An Amazing Friend and Adventure Part I

The photo above is of my friend Jason. 

We met December 31st on New Year's Eve. Other folks go to parties or whatnot. Jason and I ran into each other while searching for Ice Caves. Link to our first meeting: Totally Unexpected

We have continued our interesting friendship since that afternoon in 2021. State Natural Areas are the places he explores. He and his dogs are always going on adventures.  Piper and Felix get along well with Charlie. He calls them...our gang.

He lives two hours away from me, but manages to get out in my area every once in a while to go for a hike. 
Jason used to teach Geology and take students on field trips to SNA's in our area to study the incredible rock formations and teach others about the history of the driftless area's formation. 

In the shot above, Jason is explaining how this Hogback Ridge happened a gazillion years ago. [Not his words, but mine since I don't recall all of the scientific words he used!]

Pictured below is ... in Jason's words ... is one of the longest meander scars. A Meander Scar is a geological word for a feature of a remnant of a wandering river channel. It is now called a Hogback Ridge which is a dry prairie. Locally called a Goat Prairie. 

I don't think this place is often hiked. I would never have done it as it doesn't look that interesting at first glance.

But then Jason took me up to the top. We stood 300 feet above the valley below.

The view from the ridge was simply amazing. I felt like belting out the Lion King song and beating my chest. I didn't, but the feeling of being overwhelmed by the height and the incredible landscape stayed with me all along the narrow ridge. Seriously. In places it was only a several feet wide!

I thought, there are no trees along here to make things interesting. But everything was interesting. The colors of the different varieties of Lichen were beautiful.

The shapes of the rocks [Jason explained the reason behind the shapes] were beautiful and curious.

This section of rock has 3 different layers and kinds of rocks in it. Jason named them all [it mostly flew over my head]. I do recall that one of the layers was Karst. That was a name I recognized.

The dogs had a blast. Piper led, Charlie found a sweet spot in between Jason and I, and Felix followed...mostly. Felix is a rescue dog of Jason's with his own ideas about things and a few health issues. We often stopped to get Felix back on track and to chat. 

Here, Jason is pointing to something I should notice. I think I'd have to visit this place again to really take it all in.

See those trees in the distance? That was where we were headed. We actually were going to walk through an oak forest to the end of the ridge and drop down to see some amazing rock shelters.

Here is Piper doing her impression of the Lion King. I went up there with Charlie to get a good view also.

Jason's photos of Charlie and I... 

We stopped to look at rocks and of course the plants and Lichen. We joked about Liking Lichen.

On the narrow ridgetop, there was single track trail through the grasses. Many spots were dotted with rocks to negotiate through and around.

There was Bittersweet growing in some areas of the ridge and as we headed to the south side we went into a forest.

That's where things got really interesting.

I'll go into that in Part II...

Afternoon in Paradise

I took Morris for a walk up on the ridge.

We've had three killer frosts in a row, everything in the garden is done done, done...

I found out that the mules love the sunflowers. They eat the heads and chew on the stalks.  
Good thing as we had so many of them we weren't sure what we were going to do with them all.

The afternoon sun was so warm that I was tempted to just lay down in the yard and soak up the warmth.  A nap would have been perfect.

However the day was taken up with making sure my recyclables were all tidied up and taken to the town recycle center.

On the way over I couldn't help but stop and take a photo of this tree.
[edited for textures]

Tonight's forecast is for rain starting and carrying on for a few days.

Well that doesn't make me smile.  But we have had a wonderful week of gorgeous days and cold nights.
The colors are quickly fading and if we get heavy rain, the leaves will come off even faster.

The 4th of July events at my farm.

Well, I rode Fred, who was first to the gate.

We had our All One Mule 4th of July Parade in Folsom.

Fred and I rode out to the Folsom Schoolhouse and back.

We waved to 3 vehicles, 12 people, and passed by 5 farms.

At one of the places the kids came out to see us and wanted to pet Fred.

I convinced a 9 yr old to take our photo.

The day was perfect with perfect flawless weather.

When I got back home I went for a hike to check on the wild yellow raspberries.

The numbers are greatly reduced perhaps to winter kill?

Belle, the spook dog came to 'watch my back' for me.  She stayed within 10 feet of me and if someone else would have been anywhere near me in the woods ... she would have alerted and run off to hide.

My day was peaceful and spent the way I love best.  Riding and hiking. Who could ask for a more perfect day?

The Berries are not quite ready...

And the views from Fred's back as we rode the ridge were awesome.

One last note.  All these photos were taken with a crummy point and shoot pink pocket camera.

You don't have to have pro equipment to find nice shots!