Ice Hunting part II

After breakfast, we packed our backpacks and made sure that Rich was comfortable. He said he was going to lay down and nap.

So the Gang and I + Dogs, headed towards the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. KVR had their annual Winterfest going on and we went past the building and headed out to the area that I'd explored in mid December just days before Rich's hospitalization.

Those who run the reserve have put up some signs that would help a person locate the 'Ice Caves', but if you are a person that understands how our peculiar landscape works, you'd have no trouble finding the ones that are popular and the ones that others usually don't know about.

We wore ice cleats or Yak Traks. With all the snow melt and rain we'd had earlier this week any trails would be ice packed. Extra traction really does help.

We took Scout and Charlie and they had a blast. I was amazed at how athletic Charlie really is with those short stubby legs of his.

Here is a pano shot much like one I did in December. Except there is Daryl in the middle-right of the photo for perspective.

When walking up on this place you become literally stunned by how large it is and how incredible it is.
I stood with my friends and asked them if our eyes were deceiving us like I felt it had last month.

Doesn't it look like there are floating islands of trees? I thought it was just how things looked in the camera.
But we all agreed, it was bizarre and beautiful.

We came in above the second formation. The 'caves' are large enough to stand in. The warm winter and the recent rains have melted the old ice and the recent cold snap is freezing the water that is coming through the rocks.
In the above shot, there is Daryl again to the right and to the left is Charlie...or is it Scout? I can't tell!

Well this should give you some sort of idea what it was like. In a really cold winter, this would be a wall of ice of multiple colors from all the minerals in the land and rocks.

Charlie is inspecting a cascade of ice that has fallen in the last warm up.

Below...just other cool shots.

In this area, we stopped and ate some snacks and the hot chocolate I carried in the tiny thermos was so delicious.

We traveled along the ridge top and then descended into the valley next to the creek. This was not a creek like the one in our little valley. This was a proper creek.

We stood looking around and then noticed the ice on the sandy 'bluff' of the creek.

The colors were amazing and you could see where the water had been higher during the first part of the week.

I picked up Charlie as I was afraid that he'd get out on the thin ice along the edge of the creek.
My friend Amanda snapped a shot of us.
I love this photo!

Further down the creek we spotted some odd colored ice.

I called it 'Sherbert Ice' ....really, it looked orange!

To get a proper shot of this ice, we'd have had to walk around back to the parking lot and then follow another long trail to get across the creek to see this.
It really would have been worth it.

But we headed back to the vehicle and headed home, so we could rest and eat supper.

After dark we planned on a night hike with head lamps.

I didn't get many good shots, I didn't dress warm enough for some reason. However watching the clouds and the stars above was worth the bit of chill I had.

There is nothing that beats a night hike with friends....
Here are a couple of shots... and how we set up.

My shot didn't turn out very well for this experiment. In fact it sort of came out quite ugly. However I did nab a shot of the ice wall in our creek. You can see the water slowly seeping over the ice that is already there. I had my friends use their headlamps to light up the area.

And then there is the utter failure of a shot of the creek just using a crescent moon.

All was not lost however.

I loved discovering the Orange Ice.

And in one of the ice caves I found an intriguing ice shape.

I'll leave you with my favorite shot of the weekend.

Ice Sculpture:

Bridges and Streams

..and adventures ...

I woke up early Saturday and peered out the window. It looked grey and overcast so I fell back to sleep. I woke up a few minutes later and got up to go make coffee. I didn't know if my guests would have looked outside yet or not.
Our Sunrise Date for going to the ridge and perhaps to the M Bridge might not be very exciting after all.
However I did find one of my guests awake. Daryl was sitting at the kitchen table reviewing something on his smart phone.

I said good morning and made coffee. We both glanced out the window and remarked that perhaps the sky wouldn't be very exciting for photographs but perhaps the lighting would be interesting.

And hey, it wasn't raining like the forecasters had predicted.

As we sat drinking coffee, Daryl's youngest daughter came down the stairs and joined us. We sipped our coffee quietly as to not wake anyone else.
We all glanced out the window as the clouds seemed to give off some color and a promise of...something...

In a flash, we'd grabbed our stuff and deposited ourselves in Daryl's Subaru. His family had been here enough now, that he knew the 'good' spots by heart. We drove to Kolstad Road and pulled in at the cattle pen.

"What about M?" asked Daryl. I shrugged. One can never go wrong with the trout stream. There was always the chance of fog, sun, cattle, and beautiful reflections.

The views of Bridge M never disappoint. It is one of my favorite spots to see the landscape change with the seasons.

I just love that clump of trees. Daryl captured the water and the bridge with an incredible eye. It helps to have another person's viewpoint when doing photography.

He is more adventurous than I am.

We decided to meander up the road and check out another spot near the J Bridge.
It did not disappoint.

We spent a good deal of time exploring and decided that we needed to come back and check it out with Daryl's wife and other daughter.

However, we first planned on visiting Jersey Valley. Those who wanted to hike could hike, those who wanted to fish could fish. It is just about the perfect Vernon County Park.

And of course we found more bridges...

Well, and parts of what used to be bridges. These trails were devastated in one of our 3 floods last year. The trails now circumvent these broken bridges. Except for the brand new snow mobile trail that goes over the South Fork of the Kickapoo River.

Fishing proved to be plentiful at Jersey Valley and ...

we got fish to eat!!!

Our photography group's theme for the week was "Bridges" so indeed we decided to explore more.
JJ Bridge.
Bridge Out.

Never underestimate the power of a flash flood. This bridge was nearly destroyed by the flash floods of last September. The rest of the bridges along this stream have also been compromised again and again over the past 10 yrs.
We just passed our 10 year anniversary of the August 2007 floods.

This bridge has been closed since last year and there is no funding from FEMA in sight.
In a way that makes me look upon Hurricane Harvery with a different set of eyes.
FEMA?
For the past 10 years FEMA was full of promises and slow to react.

However this area is so unique and I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.

For me it is a hiking a photography paradise.

I wonder how many bridges and streams I can photograph?

I won't run out of choices very soon.