Quiet long hike with doggies

Thursday

It was a ... day...

Instead of going right away in the morning like I do on some days I hike, I waited until later in the day to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. 

I used my 'hiking' vest to carry the essentials. Water and doggy snacks. I wasn't going to take Charlie, but the look he gave me was so pathetic, I did anyway. 

I ended up carrying Charlie for nearly half of our hike. I've done that before when it was too warm for him. Short legs put him close to the ground and the reflective heat coming off the ground makes him hot.

He was either too warm or just being a Dachshund who decided he wasn't going to work very hard. 

I should have left him at home. But in the end, they both enjoyed the adventures so much. After all, I wasn't trying to set a record, but just move along.

It was just one of those afternoons that were meant to enjoy the surrounding forest. I was so happy I did go. The Trillium were all over the place. 

I stopped a lot to just enjoy the sights and sounds. At other times, we marched right along. At one point, I dropped Charlie's light line and he simply ran ahead as if he were a pup. I had to trot with Hannah to keep up.

I found so many patches of  Dwarf Ginseng. I often forget what it looks like and have to use Google Lens to ID it.

There were patches of invasive Garlic mustard that I picked and put in a plastic bag to turn into the Reserve at the end of our hike. [I have used young garlic mustard as seasoning and it is good, maybe next year I'll dehydrate some and crush it for seasoning]

I have a hard time destroying Dame's Rocket. It is just too pretty. 

That tiny black blob on the trail is Charlie. I got tired of carrying him or trying to drag him along. He followed at his own pace through the pine forest. During the ground bird nesting season, I do keep him close and use his beeper collar to keep him from seeking out nests.

He sure does have the stubbornness his Dachshund and Pekinese parents. He does things *His Way*. I love it.

This beautiful trail is one of the most hiked ones on the Reserve ... well, hiked, equine riding, and bike riding that is.

Here is the Kickapoo River which has gone down in its water level since our last hike through here on April 27th.

When we finally reached that last leg of our hike on Old 131, Charlie perked up and set the pace. We stopped here at this pond to watch Canada Geese and Goslings swimming. We saw what I think was a Beaver peeking at us before it disappeared into a mound of sticks in the opposite pond.

If anyone is wondering why I have beeper collars on the dogs, it is in case I drop their leash and they decide to chase through the underbrush. I can beep them back to me. It is a safety measure for them. I lost Charlie in my forest for an hour when he was a pup. 

I trained him long time ago [and Hannah now] to come when beeped. It is never a punishment.

Oh and if you haven't guessed it by now. I think my life is ruled by my dogs and mules. Dogs and mules don't lie to you or BS you. They are honest as the day is long.

And ... they are without a doubt always thinking that their purpose in life is to be my friends.

--------

Miles hiked: 9.84
Time? Not an issue, but nearly 4 hrs with lots of breaks

Gear: Merrill running/hiking Janii shoes [not as good as my other ones, but no sore feet]

Temperatures averaged 75 F

Steps? Most steps in a day according to Garmin. Huh: 28,622

[that must include my chores, checking fences, sunrise walk, and whatever else I did during the day]

How did I feel? Uffdah. Well, my low back hurt from carrying Charlie a lot. Iced later.

Hannah: full of energy all of the way
Charlie: was himself, *don't rush me!*
 

Happy day

This photo showed up in my cell phone's memories of February 2018. This was one of the last times he was able to use his beloved skid steer. 

His smile was infectious. Plus he was a an awesome plow guy!

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

So Monday my friend Pat said she was ready to go with me on a snowshoe adventure. Off we went. 

 Charlie led on the trail below the caves.

It was quite a feat climbing the steep hill in snowshoes, but it would have been worse without the extra traction.

The warm weather last week did do a number on the ice sheets, but I am always impressed by them. I never fail to think Wow when I see them.

I convinced Pat to climb up into them with me. It took a little coaxing, but she was brave and did it.

Here she is taking a picture of me while I am taking a picture of her. 

Her photo gives one a clue as to how large these formations actually are. You can barely see me behind some of the ice.

We trekked some more in the area and then headed back to the parking area. I then took her to the biggest Ice Cave in the area at Wildcat State Park. It was only a few minutes away.

Again, the warm weather last week didn't make the ice formation look as beautiful, but it was still quite impressive.

I nabbed the following shots from Pat's FB post. I had no idea she was taking shots of me.
Apparently this is my best side. 

Here is Charlie and I going around to the back of the ice at the large ice formation at Wildcat. I look positively tiny!

This is what I found with my camera on the backside. The sunlight coming through the ice gives off oddly beautiful shades of green and blue I assume from the minerals in the ice.

I was hooked on looking for ice in the winter the very first time I saw these strange colors and beautiful shapes.

Multicolored ice is more common than one would think.  Here is a photo from two years ago in another location. Note the colors in the ice. 

I imagine it is from the clay, the limestone, and the dirt the ice absorbed? 

I know there is a lot of crap going on in the world today. But I had to choose nature to go out and find the joy that it brings me. And I got to share it with a friend.

So it was a happy day.

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?

I hesitate to title this as I love ice....

 You all know why. 

However, real true ice made out of water dripping through porous rocks and freezing in ice curtains over rock shelters or rock faces are uniquely beautiful.

Nature creates this with her weather in the winter. The water is almost always seeping through these formations and in the winter the hillsides that don't get sunlight stay colder allowing the ice to begin to form.

I feel that December through March, it is 'my' weird obsession to hunt out ice formations and see them. I enjoy figuring out where is the most likely place they will be and then photographing them. Often, I get to the same place over and over to watch it change.

This is what the ice cave area looks like as the end of winter comes around and the ice formations melt. With the ice is gone, it looks rather bland and uninteresting. In late March, the temps warm and the sun changes its angle and shines through the leafless trees to melt the ice.

What it looked like on Monday with its winter beauty. The top right 'cave' is the one I usually go into and photograph. It isn't easy to get there and it takes a bit of caution and of course good ice cleats.

Charlie explored it, took a drink of chilled ice water and then watched the valley below. He doesn't wander off. If I take too long exploring, he'll come and look at me and then whine.

I swear he is saying "Enough, let's get on with it!"

Mostly the water is always seeping or dripping and the temperatures cause the water to make these formations. Wouldn't it be cool to have a time lapse camera on these?

We made it down to where Weister creek has ice formations on its sandstone walls. I rerouted up and over the hogback and then down into the valley to avoid the fallen trees from last year's storms.

I only used my Infrared camera here because the colors where so fun. The red is the green mosses and a dying pine branch which cover the very small ice formations on the rock. To me, it looked like it could be a fairy cave. 

Why not?

This is as far as I go in the wintertime to this last wall of rocks and ice. You can see where the rains from last week raised the water level and evened out the icicles.

I always stop at this spot and enjoy a few moments photographing the ice formation on this bank of Weister Creek. This was the view on Monday.

I love this spot in all seasons. 

2022:

Springtime:

With each flash flood or heavy rain, the form of the creek changes slightly with fallen trees, roots, and shapes of the shores.

You can probably tell that this is my favorite place to visit in the winter time.

I have many other places I like to see out. I do this mostly solo because I don't have to rush and I can explore as I wish.

Sometimes I just think about blending into these places and never leaving. When my life ends, I'd love my ashes to be part of these places. 

Beeee still my beating heart!

 

It was a balmy 20-ish degree F day or a -5ish C day so my Assistant thought we should go snowshoeing at the Reserve. Last week I slugged through the snow, so I decided to use the snowshoes once more. After all, it went so well the day before.

We had parked in a lot near the maintenance shed for the Kickapoo Valley Reserve to get on the trail head.

Charlie and I were trucking along, he was fresh and bouncy and stuck to the tracks someone made while x-country skiing. I broke trail off to the side. 

I heard machinery behind us and looked back. There was a 4 wheeler coming our way. I was a bit confused. In the winter the trail we were on is part of a snowmobile trail and in the summer, they mow through the prairie grasses. However, there is no motorized vehicles allowed at all on these trails.

The 4 wheeler had tracks on it instead of wheels and as the 4 wheeled gizmo pulled up to a stop, I recognized the smile on the dude. This time he wasn't in the Police Truck nor was he in uniform. 

"Hello Jesse," I said when Charlie ran up to him and tried to jump up on the 4 wheeler to hitch a ride. "How are you today?" 

"I'm good! How are you?" He motioned to the 4 wheeler and said, "I just finished putting snow tracks on this 4 wheeler for the winter and thought I'd try them out."

For a moment I was dumbstruck. 

"Wow, that looks like a fun transformation. I'll trade you for my 17 year old 4 wheeler at home." 

He laughed. And then we both stood quietly listening to the light breeze in the trees. 

"Gosh I love that sound," he said.

"Nothing like it," I agreed. "If I could be out in this 24 hrs a day, I would."

He nodded and then gestured towards my snowshoes. "I didn't think we had deep enough snow for those yet."

"Ahhh, we do. I have over 6 inches at home and had a blast yesterday snowshoeing through my woods. I thought the ice crust and the heavy snow would be perfect for snowshoeing along the trails today."

"So it is going good then?" 

[Oh that grin and smile. AND no, I couldn't see the color of his eyes because he had some rather cool shades on and I regretted not having cool shades on myself]

"Yes it is, I'm going to take a peek at the ice caves over the hill today. I intend to cover about 4 miles of hiking. It's a good day for it. Saturday will be awful."

He nodded and we both fell silent and watched Charlie who was trying to figure out how to climb up on the 4 wheeler for a ride. I walked over and picked him up. 

"Okay then. Have a great hike, " he said and started up his snow machine. 

I waved and turned to go with Charlie under my arm. 

I heard him head back down the trail and I started grinning like an idiot. "Charlie, Charlie, was that a coincidence? It had to be. Dang, he is still quite handsome." 

I laughed out loud and thought of how I'd have told Rich about this. Rich would just laugh and remind me that HE was the absolute best-est handsome-ist man I'd ever met. And I would agree with all my heart.

I did note on the card that he'd given me last Friday that he was a Land Manager and Police Officer for the Reserve. That made sense. Still. I felt a bit girlish and atwitter. 
Maybe it was just nice that he recognized me from last week and that he thought he'd better check on that crazy -a$$ed old lady and her dog that liked to wander the Reserve in the winter.

I tossed tall dark and handsome out of my head and continued on my trek.

I walked for a mile into the woods looking for the blue tags that used to mark the 'winter trail' to The Valley of Ice. But those are no longer in existence. The previous management had markers on trees to guide people to find the ice caves aka rock shelters.

I'd been there often enough that I knew how to come through the forest right on top of cave #1. So we backtracked to the old Cedar tree and headed down the steep hill. I paused for a bit as I watched a coyote run out of the shelter and head towards the river.

I'm always mindful that I am hiking in wild animal habitat. I wasn't afraid. I just carefully picked my way down to where I could peer into Number One. This is the same cave/shelter that I met my good friend Jason the Geologist on a New Years Eve of 2021.

I didn't see any evidence of the coyote making a den in there, but there was an ice curtain forming.

I went back up to the very old equine trail above the cave and followed it around to cave #2. I peered down and decided not to climb over all the downed trees this trip. I skipped cave #3. It isn't well known and isn't on the map. 

We weren't worn out or even cold at this point so we went past the maintenance shed and hiked down to Bridge 18 which is a covered bridge over the river.

I'd wanted to get a 'snow' shot of the hand-hewn bench with the covered bridge behind it. 

It is now the cover of my blogger header.

We went up on the bridge and checked the views of the river. 

I am just a curious person. I love to watch the river as it changes through the winter months. I like to see how different the forest looks in the stark landscape compared to the lush greens of summer.

I probably take shots of this area every time I hike or bike through it.

Charlie and I found a nice dry spot out of the light breeze to sit and have snacks. He had dog treats, I had an energy bar.

The temps were dropping as we hiked back up to the ridge and to the parking area. It was a good day.