Wyalusing ice and Chippy

Mr. McCool and I went adventuring again today. It seems that I feel quite driven this winter to keep busy and keep at it. [I added the cool sunglasses with AI.]

I am thinking of how I can get out each day and plan an adventurous hike. I feel driven to go find ice formations. The house is too quiet. The logged forest that used to bring me peace and solitude has been destroyed [my words].

Thursday morning broke with sunny skies and temps that were to get up to 20 F. The WNW winds were to be light.

Perfect.

I put my sidekick in his car seat and we headed out. 

I wanted to check out Wyalusing's ice caves. I knew they wouldn't be spectacular after all the rain and warm temps we had, but I don't like to compete with the crowds that would come on the weekends. Week days seem perfect for exploring State Park trails.

This formation is called the painted cave because of all the colors in the rocks. I couldn't believe how brilliant the pink and the yellowish orange colors were on this visit.

We did go down inside of it. The size of this formation is tremendous, larger than any rock shelter I've ever been in before. It looked like someone had dumped blue food coloring on the ice formation itself. 

[Vandals!!!!]

We took the well traveled trail to the second cave. I could hear the water running even before I got there.

This photo doesn't give the viewer any idea just how large this formation is. 

Since getting in close felt a bit iffy, I decided to stay in the 'safe' zone and shoot what I could.

I was entranced by the portions of ice that had dropped to the bottom of the rock formation and had new and interesting patterns of ice forming from the melting ice above along with the spring water that flowed down and froze.

For perspective, these ice formations on the ground are taller than I am.

It never ceases to amaze me, what art Mother Nature creates.

I could have spent hours here, but decided to move on. After all, Charlie is quite the task master when he believes we should move on.

For this trip, we brought a mascot.

Chippy. He is quiet. He travels well in a backpack and requires very little food.

Plus....

Charlie didn't try to tear him apart. 

We have some more ice formations to check out on Friday if everything goes to plan. 

Life in the .... frozen lane?

Earlier this week

The nice weather on Wednesday prompted Charlie and I to take another long hike on a familiar trails called Little Canada and Ice Cave Trail. It is a 'lollipop' loop. Meaning
one circles like a lollipop at the far

end of the trail and comes back 

on the same trail.

Charlie took his time. He slowed way down and did more investigating of the sides of the trails. We saw deer, heard some birds, but mostly the hike was quiet and subdued.

I'd taken the first leg on a maintenance/hike trail which cut off about a 1/2 mile of the beginning of the trail. When I got into the huge pine stands which were planted by the previous land owners about 60 years ago I saw this cool vine.

There are quite a few stands of white pines in this area as the farmers who owned these lands had planted them in the hopes of harvesting them for lumber and profit. Alas, the state moved in and they moved out. But that is another history lesson for this area.

Walking through some of these stands makes me wonder what those who are care for the Reserve plan to do as the pines age out and fall over.

I came to several spots where that has occurred over the past winter and just was curious.

We stopped at Charlie's stump where I've placed him often over the years when we've hiked this trail together. I don't know how much longer this stump will survive too.

The winds were pretty cold but when we dropped into valleys we stayed rather warm and when we walked on the ridges we were cooled.

We walked through the endless pines, the wind played music in the top branches. I stood and watching the boughs sway back and forth.

Below is one of the double ice caves or in geologist terms, rock shelters that are below the trail in a deep dry run. Actually a bit of water trickles through the rocks creating an ice curtain in front of 'cave' and thus earns its name as an Ice Cave.

Here is my neighbor Bill in the cave on the right in the winter of 2022. That was probably our last winter hike together.

It is a tough climb down into the shelters and tougher coming out!

Still, it is worth it!

Below are a couple of trail signs indicating that these trails are horse and bike trails. When I see the signs upside down like this I always think about a horse meeting a bike and freaking out. You can make up the rest of the story.

However, the rule is, pedestrians AND bikes stop and step aside for horses. Bikes are to pause for hikers also but rarely does that occur. I won't go into that now. 

This is the view that looks toward the river towards the end of the lollipop loop. I just like the combination of colors.

When I reach this spot in the trail, I nearly always pause to see if I can get a 'good' shot of these trees, roots, and rocks.

The weekend was planned with new areas to explore that most people don't even seem to know about! 

Jason the Geologist was coming to visit and had a plan....

Stay tuned....

Using Junk for fun

Junk diorama.

I've enjoyed the challenges of making something out of nothing. I've watched some great videos about how to make dioramas out of junk. Below are pieces of stuff I was going to throw out. Medicine vials, parts of a defunct humidifiers, CPAP hoses, Toilet Paper rolls, soda caps, and miscellaneous card board boxes and pieces.

That is what the 'creative' table looked like before photographing the characters.

Below is what the photo ended up looking like.

The minibots are actually cheap cake toppers from the dollar store a few years ago. Except for the Lego Droids that I picked up at a yard sale, the cost of this whole set up was $1. Of course I got out my old paints and enjoyed giving everything a look of rustic old pieces of junk.

I keep these pieces in a box with fake rocks I made out of Styrofoam board I found in another junk pile in the shed. I keep thinking I should toss it out...but.....

The fake rocks were used to make this scene of an Ogre and Orcs meeting in a cave. The 'fog' was made with a long exposure of mist from a face mister.

When I get stuck inside all day, I busy myself while my hubby naps. This is something I can do with headphones on. I listen to music and rearrange my junk so I can make a new scene.

This included some of the previous junk stuff. The figures are cheap Hasbro Droid figures from the Star Wars series. I like robots and droids, they are cool. The light in the back is simply a medicine vial that I sparsely painted and set over a balloon light.

The possibilities are endless at my little creative table. The fun part is that  I can set things up and tear things down constantly. 

This next shot is a set up for a Dragon and Rock Monster portrait.

I do say that I make a lot of adjustments and mistakes before I get one shot that I keep.

Many years ago, I swore I'd never 'shoot' anything involving still life. But I took an online class specifically for that just to challenge myself. I enjoyed the class much to my surprise. Still Life can be very technical or very simple.

Since delving into the fun world of toy photography, I've decided that this is so enjoyable and presents with so many creative aspects. I'll keep on keeping on!

I'll never stop enjoying nature photography, but this is a great way to practice the art of photography when I cannot get out in nature.

An Amazing Friend and Adventure Part II

 

The day grew darker and a bit more dreary when we got to the south end of the ridgetop. The Hogback Ridge opened up into a larger and flat plateau like area. At different times, the State Land had been rented out as farm land. 

We walked around this field and entered the old oak forest. Jason kept looking for an old trail he knew he'd used a couple of years ago.

He said that he hadn't done this part of the hike alone because he didn't feel safe in case something happened to him. He has trouble with his knees and had surgery last year.

This type of landscape is something I've hiked in for the past 28 years. I often scramble up and down rocky and dirt dry runs. Looking for handholds while climbing over roots and rocks is something I don't even have to think about any more.

I took this shot below after we had an incident with Jason's older dog. While negotiating this animal track on the hillside, Felix lost his balance and rolled down the steep incline. He rolled into a log. Jason was upset. Felix got up and shook while Jason called to him.

Felix had decided he wanted nothing to do with that trail and did not want to follow us stupid humans. [In the mean time, Charlie and Jason's other dog Piper sat and watched]

Jason called and called. Felix ignored him and started slowly started to climb the steep hill with a slippery bed of oak leaves up and away from us.

I'm a fast scrambler, so I took off after Felix. I used trees, rocks, and balance to get ahead of Felix. Jason warned me not to grab Felix by the collar. He'd bite me. Felix is a pretty laid back dog except when he is upset. He is a rescue 'off the street' dog. Jason calls him his High Dollar Doggy for all the vet bills they have had.

I positioned myself on the trial so that Felix couldn't get by me except by climbing over a huge log. I offered him one of Charlie's dog cookies to interest him while Jason came up to put him on a leash.

As expected, there was quite a tussle getting Felix leashed. We eventually made it to the main attraction.

We took several minutes to just chill out, get the dogs some water, and sit quietly on the floor of the cave.

Jason suffers from PTSD and Anxiety so I understand his need to be able to just sit and breathe when something happens. He has to process things differently than I do. He just recently had doctors diagnose him with borderline autism. His life long struggles with processing information and relationships now make a bit more sense to him. That said, he is a brilliant geologist that no longer works in that field. He is smart and articulate but needs different rules for conversation and friendship.

Let's say, we get along just fine.

I pulled out two Lego Minifigures and set them up on a rock shelf to take their photo. I presented the one minifig as Jason, one as me...and one little Charlie.

Jason pulled out something from his backpack and handed it to me.

I quipped with delight: You are so prepared! You brought along Guardians of the Galaxy in case we needed Superhero's!!!

With things settled down we had some fun. Jason tried to crawl back to see how far the holes in the rock extended. The shot below is an infrared shot in black and white. I really love how one can see the details of the rock that was washed and eroded by underground water flowing millions of years ago.

And after that, silliness happened.

Jason wanted a photo of himself doing silly things. Jumping up and down...

A silhoutte.

And the last bit of fun silliness. Charlie and Jason's dogs were curious when Jason started jumping up and down. Charlie wouldn't get out from under Jason, so he scooped Charlie up and continued to jump!

We found a better trail to climb up and out of there and started back towards our vehicles. With Jason, I never have to think of something to say as he is always chatting. That's fine, listening is a good skill to have.

He says he enjoys my friendship and hiking with me because he doesn't have to worry that I can't handle myself. I bring emergency gear like he does and have some good knowledge of woodcraft.

On our way back Jason had to take a few rest breaks. Apparently, Charlie adores the heck out of him!

We got back to the parking area as it started to drizzle. Both of us were a bit sad that the hike ended but I had to get home to hubby. Jason had a two hour drive to get back to Madison.

Lots of hugs and promises to get together to explore together again with our dog pack.

Until the next time....

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

One last bit.  
While standing on the top of the ridge, Jason explained the development of the historical geology of this particular area.

Direct, copy and paste from his FB post explaining the Hogback Ridge.

This is the floor of a formerly underground sandstone cave that was exhumed and eroded away including the ceiling and walls. The sandstone has various dissolution textures (vertical pipes, polished surface, lots of eroded fracture sets) than can only happen by groundwater. It’s a very unique rock and unlike the weathering textures seen in sea or ice caves. There’s more of this a few other places. I like this spot the best.

Wendigo

The weather is warming up drastically and who knows what will wake up in the forest???

A Wendigo? It crawls out of a small rock cave.

...and makes its way to the creek...to fish for trout....

... good fishing

time for a nap...

***************

The Wendigo is a mythological creature that is an evil spirit according to Algonquin folklore. It is slated as a mythical cannibalistic creature. It sounds absolutely horrid and awful.

I found this 3D printed figure at the local flea market. It is said to be a Fidget Toy. It is loose and jointed and floppy. Seriously, you could fidget with it forever to get it to sit correctly and I thought it was bizarre enough to suit my taste. I think I'll sand it and paint it too.

There now I have a Fidget Toy to take on my daily hikes.

I think this Wendigo will be friendly and kind. I can't have horrible creatures living in my forest. Even my Dragons  and Dinosaurs get along with my Lego Minifigs. All my toys have to get along, you know?

Drifting in the Driftless

 I thought it was cool to come up with that: Drifting in the Driftless.

Because that is exactly what we did together. I had a goal in mind, but I abandoned that goal and just decided to drift back and forth like the tiny stream that meandered through this narrow valley. 

The stream is not indicated on the map so it must come from various springs along the way. The valley is no more than 50 yards wide at its widest spot. The north facing hillside is steep with many 'dry' runs and rock shelters.
The south facing side is nothing but bluffs dotted with caves that I did not explore [this time].

Charlie and I followed the valley from the west end to the east end where it ended at the new highway that was built in the 1970's. 

Photo of the Kickapoo River
taken with the Infrared Camera.

The ice 'slide' in IR.

Rock Shelter with ice, IR.

I made a series of very short video clips and stuck them together to form a little view of what it was like. The video of course doesn't do it justice but perhaps one can get the sense of just how narrow and secluded this area was. 

I'm keeping the location to myself as I am pretty sure there are some rare plant species that thrive in this micro climate that is so unusual. 

So in the first part of the video you will see a familiar spot of the Kickapoo River. It was frozen over but the grinding noise was the ice moving and trying to make passage through the river. It unnerved Charlie enough so he started to whine.

The rest is with no sound because I don't think anyone would enjoy listening to the mic noises.

The video is 1:44 seconds. To see and understand just how narrow and wild looking this place was...I had to do it as clips.

Hope it is worth your time.

I was going to go back today but needed and eyeball rest. I'll be going back on Wednesday to visit the hogback above the caves. At least that is the plan.

Happy Drifting

Peregrinating

and Maundering about....

Totally Unexpected

 

I was having a very hard morning. The end of the year blehs. The things I couldn't to do because I am the sole caregiver to a person with frail health were weighing on me. Maybe it was just the culmination of so much sameness in the past year. Or...perhaps even deeper yet was the question I'd asked myself the night before.

 ~ Who am I?~  [Deep thought is not for the faint hearted in the middle of the night!]

Today I asked Rich if he'd mind if I hike the Valley of Ice. That is what some folks call it. I hadn't really explored it yet. 
I set off. The day was dreary. Dreary.
It fit my mood.

I hiked the trail and noted fresh human and dog tracks. 

I started exploring and found my way to the first ice cave. I wondered if the tracks weren't from someone who had tied the blue ribbons up. But as I climbed around a snowy hillside and over downed trees, I heard a woof. And a "Hello there!"

I met a younger than ME fellow. He used to be a Geology teacher in Madison. Eventually we ended up in a larger Ice Cave where we sat down and talked about rocks and rock formations. He told me about his dog, who doesn't love talking about their loyal pets? He explained to me the history and make up of the  different layers in the rock that were were sitting in.

There was an area at the bottom of the ice where other older icicles had formed and dropped because of warm weather.

And as we admired the rock formations and the ice, I set up my camera to take a quick time lapse of the water seepage over the ice. The video is at the top of the blog and is 12 seconds long. I shot that just in front of where he was sitting.

I enjoyed his conversation and it was pretty fascinating. He explained the geology of this place in a way I could grasp it. Although, truth be told, I won't recall all the terminology he used.

We both joked about liking Lichen. He knew Lichen too! He didn't mind me taking his photo while he sat in the cave just enjoying nature. He said it would provide good perspective for the cave. He was right.

He is exploring all the Wisconsin State Natural areas and noting their specific and interesting formations his intent is to map them out so others can enjoy their natural beauty.

Eventually we parted and I went on to explore more of this valley. It is steep and rugged. 

I found the third formation.

There is a 4th but I didn't have enough time to climb around the deadfalls  to take any photos. I found an old equine trail and followed that on the ridge while stopping to peer down on the Kickapoo River.

By the time I reached my Subaru, I was the only vehicle around. My phone went off with weather alerts for our area. 

Just in time then.

By the time I got home, I was UN-bleh. I'd met another nature lover and interesting person.

I still hadn't answered that nagging question from the middle of the night.

But I figured I'd get to that ... next year.