Cold and Ice. I like ice.

I waited for a 'warmer' day to go hiking and check out the Ice Falls and the Rock Shelter on Wintergreen Trail. I thought I dressed properly. 

Thought being the word of the day.

The worst part was my mitten - gloves. I chose the very wrong ones. I thought the polar fleece ones would be plenty warm. They are thin and work in most of the weather but apparently not in temperatures in the low teens with a slight breeze. I should have worn my little cheap thin gloves and my hand made mittens with the double palm.

Lesson learned. I balled up my hands inside the mitten gloves and stuck them inside my jacket pockets in an effort to warm them up.

Charlie and I went on regardless of the cold fingers. I was smart enough to add a scarf to the contents of my backpack so I could use that to protect my face from the breeze off the river. I generally pack a spare pair of gloves or mittens too. Ach. Lesson learned.

We made it without any trouble to the place where there is a Rock Shelter that turns into an Ice Cave by February. I wanted to see how the warm weather, fog, and rain, affected the building of the ice. Was it all gone? Was it there?

It was there and it surprised me. The Rock Shelter itself is huge. The ice was long and but I couldn't get a good shot of it.

Here is a shot from 2019 that a friend took of me hugging the ice.

The cooler parts are not the rock shelter itself, but the area that it drains down into. 

There are actually 2 areas of Ice Falls in this one spot. Water drains constantly from across the ridge and flows over this area and out to the river.

Here is a wide view from the bottom. 

This view is stunning. I don't think many people get to see this because the climb down is pretty intense. The Shelter I was pictured in .. is in the top right of this photo. So it is quite a distance that the water flows.

To the left is an ice falls. To me, it is one of the prettiest ice formations I've ever seen.

I always climb down to view it in the winter. I just can't help myself.

Along the trail there are a few other interesting places to see ice. This one is a bit treacherous if you are not paying attention and try to walk over it when snow covers it.

We made it to the end of the long bluff and got a shot of the river below us. In many places it was frozen over. However the river is dangerous when iced over because the water is flowing underneath it.

We made the trip safely despite getting a bit chilled along the way. I did end up using the scarf to keep my chin and face warm while walking back into the slight breeze. It was nice to get in the car and turn on the seat heater.

I'll be back to all the places I can get to as many times as possible throughout this winter.

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.

Annual hike Gone to the Dogs....

I met Jason and his dog Piper last year on New Year's Eve. We hiked together for the first time during the Kickapoo Winter Festival in 2022. We hiked together a couple of time sense then. Saturday we met up again to hike at the Weister Creek ice cave trail.

Jason had adopted Felix just weeks ago. There is a lot of unknown about Felix as he is an older dog who supposedly lived on the streets. 

Felix is in the red coat. Charlie is trying to help Jason do something or get in his car.

Here Piper is running back towards us on the trail. Piper wears a coat and also has Paw Balm on her feet to help protect her feet.

She seems to have boundless energy.

Both of Jason's dogs are adopted rescues and he absolutely adores his dogs. Charlie adores Jason too because he has the greatest dog treats.

Jason explained that he wanted to see how Felix would do on a hike that was a bit longer than 30 minutes. He planned on taking his dogs with him to Superior next month to visit the Ice Caves along the lake.

Charlie didn't wear his coat, I'm still trying to find something that will allow his tiny legs free movement when negotiating deeper snow and jumping logs. However, the weather didn't bother him one bit.

His orange reflective vest is great for visibility as long as we are on a groomed trail.

Photo by Jason:

Piper, chillin' out:

We got to the Ice Caves fairly quickly.

Piper lead the way and then waited for us.

Ahhhh hah!

We can see who the dogs prefer!

Felix inside the ice cave doing his own thing.

We spent a long time exploring the ice formations and Felix started to get a bit grumpy and began to shake. We figured he was cold and decided to head off the bluff we were on.

By the time we got down into the valley, Felix was himself again and walked sedately behind me or Jason. Charlie often walked shoulder to shoulder with Felix. [Hey! A new friend for Charlie that doesn't try to roll him over like a ball!]

Piper kept bounding around us and trying to get Charlie to play. Charlie decided that Felix was more his speed. All was good in the doggy hiking world.

We met up with two large groups of people. Felix just walked by them and ignored them with no more than a sniff. Piper sat out of their reach and waited for them to pass. She is good with one or two people, but shy of crowds.

I had leashed up Charlie because he is a greeter and adores humans of all kinds. They asked if they could pet Charlie and I said sure. I let him off leash and he did his Charlie thing. He squeaked and grunted with pleasure, his tail doing wild wags.

One lady asked how did Charlie get through all this snow? Charlie showed off by jumping a log and diving through the snow to circle around her with glee.

My answer: He Loves Snow!

We got to the end of the ice formations near where the old Beaver Dam used to be. Jason climbed out on a boulder next the the very cold and very swift Weister Creek where he wanted his photo taken.

It was pretty funny that Charlie whined and fussed all the time Jason was up there. I kept him with me as I am sure the little stinker wanted to try and jump over the water to get out there.

Our hike back was rather quiet and unexciting. We talked about meeting up again this winter for another outing. I think I'll take him to an off the map place to see some bluffs and ice.

Hopefully, it will all work out. And...Felix did fine on a 2 hour hike! We didn't hike fast but kept it to his pace.

Charlie was exhausted from his outing.

Another good hike in the books for the start of 2023!