I Dun Did It!

What did I dun do?

I am a person who needs a challenge each year or some sort of goal to achieve. Sometimes my goal was learning something brand new like Infrared Photography, Still Photography, or things related to activities.

One year it was the KVR trail challenge. The challenge was to hike all of the trails in the Reserve and do it within a calendar year.

It took me 3 tries over a 3 years before I actually finished and completed all 69+ miles of marked trails at the Reserve. I'd had many many side trips while hiking with others during those years. 

One can't complete just the 69+ miles. You have to mix and match the trails to get them all in.

Anyway, I checked my 'yearly' hiking miles this year in November. I hadn't much thought of adding up how many miles I did. But my smarty-watch helped me keep track. 

I had a distance in mind but wasn't sure about how it would work out or if it was even possible. 

My hiking/walking was simply for looking for things and enjoying fresh air along with movement.

I missed many days due to heat, rain, BUGS, and of course the 9 days of gun season. So I was surprised that when I checked things again a week ago, I realized I could reach a goal of 1,000 miles. I mean, I was good with anything that I had. I thought I'd just establishing a baseline for future years if I decided to keep track. 

[Dang, that is a baseline? What should I set for another goal???]

I did the math and distances are an  accumulation of about 2.7 miles a day.

To get those last 5 miles in...

I decided to head to Weister Creek to check on my favorite Ice Formations. Rock Shelters with ice curtains.

Everyone calls them Ice Caves.

Over the years, visiting as many ice caves as I can is always to do in the winter. Let's face it, the land is unique and so are the 'caves'. They are just plain cool to see.

Below is a wide angle shot of the first set of caves. This spot is unusual in that it has several rock shelters and a lot of water seepage. By February, if the weather cooperates, these will become ice caves.

You can slip behind the sheet of ice and look out at a curtain of ice.

In this shot, Charlie and I are in the top right corner 'cave' in the photo above.
 

I'm about 5' 3' so that can give you an idea as to how tall that ice really is.

The trail [cough cough] -- not really a trail, a faint deer path... isn't marked. It is demanding, steep, and requires one to walk on a steep incline over obstacles. 

Climbing down to the caves is another adventure entirely. 

But when the ice sheets are full its so beautiful. 

It is worth the trouble of putting on ice cleats and trudging up into the caves.

What it can look like on a good winter from behind the ice.

There, I got in one pre Christmas Hike to visit the Ice Caves and accomplished something.

Let's see what happens next year. I have a couple of long distance challenges I've been thinking off.

The shot below is at the area where I generally stop in the winter and turn around.

This is what makes the hike so special ... so much cool ice!

It's hard to get to and find, but worth the difficulty. 

Generally in February there are guided tours given by staff of the Reserve to visit this area.

Interesting data

Oh my.

When I started to keep track of my mileage in January, I thought it would be a fun experiment to see how much I do move and how far I walk for a year. I didn't expect it to amount to much, but today I thought I'd look up the stats.

Now a word about that. I am not obsessed really too much. For the first 6 months, I just kept track of hikes/walks that I remembered to track. I had to manually start the app on the phone and let it do its thing. That really was impressive though.

I remembered enough times to chalk up 173 miles in the first half of the year.

When I got the Vivosmart 5 Watch from Garmin, I also tracked certain hikes I wanted to recall and to my surprise, when I forget, the watch buzzes me and tells me I've been moving for 5 minutes and it is going to record it as an 'official' walk. 

Neat. Since I am often walking all over the place just to check on the animals and move them from place to place, I don't have to think about 'recording' it. I found that on average each morning and evening that I walk a quarter of a mile while just doing chores. Interesting! 

This smarty watch also has a sleep thing on it. I don't know how accurate it is so I don't look at it too often. One night I went to bed early and it said I slept something like nearly 8 hours. Well, for a good part of that night, I was awake, lying still and thinking. 

You know--those 2AM thoughts when you solve the world's problems and rearrange rooms and dig new gardens in your head?

So I stopped looking at the sleep stats. When we had that huge storm on Monday night, I was up with Charlie who freaks out at storms. My sleep thingy said I was having very light sleep. NO kidding! 

So I use that guide more or less as entertainment value. If I awaken and feel refreshed, I've had a good sleep. If I feel like crap, I didn't. 

I'm not sure how the measurements on a wrist can tell whether a person is sleeping soundly or lightly. But I'm sure technology will prevail eventually.

The details from the different screens tell me that I use too much energy. Duh. I knew that. Still. 

So how far have I gone to date? 

423 miles? Seems impossible. But I am on the move all of the time...unless it is too hot and humid, I am taking many walks on our gravel road or around through the woods to just peer at things and observe nature. I also go on intended hikes and other times, just wander about looking for something to take a photo of.

During the month of July with all of the heat and humidity, I did not 'walk' a lot. I avoided that heat and humidity as it made me feel wiped out. Hiking in the forest or at KVR was not recommended due to the monster skeeters and deerflies.

The wonders of technology are pretty interesting. I did compare the phone app to the watch and to a measured distance and found it fairly spot on. 

Enough of that. 

I do like some of the convivences of this technical world. Especially digital cameras!

Yesterday's morning view from the porch....

Thursday -- Breaking Trail

Well Thursday was the first day this year I was able to get to the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. I had grand ideas of hiking with Charlie along the Wintergreen trail.

Easy, right? This is one of the most traveled trails in the Reserve. I slipped on my YakTracks in case it was slippery and tossed Charlie's day glow vest on him.

I was very surprised when we got past the buildings. 

Not one human had been down this trail yet. I should have worn snowshoes. 
Right away, Charlie kept getting stuck. Fresh powdery snow went down the front of his vest and clogged him down. I picked him up and we slogged through the deep snow...again.

By the time we got to the 'lookout' I was getting tired and decided that we would go no further. I reached down and pulled ice and packed snow out of his vest. I took it off and stuck it in the backpack.

The view from the bluff was interesting. I didn't get near the edge of the bluff so I took my shot from further back. 

I think it is the second time I've seen the river completely covered in ice and snow at this spot. The wind was coming right into our faces there so we didn't stick around. 

Enough was enough I was heading back.

Charlie was a different dog then. He took off bounding through the snow without a care. I had to call him back to me. What a good little guy.

 5 seconds....of a Happy Dog.

From there on, he led the way back to the parking lot.

That black dot far ahead of me is Charlie. He was bounding through my footsteps and having a grand time.

Did we get in a lot of miles? Oh heck no we didn't. 

I wonder how one mile of chugging through deep snow works out?

I guess it doesn't really matter. We enjoyed it and we were happy to get home and cuddle in the warmth of the living room.

Today is the 20th and so far I have racked up 18 miles of hiking/walking/adventuring. 

This doesn't include the days I didn't take my cell phone but I don't care. It is fun to track right now. 

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from the cold and spent time reading and relaxing.

Let's see what the weekend brings.

Hiking with...just me.

Sometimes the outside just calls out to you. I thought it would be nice to get in a nice fast and hard hike to the back valley. I wanted to see what the snow melt, the rains, and the sudden freeze did to the ice 'cave' and other spots.
I have some friends coming to visit this weekend and they'd like to see some water, ice, and ice formations on their hikes.

They are not afraid of cool or cold weather.

Like me, they know how to dress for it and enjoy the fact that there are no bugs to contend with in the winter. There is no oppressive heat or humidity either.

And I don't have to worry about 'doing' my hair.

A fox hat works just fine and when the cold winds blow, I let down the fur flaps. I do get a kick out of feeling the fox tail wiggle around as I walk. Makes me feel as if I have a pony tail [which I don't...I keep my hair short right now].

The woods with north facing hillsides had a hard slippery crunchy snow cover. Any coyote or other wildlife could've heard me coming for a long ways.
The ridge top was wind blown and frozen with no snow on it. Not good for anyone with alfalfa fields. But there I was!

I was headed down into the back valley, where the sun doesn't shine most of the winter.

I was not disappointed!

Ice...ice, ice! Everywhere on little rocks where the water splashed and on bits of grasses and roots that hung over the side of the creek bank.

And to my delight, I had arrived at just the right time to catch the reflection of the sun on the hillside lighting up the back valley creek.

You can see where the snow is gone from the edges of the creek. That is how full the creek was on Monday when it was raining. I wouldn't have been able to cross it at all during that time.

I knew that I didn't have much light left so I hurried along the side of the creek and started the climb out of the valley. I was curious if the water had created an ice formation at 'the cave'.

I had a huge desire to go back down the side here and get a better shot. Common sense prevailed. I had no one with me and I had to get home. I could have gone back to the bottom of the run and walked up, but that would take too long and I'd have to back track.
So I hurried up the trail and crossed the ridge again dropping back down into the valley that our creek is on.

I hurried along the creek noting all of the beautiful little ice 'fingers' and formations along the way.

At the Sandy Wall, I stopped. The light was fading quickly in the creek bottom. But I just had to get a photo...of....

...more cool ice...

And I felt the temperature dropping. I looked at the compass thermometer that is attached to my backpack and it read 9 degrees.

Time to head home.

I took on look back before heading up the hill road....

The evening sun was lighting up the woods above me....

And as I crossed a field of ice, I felt joy and accomplishment in my afternoon hike. There was a self satisfaction that is hard to explain to those who don't venture out in cold weather or enjoy pushing themselves a bit. For me this was a treat better than a dinner at a fancy restaurant or night out.
I got to see mother nature in her afternoon winter's glory.

Some folks sure don't like winter.

But I love it.

With my handy dandy GPS running watch, I'd logged 4 1/2 miles of hiking. No mean feat across this landscape.

Man it was great!