Tent life [part one]

We decided to have a night out. You know, a wild Saturday night!

First came the tent building. For me, it is the most difficult thing to do.

I am a novice. I still struggle.

I'd found an old beat up metal camp cot in the shed. I cleaned it and repaired it for my supervisors. 

I added some blankets and 

they were content to watch while I worked.

Well. 

That was until it seemed like I needed help. Then Hannah came to assist.

I asked her for some advice. She promptly laid down on the tent and wagged furiously.

I thought I set up the trail cam with a photo every 3 minutes, but flubbed it.

I got things sorted out, and my buddies spent the evening watching the meadow while I doodled and wrote in my Pretty Painful Grief Book. 

A note. It is a book with some helpful pages. It also has many pages where the author asks you to write answers to questions about what you are going through.

Sometimes, I just draw circles or write whatever comes to mind 

We spotted a buck following a doe and her fawn. Hannah and Charlie sprang to chase. I used the vibrate mode on their collars and they stayed in camp.

Good dogs.

Maybe TV is more interesting, but I don't think so. I observed how the setting sun filtered light through the Hickory leaves highlighting the leaf edges.

Some of the Hickory trees are starting to turn colors. The box elders are yellowing quite quickly also.
Fall is lurking just around the corner.

The wind sighed through the branches above, an owl asked 'Who cooks for you?'

On the ridge to the south (about a half mile away), I could hear Olive's dogs barking. Further out Linda's cattle were calling out.

In the dusk, I listened to Robins chirping telling me all about the long journey they had started. A doe whistled not far away just outside of camp. We heard her (?) moving away through the brush.

No. The forest is not boring, something is always going on.

Here Charlie and I have a deep conversation about....... 

Well, about ear rubs and all the important things in a dog's life.

Getting dark. 

The daylengths in August shorten 70 minutes from the length of the days in July. 

Maybe that is why I feel such an urgency to spend more and more time outside in August...so I don't miss a thing.

As darkness fell, it became 'deer' time. The deer often cross this meadow right around sunset and right around sunrise or immediately thereafter.

I didn't have my 'long' lens ready but took this with my 200mm zoom lens. This is one of the reasons I picked this spot, it has a great view of our meadow and ....

Soon, the moon appeared...

[Waxing Gibbous Phase

August 22nd]

And we turned in. 

At first Hannah decided to take my cot.

She ended up snuggling in the blankets next to the cot.

Charlie snuggled right up against me on the cot. He is a great foot warmer. He sleeps under the blanket in his cave.
 

My intent was to get up at 1am and photograph some stars.  We did get up. I was not prepared for how chilly it felt so I tip toed back to the tent and climbed into the warm blankets. Hannah came up on the narrow cot too and lay against my side.

I was warm, but could barely move. The next few hours were restless.

But the morning was pretty darned glorious too.

Stay tuned...

 

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.