flash flood

I looked out the window as soon as daylight broke and used the binoculars to read the rain gauge.
3.25 inches of rain on the dot.

And water was running like crazy everywhere. My smart phone gave me an alert that flash flooding was occuring in my area. 
Be still my heart! 

Our house is not situated in an area that would be in danger from a flash flood. Our driveway suffers washouts, the creek gets cleansed of all those nasty weeds, and some places do wash in the pastures...but our house? We were not in danger of rising creeks or flash floods.

However. I love a good gully washer. Or should I say I love the aftermath of a good gully-washer/flash flood.

Alas. My poor heart. I had tomatoes to can. My feet however where itchy to go out and see what the gushing waters looked like.

I finished canning the tomatoes, and then proceeded to work on clear coating the Wainscott chair rail wood in the dining area.

Then it was time. I donned my 'woods' pants, 'woods' shirt, camera bag, rubber chore boots...and of course Morris and went to explore. I had promised Rich that it would be a short walk.

Oh what torture that was.

Earlier this year, the creek was not visible due to the amount of Jewel Weed and other weeds that choked the creek bottom.

A few flash floods and gully washers have set things back to normal. 
And I can gleefully look for cool rocks.

And I can find the odd balls rocks. The ones I believe are iron concretions and come in some very strange shapes.

The water was cold that came down the creek from above. Briefly, the sun came out and there was a thin layer of fog on top of the creek water.

It was eerie but amazing at the same time. Cold air and warm air met. Fog in a thin layer oozed across and towards myself and Morris.

Morris and I only hiked a small portion of the creek. 

We hiked enough to know that I wanted to follow the creek down the valley to where it meets up with Black Bottom Creek.

I looked at my watch. Time to get back home. I had work to do inside the house and the sun had come out. It would be a hot and sticky walk home.

I dipped my hands and my baseball cap in the 'new' pond and cooled off before heading up the ridge road towards home.

Morris trotted ahead of me, eager to get home and out of the heat also.

However I was stopped dead in my tracks by some incredible jelly fungi that glistened in the sunlight.

I sure want to get back into the woods and explore the valley.

Alas. Today is Crab Apple Jelly Making Day with the Neighbor.

I promised to show her how to make jelly. Both our households love jelly and homemade jelly.

Tomorrow looks to be promising though.

Fog in the morning and nice temperatures.

Perhaps I can convince my darling hubby to let me off clear coat duty for a couple of hours to explore the valley.

How I love to explore!

Big Rain and Lots of Fun

I looked at the weather on the radar, we were supposed to have a chance of rain and then it would move on.

Oh boy was the weather service wrong! After the first inch of downpour, I checked the weather again. NOAA had said that a line of thunderstorms had developed and stalled.

The expected rainfall could be anywhere from 2 inches to 4 before it moved on.

I stepped out on the porch and watched the rain come down in sheets. After that first downpour water started running across the yard and through my garden.

The water ran across the edge of the yard and right into the garden.

The damage was minimal after the waters receded. I went out to look at the garden and water still trickled through. 
Our ground is super saturated.

Just after the rain stopped I checked the radar and put on my chore boots. It was time to go see how the waters were running.

It came down from our neighbor's cattle pasture and had rushed to the spot where our little creek begins.

And from there the volume increased.

I stayed up on the bank for the most part because the water was still flowing too hard and too fast even though it had subsided from flash flood stage.

After the waters subsided a bit more, I did use this deer trail to get down into the creek and take some shots near the big rock.

Yep, worth the mud on the hands and the seat of my pants. However, climbing back out was interesting. Walking along the stream was not an option.

I went down to the last dry run we have before the creek goes into the neighbor's land.

The water had subsided, but the run off was still very impressive.

I decided to end my exploration there and not continue downstream.
The water would only be faster, deeper, and wider there. It could wait a day for me to go check it out.

I guess I am just a freak for mud, water, and fun in the rain.

I'm going to go search for my rain duster and check it out again today or tomorrow.

Really. I am not crazy. 
Perhaps I can find some cool fungi and mushrooms!

Getting Lost in the Woods

Oh I really didn't get 'lost' lost.  I just told hubby that I'd go out to the creek and check things out with the tripod because...it was overcast and late in the day.
Somewhere I think about 5pm.  I figured I'd only be gone a little while you know?

But something happens when you get down in the creek and begin to wander around, listening the the music of the water.

Time stops.  Or, worse, you stop thinking about time like I do and begin to immerse yourself in water, rocks, sounds, bird song...and get wrapped up in it so badly, that you lose track of time.

Literally.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was 7pm!
My excuse was ... well there are rarely times when the creek is so full of flood water that is still draining off the ridges...
It was shoot now...or 
miss
it.

So I went for the NOW and kept looking and looking.

I found a portion of a broken glass pitcher on a rock.

I wonder where that came from?



Oh and then there was the parked car...well some of the years of dirt had washed off from it and this time it was more visible.

 

I found another spot that intrigued me ... and then I realized that if I moved away from the running water, I could hear some thundering in the distance.
I stopped and looked at my watch.

OH crap.
It was 7pm, where had the time gone?

I set up for one final shot.

And of course there is a shot of me taking a photo of some water on the rocks.
Yes, I am wearing a head net. 
The gnats were so awful that if I hadn't worn it, I'd never have enjoyed a moment in the bottom.

I packed up and raced home.  Only to find that my husband had finished the work that I had volunteered to help him with.
We watched the storm head south of us with our blessings...
and had a beautiful supper together.

This morning I am brewing a wonderful pot of Kona Coffee brought to me by my daughter in law.
It has only improved my resolve to go back next year.

It smells delicious.