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.

A cool trip to the Big Spring.

I decided around noon to take a hike down through the valley alongside the creek. Quite a few years ago the previous neighbor's kids dubbed it 'Awesome' Creek. The name stuck.

The creek has several springs and is for the most part a shallow and narrow creek that a person could mostly jump over. Since the land has laid untouched for the past 20 years, the brambles and other stick-ery things have moved in. 

When cattle roamed the land, it was quite nice to hike through. Now, it is more of a challenge. I can mostly follow along the creek and detour along deer paths, but after nearly 30 years of walking this valley, I know where to go to look for cool winter stuff.

Below are frosted grasses alongside the creek's edge. 

Where the water isn't flowing fast, it gets a skiff of ice over the surface. With enough cold days, portions will freeze over yet water will still move underneath the surface.

I wanted to get to the east end of the valley and check out the Big Spring where warm water flows from the hillside and many forest animals come for drinks. In the past winters the  mossy rocks in the Big Spring had been covered by layers of frost. I was hoping to see some cool tiny formations from the latest cold spell.

The surprise came when I sat down to study the grasses I took photos above. I saw a rock with snails on it! I hadn't been looking for them, but I certainly was pleased to see them. The bumps you see on the rock in the water are snails.

Here is a macro of one from 2020.

As I watched the rock, I noticed a Scud moving around. Here is a photo of a scud I took in 2020 also. This is when I used my Olympus TG6 which I can dip into water to take a photo.

They are called Amphipod Scuds and they are tiny shrimp like crustaceans that small fish feed on. Like these guys...sorry, they are hard to see. But they do live in the creek in this valley.

Here is the 10 second video of a scud moving around the snails! It may not be too good but maybe you can just notice the tiny movement. I felt like I just opened a huge Christmas gift when I saw the scud.
Geeked out... I told Charlie all about it and he ignored me.

The Big Spring was a little frosty and the moss was cool, but we didn't stay long. The cold must be extended for a longer period of time to cover the spring with layers of frosted moss.

But the pattens on the mossy rocks still are quite beautiful.

A few years ago...

So we decided to head home. I needed to make lunch for hubby and I was getting hungry.

Charlie stopped and froze while standing in the spring. 

I grabbed this shot and then realized what he was doing.

He was watching a Bald Eagle soar above the canopy.  Charlie is uncanny about spotting Eagles and Hawks, it is as if he knows that one of those large birds would view him as a snack.

If he hears an Eagle squeak or a Hawk call, he scurries to my side and asks to be picked up. He is very aware of everything that goes on around him both on land and in the air.

We made it home in time for lunch and got warmed up in front of the heater.

Infrared in Winter?

 Are you nuts? Infrared is so much better in the summer. 

Except.

Sometimes I just think I like a challenge. I took a filter that I didn't like so much and a 25mm lens which is 'fast' so I could shoot in the low light that the weather had gifted me.

Here is an original shot and then the edited shot of the creek in my neighbor's valley.

The filter I used is a 590nm filter. The camera has been modified to be able to 'see' Infrared Light. Most cameras have a filter to shut that light out.
Shooting IR is pretty technical when it comes to finding a proper white balance along with something called channel swapping in post work.

I like both versions of this shot. It was certainly more colorful than normal color. [I hear that winter can be rather colorless...]

The bluish color in the first shot shows the plants that still have chlorophyll in them and they reflect light in a different way.

This time of the year can be a bit dull, so I figured I'd have some fun with the colors that we don't see with our eyes.

I even used the improper white balance for this filter to pick up a different type of color. Though, really I feel that it is up to the person with the camera to decide what they want to visually see.

What I saw through the lens:

And then my version of what I liked. In some cases, I like the odd blue above a bit better. 

How far can I push the illusion of what we can't see with our eyes?

Why not do this? It is like creating a fairy land.

The challenge just like any challenge in photography is to find an interesting composition or subject. And I had a particular tree in mind.

Charlie and I hiked across PeeWee's valley to a particular tree that has roots that climb the steep hill.

The weather was supposed to get gnarly around 11 or noon. The winds were to gust up to 50 mph and as the temperatures dropped, there was to be snow squalls along with some sleet.

Charlie and I headed back home before the bad weather hit.

And boy did it ever hit!

It was time to hunker down and drag out some things for the Christmas Chair. I going with the old Captains Chair this year. 

It was a good way to stay out of the bad weather and trees that might blow down.

Perfect ~ A lesson in a spring fed creek

Andrew Wyeth says it quite beautifully, but I do have to disagree with him on one aspect. Winter doesn't give me a Dead Feeling. Winter in the woods is not dead.
Winter gives me a feeling of wonder and awe.

Nature can throw blizzards at us whipping up beautiful windswept carvings called drifts. The snow can adorn trees and they bow their branches to nature. Winter creates frost on windows in exquisite patterns that no human can replicate.

Winter can literally take your breath away when you step outside. Things freeze. Cars won't start. 

In all its brutal behavior, it also creates infinite beauty.

Under the dark looking waters, creatures still stir. Tiny pouch snails are feeding on algae. Caddisflies are in their tiny stone houses are waiting for spring. Trout are eating nymphs and aquatic sow bugs that are hidden under pebbles and mud.

Any trail left in the valley is usually not human. The trails are a mixture of  deer, coyote, and raccoon, plus the occasional bobcat. Once in a while I come across a deer carcass or another carcass. The woodpeckers, blue jays, crows, and other birds are surprising visitors. They too, assist in the clean up of the land. Mice also benefit from chewing on the bones to add calcium to their diets.

Life goes on. It just seems to be so much quieter than in the warmer months. Or perhaps it just isn't as noticeable because rarely anyone sees these things.

These streams or creeks in our valleys are spring fed which means the water coming up out of the ground is about 45 F or 7 C. The water is warmer than the air which creates a moisture that freezes on anything just above the water.

That is why all of the grasses and rocks have beautifully formed frost on them.

Below is a stick that fell from the trees above and landed across some rocks. Frost built up on the stick to decorate it. This is why I go out in the cold and explore. These things fascinate me.

How can it be -7 F and the water still runs? How come the frost decorates the rocks, sticks, and grasses?

It sure took me a long time to figure these things out.

But years of observation have helped.

Perhaps winter is boring to many. Fortunately, I have access to a unique landscape.