An Amazing Friend and Adventure Part I

The photo above is of my friend Jason. 

We met December 31st on New Year's Eve. Other folks go to parties or whatnot. Jason and I ran into each other while searching for Ice Caves. Link to our first meeting: Totally Unexpected

We have continued our interesting friendship since that afternoon in 2021. State Natural Areas are the places he explores. He and his dogs are always going on adventures.  Piper and Felix get along well with Charlie. He calls them...our gang.

He lives two hours away from me, but manages to get out in my area every once in a while to go for a hike. 
Jason used to teach Geology and take students on field trips to SNA's in our area to study the incredible rock formations and teach others about the history of the driftless area's formation. 

In the shot above, Jason is explaining how this Hogback Ridge happened a gazillion years ago. [Not his words, but mine since I don't recall all of the scientific words he used!]

Pictured below is ... in Jason's words ... is one of the longest meander scars. A Meander Scar is a geological word for a feature of a remnant of a wandering river channel. It is now called a Hogback Ridge which is a dry prairie. Locally called a Goat Prairie. 

I don't think this place is often hiked. I would never have done it as it doesn't look that interesting at first glance.

But then Jason took me up to the top. We stood 300 feet above the valley below.

The view from the ridge was simply amazing. I felt like belting out the Lion King song and beating my chest. I didn't, but the feeling of being overwhelmed by the height and the incredible landscape stayed with me all along the narrow ridge. Seriously. In places it was only a several feet wide!

I thought, there are no trees along here to make things interesting. But everything was interesting. The colors of the different varieties of Lichen were beautiful.

The shapes of the rocks [Jason explained the reason behind the shapes] were beautiful and curious.

This section of rock has 3 different layers and kinds of rocks in it. Jason named them all [it mostly flew over my head]. I do recall that one of the layers was Karst. That was a name I recognized.

The dogs had a blast. Piper led, Charlie found a sweet spot in between Jason and I, and Felix followed...mostly. Felix is a rescue dog of Jason's with his own ideas about things and a few health issues. We often stopped to get Felix back on track and to chat. 

Here, Jason is pointing to something I should notice. I think I'd have to visit this place again to really take it all in.

See those trees in the distance? That was where we were headed. We actually were going to walk through an oak forest to the end of the ridge and drop down to see some amazing rock shelters.

Here is Piper doing her impression of the Lion King. I went up there with Charlie to get a good view also.

Jason's photos of Charlie and I... 

We stopped to look at rocks and of course the plants and Lichen. We joked about Liking Lichen.

On the narrow ridgetop, there was single track trail through the grasses. Many spots were dotted with rocks to negotiate through and around.

There was Bittersweet growing in some areas of the ridge and as we headed to the south side we went into a forest.

That's where things got really interesting.

I'll go into that in Part II...

The Moldy Graveyard???

A friend sent me a link in a text message about a place to go visit that was extraordinarily odd and different.

The Mold Graveyard. F.A.S.T. Corporation in Sparta. You can find more information at Atlas Obscura. An interesting site that can lead you to strange and interesting places to visit. This is one of those and I had no idea it was only about an hour away.

My friends from the Kenosha area were visiting and we decided go check out the Mold Graveyard ourselves. We had planned on going to LaCrosse and seeing the Riverside Gardens, but with Riverfest going on, we decided not to fight crowds and changed our plans.

Wait...
Did I fail to mention the morning trip to town where we stopped at the Thrift Store and got silly?
Yes, I did.

...um, well...
more on that in another post...

We arrived at our destination and got out.

What an interesting place.

The sign for visitors said we were welcome to walk around and look at the molds stored in the large yard and take photos.

We got a bit creative and yes a bit goofy with our fun Thrift Store toys.
Here Amanda places her pink rubber ducky on a Duck mold.

My favorite find of the day was Big Boy. Do you recall the Big Boy restaurant chain? I do!

I found him, actually I found two sizes of him. His burger was on the ground behind him next to a 10 foot ice cream cone.

Here are a few shots from the 'Mold Graveyard'.

If I said I only took a few photos of the different molds, I'd be lying.

And I found this poor ice cream cone just sitting in the hot sun...

I think it was melting.

I do think this would be a fun photo trip in the winter or early spring when the weather is bleak and dreary.

And I think I found my retirement home.

You know. The Little Old Lady who lived in a Shoe?

It isn't a Moldy Graveyard. It is a place where old fiberglass molds come to rest and sometimes be reused. I loved it.

We sought out more odd places while the Kenosha Gang was here.
Stay tuned.