Rock Faces and the mystical hike

A while ago I met Aurora through reading some other blogs. We discovered that we both enjoyed photography and admired the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. On a whim I said we should get together and take a spring hike.

Yeah. I things like that don't often happen do they? I mean we all would love to meet some of the folks we interact via the internet. I did that years ago. Met up with a fellow horseback rider in Virginia when I went to visit my brother. She drove me up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway where we went hiking. Another time I met another photographer whose specialty was in Infrared. 

None of us turned out to be an Axe Murder-er-er...

Oh and there are plenty of folks I'd never want to really meet up with.

There is a lot of fun in meeting other folks. Especially those who have the same interests. The whole idea was to find a fascinating area and explore it with all of our senses. Enjoying the outdoors and the landscape was the main reason we got together.

After consulting with the Charlie the Trail Boss, we headed out to a very very secret and very unknown trail. The land varies with each sweep of the hill or draw. The pines  whisper of things long past. If a person stands quietly they can hear the old forest talking.

 
Really.
That is how it feels.
We made our way slowly along the valley with steep hills rising above us and a creek on our other side. 

Believe me, the colors and the amount of incredible spring flowers was nearly overwhelming...

I was keeping an eye on Charlie who loves to adventure ahead on the trail when I realized that Aurora had stopped. I mean like statue stopped. 

Charlie was watching her intently.

We were at the pine forest where the little bluffs started. 

I asked her if she was alright.
And her reply didn't surprise me. It went somewhat like this:

I'm just soaking all of this in. You probably see this all of the time and yet I am struck by it. I just...have
to stand here and...

That may not be her exact words. But I knew exactly what she was feeling. In 1997, I was with Rich in about the same spot staring up at the trees---, the bluffs, the angle of the hills, the pines,----  and suddenly I was overwhelmed by it all. I'd come from Kenosha, land of flat and here I was suddenly immersed in what felt like a primitive forest or land.

At the time I was speechless and all I could do was sit on Buck the mule and stare. I was positive that fairies and dragons lived in this land. 

I stood silent so pleased that this land struck her in the same way it had struck me so many years ago. 

After all, didn't a dragon just poke his head around this stump?

Oh wait. I see him!

The Rock Faces!
Aurora asked if I saw the face in the rock. I said I did! She saw one face and I saw different one. 

Here is the one I saw. The Sad Face. It looks like a statue from the Roman Empire that has been tilted. 

Can you see it?

Aurora will have to show 'her' rock face. Hopefully I just did not pressure her!

We left this valley and headed out the ridge. 

More about that maybe next time. 

I had the best time. Our hike/walk/adventure was fun. I enjoyed it with Aurora and seeing things through her eyes as she looked around. I do have to admit. KVR is overwhelming in so many ways.

I don't like to leave, I'd rather stay in the forest and hills and listen to the trees. Or...sit on top of Blackhawk rock and watch the world below awaken at sunrise.

Wait.
Can I just turn into a Wood Sprite?

Thank you to Dad

One of my regrets is that my father is not alive and able to see some of my work as he has always been my inspiration for picking up the camera and seeing things through the lens.

These shots are for you dad.  From all those times I listened to you mutter out f stops and shutter values.
I've gone further than I ever thought I could.

Tonight I am going to an awards banquet to get an Award for my nature photography.  I actually submitted to our local Land and Conservation photo contest and two of my shots have won for the county.

From here the shots go to 'the Nationals' for Land and Conservation.

Here are the winning photos.

 Agricultural ~ Sheep

Agricultural ~ Oats and Dew

If I have to say anything tonight....which I hope I don't... I will only say.

"I have my father to thank for his inspiration in photography."

Now I suppose I will have to dress like a normal person and I leave my skunk hat at home.

Hemlock Trail, Wildcat Mountain State Park

Wildcat Mountain State Park on Highway 33 just outside of Ontario, Wisconsin is fairly well known for its horse trails and horse camp.

I've ridden there for many years, but just started to explore my hiking opportunities recently.

I thought I'd do the Hemlock Trail which according to some reviews can be very difficult for some.
Let me start by staying the trail is tough and if you are thinking you will find a nice flat easy trail, think again.

I went with my grand daughter.  We stayed to the left of the trail split and I think we probably did the trail backwards.
I'm glad we did.

We found some unique plant life.  Blood Root leaves dotted the hillside, along with Jack in the Pulpit and Ginger.  To the casual person who doesn't know their woodland plant life, this would have just been "greenery" and they would have walked right by it on the trail.

Mark my words, I'll be back to photograph the Trillium, the Skunk Cabbage and other spring wonders that seemed to be all over under the forest canopy.

In the upper part of the woods near the top to Mt. Pusgah we found Broomrape. Also known as Cancer Root, proper scientific name: Conopholis americana.

These little oddities are not easy to spot unless you have an eye for looking for odd patterns on the forest floor.

Finally we reached to top of the 'mountain' and spent quite a bit of time cooling off in the nice cool breeze and enjoying the overlook view.

And of course a 'self portrait' with a camera on the tripod and a timer.

Then we headed down the other side of the mountain.
The trail ran alongside and above the Kickapoo River and we watched canoeists and folks in rented kayaks paddling the Kickapoo.

I told my grand daughter that we ought to Canoe the Kickapoo some time.

I loved these side of the mountain as much as the other side but for different reasons.

The bluffs seen from above were impressive.

As well as some of the native ground coverings.

We found Partridge Berries in abundance.

And we found a little time to ham it up for the camera.  Ariel's mom had told her to stay safe near the bluffs above the river.

On our way down from the bluffs I found some Chicken of the Woods.  I happen to love this fungi with its brilliant colors.

I was actually quite sad to come to the end of the trail loop.

Things about this trail.
It is steep, but you can stop as often as you like.
If it has rained some of the trail will be very tricky, just use caution and don't rush.

If you know anything about woodland plants this is a great place.
No pets are allowed on this trail.
Elevation change is 396 feet, so be prepared for a workout.
The trail is 1.3 miles long.

However, since we stopped and observed birds, plants, fungi, and rock formations and took many photographs...
the hike took us much longer.

We even watched the canoes below us.
We'd recently had a lot of rain so the trails in places where a bit slick and where the forest vegetation was very thick we did encounter bugs.  Not enough though that is would keep me from going back..
The trail is shaded for the most part by the large beautiful canopy of the forest.

It is said that the Old Settler's trail is rugged.
I say, well, let me try it! That is my next goal.

"Them Bones..."

All my life I've been fascinated by bones.  Oh not a sick weird, strange, fascination, but a curious fascination.

I live in a very wooded area and nature has its cycle.  A deer is killed by coyotes and a skull and some scattered bones are left to find.

I sometimes pick up the skull and bring it home.  Finding sheds is a huge 'sport' of sorts around here too.  Many folks I know hunt antler 'sheds' and sell the antlers.
I collect them.

I wasn't sure for a long time what I was going to do with my pile of magnificent sheds and skulls.  I just piled them next to the out house and took the nicer looking ones and put them on the side of the building.

Then I started to think of things I could 'do' with the skulls.  I started with small raccoon skulls I'd found over the years.  They were in pretty good shape and not too difficult to handle.  Easy to wash and since they were old, all I had to clean up was mostly collected old leaves and dirt in them.

The first one's I did were around Christmas time.  As experiments, I thought they came out pretty cool.

In fact I showed one to my mom who is nearly 81 and she loved it.  I asked her if she wanted it and she immediately put it on a shelf for display.

I painted a black one with gold highlights for my youngest son and put gold 'gems' on it.  He thought it was awesome.

I moved on to one of my rather decrepit deer skulls that I'd found laying in the woods.  The mice had been at it quite heavily and at the time I thought it wasn't worth bringing home.

But now?

Well I think it turned out pretty neat for such a beat up thing.

Then I took a rather nice one that I had and painted the skull white after sealing the cracks with glue and gluing the teeth back in that were loose.

I didn't have the heart to do anything else but preserve this skull as it must have belonged to a magnificent young buck.

After dealing with white as a base for the skulls, I wondered what it would be like to have one look primitive or more natural...or even antique.

So I stained and old doe skull rubbing the stain in and wiping it off until I got the effect I desired.

This is probably in some ways my favorite after I painted the 'line' drawing of a deer on it.

I did some reading up on what to do with weathered antlers and came up with my own idea.

This was a broken up antler with the ends broken off.  It was scarred and chewed. So I used the same method as before to add a bit of wood like stain to it.  I liked it because it brings out the weathering and the cracks in the antler.

I didn't want to fill the cracks with wood putty and try and reconstruct the antler, I wanted it as I found it.  Cracked and imperfect as mother nature made it.

I intend on finishing a couple of more of these wayward antlers and mounting them on a board with the tines up.  They will adorn the space above the new windows and hold white lights [you know, the Christmas kind].  Or they will become hangers, or curtain holders.

I may even take my group of antlers and construct a lamp base out of it.  

And then there is my prize possession.  A complete coyote skull.  I just preserved it in its natural bone color.

I have another very old skull that is full of lichen and moss.  The skull is badly damaged and the old oddly shaped antlers have been chewed on.  But it looks like it will be a nice challenge.

And it is shed hunting season again.  The bucks start to drop their antlers about now and it just gives me another reason to walk trails and look for more odd things.

Who knows?
Maybe I'll find some cool bones.

An Afternoon at the 'Office'

After the morning's rather hurried hike through the western half of the valley before noon, I decided I'd like to go back and explore the eastern half of the valley.

The morning temps and sun had not yet warmed up the air when I first went out with Morris so it was still chilly in the creek bottom.

Cold enough for frost to form on anything just above the running creek water.

It was some of the most delicate 'artwork' that I'd seen Mother Nature do in a long time.

Actually it is no mystery.  The creek is spring fed, and it where it runs swiftly, it is warmer than the air above it. With the humidity at 85% yesterday and the morning temperatures still below 20 degrees, I was hoping to find just this sort of thing.

Here was a small stick.

For these shots I used my Nikkor 40mm micro/macro lens.  It is a nice prime lens and aside from the precarious positions I stood in, or kneeled in to get these shots, it worked well.
Frost is very difficult and in order for me to do it properly, I should have set up a tripod.  As it was, I dealt with the shadows of the valley as best as I could.

My assistant, Morris started to get cold and asked to be carried.  I did carry him until his feet warmed up enough for him to leap from my arms and race up the trail towards home.

But not before I got a shot or two of the little Ice Falls.

Morris and I returned home and after lunch I went back. The frost was gone, the valley had warmed up considerably with the afternoon sun.  A nice day considering the cold temperatures we'd been having.

I visited the Big Spring which never ceases to delight me in any month of the year.

This is actually a 2 second exposure.  The spring water comes from the hillside in the back of the photo and travels through these hodge podge rocks.  When the temps drop drastically the rocks are covered in fantastic looking frost.

The water joins up with the rest of the creek and makes a big entrance, adding to the volume of water traveling east towards Black Bottom Creek.

I noted the abundance of coyote traffic around the spring.  The deer had been there also as well as raccoon.

After standing in the creek to take some longer exposures of the water running, I decided that the day was getting late and I needed to head home.

However, I did have to make a stop at 'the Office'.

I couldn't resist.  This old broken chair has been in the valley for years.
I decided that I liked my new Office, however perhaps a new seat cushion would be in order.

And with that I headed up the wide trail towards home.

And with the sun leaving the valley, the crazy lady in the skunk hat made her exit.

What an extraordinary day.

Mother Nature's Artwork

People often ask me why I like winter so much and I think it dawned on me while browsing through my photos of this past week.

It is the amazing things that happen during the winter that make me love it so much.

Like the ice storm of the night of the 10th.  The photo above is from that storm.  Such beautiful shapes and stark contrasts!  I could have spent the whole day just photographing a 80 foot stretch of the woods on the ridgetop.

Daylight and time didn't allow for that though.

Last week it was the creek that offered fantastic ice abstracts above the flowing water.  How can you not just love that?

Of course you have to wear the proper clothing to stay warm.  I have a new favorite hat.  It is a 'mad bomber' hat with rabbit fur lining.
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Plus, I should probably mention that today's modern cameras don't like changing from cold to warm.  Condensation will form on the camera and ruin the electronics if you don't handle it properly.
I carry gallon ziplock bags in my padded insulated case.  Before I come in, I put the cameras in each their own ziplock bag and zip it.  I put the cameras in the bag and then set the back in a cooler part of the house for an hour or so.
I have to use utter patience to not rip open the bag and grab out the memory cards to see what and how my shots turned out.
~~~~~

The above shot is from the morning of the 10th.  We'd had a rapid warm up from the below zero temps to something like 25.  This created a dense fog which deposited a beautiful hoar frost on grasses, twigs, trees and the like.

The frost is very hard to photograph properly, the auto focus...yes this ladies old eyes depend on it, seems to have a hard time detecting the frost.  Or maybe it is the camera operator!

This is for you Grand daughter Ariel.
See what fun you can have with your camera?

I think you'd even find taking different types of shots of your pine trees fun and interesting!

Here are a few more shots from my short outing on the 11th.

Same branch as the first but different view.

This morning on our Frosty Walk, my neighbor and I enjoyed the daylight gradually coming over the landscape.  

I found it amazing that there was still a lot of ice on the trees.  But a wind is blowing now and the forecaster said we'd get to 38* today.

I plan and dusting off the snow shoes and heading down the valley with Dixie and Morris.
You all have a great Sunday too.