The Trillium Hunt....

First off...
we had these guys

visit !!!!

Indigo Buntings!

These blue beauties visited for a day and then...well, we haven't seen them again at the feeders. However blue was the theme of the day as Blue Birds flew through in groups. Hopefully some stayed again this year.

Friday morning I had to make a decision. Did I want to go look for Trillium and other Ephemeral flowers? Or did I want to go to the gym and work my butt off and then go shopping. 
Bleh.

Decisions, Decisions.

Shay, the Home Health Aide was curious. She doesn't have a background in nature, but she knows a lot about home health care. I explained I needed [was driven] to go find Ephemeral flowers that would only present themselves for a few weeks...and then...
I'd have to wait for another spring.

Charlie and I hit the ground running [okay walking fast] when we got to KVR. Years ago when I started my Trail Challenge, I'd randomly chosen the West Ridge Trail to start one of my mid May hikes. I recall seeing more Trillium that I'd ever seen in my life.

At that time I was hiking with my friend Bill and we were putting in 'mileage' and not concentrating on the wildflowers. Covid was ravaging the country and we were doing Distance Hiking.  

Anyway... I have never gotten back to that area in May. I've gone to other spots and have been overwhelmed by Virginia Bluebells and Spring Beauties. I decided to go see if I could get lucky with the Trillium.

I hit the Jackpot!

I hit the Jackpot in several ways.

We were surrounded by everything wild and flowering.

Here is a shot of Charlie On Guard. We were sitting on the forest floor when suddenly we heard something crashing through the forest. It literally sounded like an elephant. I saw it was a large doe running straight at us like a ninny.

I raised my hands and hollered, "Hey!" The doe never missed a step, but instead of running through us, she took a hard left and disappeared through the forest. 

Charlie growled and jumped into my lap. Brave dog that he is. I can't say that I've ever experienced that before.

It seems that finding spring forest flowers has become an obsession of mine.

Last year, I'd chosen a different trail to find Trillium. I found a few but the choices of light, position, and interesting-ness of shooting them was not very good.
This year I was so overwhelmed with choices and opportunities.

Even better?
Charlie and I were the only ones there. We spent two hours alongside this trail and never encountered another human or animal. We did hear a variety of birds and an owl.

I did wish I'd had ALL day. Charlie and I had a snack, watched our time and got home on schedule.

I may have satisfied my Trillium Itch for this year and will send myself a note to make sure I go back to this trail next year.

Trilliums....☑

Next wild flowers up will be the Wild Geraniums. 

 

Visit to the East Dry Run

 

Finally, I got out of the house to 'blow the stink off' as my Father in Law used to say. It was an expression for getting out of being stuck in the house for a long time. I picked up some of their sayings and this one stuck...

along with ...

Worserthanawful [said as one word].

But today was not worse. It was beautiful, sunny, and in the 20's.

Charlie and I headed out across the ridge to the place where we would explore the long ravine [dry run] about a mile away.

There is a place that is a ravine ... or dry run as we call it on the eastern edge of the valley next 'door'. There is a tiny spring that trickles water along the boulders and rocks in this steep ravine.

In 2009 I happened to hike with my Jack Russell, Morris, to that area on a cold winter day. What I discovered was that the tiny little spring through the cold weather built an ice flow in the ravine which covered the boulders.

Here is Morris on the ice which looks blue in this shot.

Charlie on the ice yesterday. He could walk on it. I didn't dare because I didn't bring my YakTraks.

The slow movement of the spring water on cold days dribbles over the frozen surface and freezes giving the ice texture. Layers keep building and reaching downhill from the spring.

Morris on ice in 2009.

In the other three seasons, one has to carefully climb over boulders to get up to the spring.

What the area looks like without the ice....

Morris in March 2008.

Those rocks he was standing on are under ice right now. Imagine the volume of water and ice needed to do that!

Seriously, I cold have spent hours there if I'd had my YakTraks with me. As it was, I spent a very long time exploring as I could from the steep banks. 

When the ice builds, the seeping water followed this log and ... froze. Isn't Nature amazing?

There was water trickling off the little bits of ice in this photo below. But I didn't dare climb out on the ice without being ice cleats.

Here is a view of the bumpy ice as it forms going down hill. I bet I could slide on my butt up to the logs! If only I was a kid again!

The view from above. The ravine bottom is about 150 feet below me and I am not at the top of the 'ridge' yet.

This ravine/dry run is nearly 1/4 of a mile long from its top near the ridge to its bottom at the creek. 

My hike home was across the cropland. Charlie hunted down a vole in the hayfield and did his thing. He really does love cold weather hiking as long as it isn't super cold.

We timed everything just about right. The clouds moved in and the winds picked up. 

And the wind blew our 'stink off', we came home fresh and relaxed.

Rough Going but so amazing...Part 1

 

Heading out...Charlie in the lead! 

Even with those short legs, he loves to still go, go, go.

We got to the river and walked along its eastern bank under the bluffs. I was struck this time by the roots of the pines along this spot. 

They reminded me of Tree Ents from Lord of the Rings.

I swear, they were whispering when I took their photos. Or were they? Was it the Ents or was it the breeze in their boughs?

They do look as if they are marching down the slope towards me. 

I looked at these trees and decided that they were not Ents but Rock Grabbers. Yeah, it is crazy how my mind works. 

I mean their roots DO grab the rocks don't they? It is almost as if they are crushing the rocks slowly. Or are the rocks just putting up with the trees?

I get fascinated with things like this. The rocks, the bluffs, and the tree roots are just so incredible to see. 

There was more ice in this one spot when Charlie and I visited in December. It must have melted and is now rebuilding in this spot. 

See the where the trickle of water is coming right out of the rocks???

January 16th:

December 7th:

So I didn't expect to see much ice in the valley I wanted to hike through.

The tiny creek that meanders back and forth across this little valley was frozen in some spots with water trickling in spots over or under the ice.

In some spots so many trees have fallen over the past couple of winters, it made walking east in the valley difficult. I had to make several detours around downed trees and climb over many logs and branches.

But the effort was worth it. I can't think of another place as unique as this spot in the entire area.

One spot of the valley floor was entirely covered in Cinnamon Ferns. I do have to come back and visit this valley in each of the seasons!

Just the stream itself held my attention.

This trip I just followed the stream to the end of the valley.

The north facing hillside had several dry runs in it. Each had tiny ice falls and some had rock shelters with developing ice.

When I reached the end of the valley, I decided we'd climb the north facing hillside and explore the dry runs and make a large circle back to the original trail.

Well, maybe this will make it clearer. I didn't get a chance to explore the south facing portion of the valley which is littered with so many rock formations and shallow caves.

That's it for now. 

I don't want to overwhelm anyone with all of my icy adventures.

The rest of today will be doing all those mundane things to get ready for a few days of dangerous cold.

Chasing ice

 

Thursday after lunch I took off to go look for ice along the bluffs of the Kickapoo River. I waited until after noon to head out as I was hoping for it to warm up above 10 F. It did, but the windchill was still at something like 9 F, if you were facing the winds.

I knew that hiking along the bluffs would keep me on the east side of the river with the forest and the bluff blocking part of the cool breeze. However, since the sun never shines on this section of the bluffs ... except on late summer evenings, it would be chilly next to the rocks.

That is perfect for the formation of little ice falls. Last year there was almost no ice or water in this area due to the drought we'd been having. This was promising sign to see. There is a small 'pond' under the rock that was frozen solid.

Light reflects strangely on ice and water which is why I took my Infrared Camera again.

I'm not sure why the mosses don't turn out with the same amount of colors. I suppose it is just how the light reached the moss and the ice in these two areas.

What the ice looks like in camera:

I channel swap, which means I swap the colors and blue can become pinkish, reddish, or with this filter more orange colored. The ice will almost turn blue with most filters [except the 850nm range which is a B&W filter...very useful for white fluffy clouds against a black sky]

Here was another unpredictable shot. I thought this would just turn out yuck with nothing fun. I wanted to see if I could differentiate the ice hidden inside this fern and moss covered area. It turned out to be my favorite shot of the day.

Some IR photographers call this 'Candy Colored' and I think it is! But the detail in the ferns turned out pretty neat. 

I did take some normal shots, but not many.

Hiking down Willow Trail.

Long Tall Shadows on old 131 Trail.

Charlie, the Explorer.