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.

Easy Hike

My Buddy Bill had to dog-sit a friend's lab so we decided to take a short jaunt. We parked at Willow Camp and head down the Willow trail to old 131 and spend some time exploring a bit at bridge 16.

Charlie took the lead as if he knew where we were going. He is pretty good at being the trail leader for such a small dog. The temperature was a brisk 10 degrees with a slight breeze from the west.
Willow Trail is section #14 on our Trail Challenge and is a short .5 mile walk. In the summer months, it is a busy horse trail. Hiking is allowed on it all year 'round. Though during the summer the horses have the right of way and hikers are expected to have their dogs controlled so as not to spook the horses.

Willow trail is section 14 on the challenge form. Our plan was to just to take it easy as the trails were tricky and frozen with all sorts of rough tracks in it.

Willow Trail 

in IRChrome

Old 131 was much smoother. It is groomed for cross country skiing. Though it was too slippery and icy for that.

We wore our YakTraks and had no trouble walking on the hard flat surface.

At Bridge 16 we walked up and explored the old campsite H that has been removed and placed on higher ground.  This was done to protect people from getting trapped in flood waters from the Kickapoo in heavy rains.

A wise move since the campsite was on the bend of the river and at the end of a very steep valley with a small stream that runs through it. During a heavy rain event the water would flood the campsite from two directions during a flash flood.

Behind old Campsite H

Charlie had other ideas when we turned around to head south on old 131. He wanted to head over the bridge and continue on.

I do love the IRChrome filter. White is white and foliage that has chlorophyll in it is red and the sky is blue. I thought it would be fun to experiment in the winter with it and I was surprised by the amount of plant life that reflected red.

We walked south towards Star Valley Road and stopped to look at the ponds. We noted x-country ski tracks across the pond on the east side. Bill wondered out loud about walking out to the little island and taking a look at it.

I pointed out that if he fell in it would take ages to get help. We nixed that idea.

Here is Bill taking a break and sharing a bit of apple with Charlie.  It has become a thing in the past two years to bring an apple in our pockets or backpack and share bits with our little trail guide.

We made a discovery that could be fun this spring. If one were to walk back to Camp C, they could see into the back side of the west pond. This could be helpful while birding in the spring. I plan on coming back and exploring the ponds while the waterfowl come to visit. Last spring I saw a pair of Trumpeter Swans.

Star Valley Monument

taken last spring

The rest of the hike was rather uneventful. We enjoyed the walk up Star Valley Road. We tried to figure out a plan for next week, it would involve a point to point hike in an area we haven't ever seen in the winter.

It wasn't too demanding of a hike and only was a couple of miles, but we knocked off two more sections.

No April is complete without a visit to...

Duck Egg County Park

Everywhere the spring plants were poking up through the leaves due to the warm temperatures we'd had. I imagine the rain we had helped the plants burst forth also.

Blood Roots

 Dutchman Breeches

Hepatica

No fancy photowork here, just trying to document the flowers for comparison to their emergence in the last few years. 
Conclusion.

Weeks early!

False Rue Anemone with Blood Root in the way!

In the last few years I've found the Dutchman's Breeches and other flowers pictured here between the end of April and the start of May.

What I found most fun was using the 850nm filter which really only allows the camera to record in IR black and white. That means foliage is white and water is black!

I think it is wickedly cool.

The pines are white and the dead grasses are reflecting light. The water absorbs most of the IR light-waves and appear black which is pretty startling.

Lone Trout fisherman walking along the trail 

around the smaller of the two ponds.

The trees and trout fisherman reflecting in the water was really a neat catch.

The white areas are where the grass is turning green and leaves are budding in the trees. 

I like it.

Pretty wild looking and a different twist on black and white.

Today was boring. I reset several steel posts and built a lot for Sven and the Pony to do some trimming. 

Hiking and new stuff

 

After 4 months, my friend Bill was able to feel up to hiking again. So I took him to the Ice Caves. The ice isn't well developed but I though it would be fun just to show him where they were in case he wanted to take his wife or grand kids there.

Covid raged through his house. His one son lives in the lower level and was sick for 4 weeks but finally was able to get back to work after testing negative. Bill said he went in because he couldn't breath and his test was a negative and the diagnosis was acute asthma attack. Phew. His wife is a nurse at our local hospital, she was home for 10 days with exposure and tested negative. She is back working long hours with our little overloaded hospital.

Bill also got a double whammy with Sciatica. He is just now getting back to walking. So we took it easy.

The 'cave' formation he is standing in will have 3 foot thick wall of ice formations this winter, depending on the weather. He will actually be able to get behind the ice...thus the name Ice Cave.

The photo above is his reaction to seeing 'the bowl' of ice for the very first time. There were all sorts of WOWs.

I explained how the ice formations developed. North hillside, no sun, sandstone caves...and seeping water...and very steep hills! 

The ice will continue to develop in areas like this all over the Reserve so I have routed short enough walks to many spots where Bill can enjoy the ice too. I generally time those hikes and walks to be about 3 hours which include driving there and back.

Another short jaunt took us to Weister Creek and the mini ice wall.

I led Bill on an old equine trail that we used to ride on 30 years ago. Bill keeps telling me he'd get lost out there and many people would unless they understand how the land lays. 

He commented that he'd need another few trips to the caves before he'd dare take the wife or grands. He wasn't comfortable to try and explore on his own. Smart fella to admit that. 

I've hiked all the horse/bike/foot trails this place offers with the exception of one trail. That is almost 50 miles of trails and about 50 miles of ones that are not official trails [ones I hiked and rode before it became the Reserve].

On another note!

~~~~~~
I got weary of the winter shower curtain that I just put up. It is pretty but just looks cold. I've had it for a few years. I have a few of them. I have a summer one of a photo I took and made into a curtain. I have one for fall with pretty leaves on it, and the winter one...plus a white lace one.

I told Rich that I wanted to spruce up the colors in the bathroom after Christmas to a bright and cheery curtain. I wanted something to remind us of things to look forward to in the bleaker parts of winter.

This will be the mat to step out on:

This will be the curtain:

That should brighten things up for sure. I think this will be our Christmas gift to ourselves as it is slated to arrive after Christmas.

Sunday afternoon Charlie and I went out back for a check on the neighbor and his camera. Since he had pointed the camera to view my side of the fence, I'd attached silver garlands to branches to wiggle in the wind and set off his motion detector.

The camera was moved to view only his side of the fence.
Hmmm, I wonder if he enjoyed the thousands of photos of the garlands waving in the breezes?