Ice is cool

In our creek bottom there is a sandstone wall on a north wall that seeps water all year. If you didn't ever go into this are in the winter, you wouldn't know it was there. I'll never forget discovering it for the first time. 

I think it was the year I discovered snow shoeing. In the forest around us there are no groomed trails other than perhaps one you make yourself or one the deer and other critters have made.

I got pretty good at jumping the creek and climbing over downed trees with snowshoes on.

Here is the ice wall on the 3rd of January.

Depending on the winter temperatures, this wall will grow and melt and grow again. The sun never shines on this area and it is always cool even on hot summer days. There are cracks in the rock and sandstone that seem to breathe out cold air.

I find that pattern and the texture of the ice so incredible. It differs at different times of the winter. The ice generally looks a bit more yellow because of the particles of sand it picks up.

The water in the creek below it flows slowly still with frost on the rocks and surrounding grasses.

It takes a consistently very cold winter to freeze over the top of the creek, but the water still flows underneath the ice. This spot freezes often and thaws on warm sunny days.

Part of our daily routine is to take a walk to the creek and to the wall past the X spot where we stop and watch trout for a bit.

In the winter everything changes nearly daily. New tracks, the ice formations change, the creek freezes and thaws in different ways which is always fascinating.

Where the creek has a small springs, the water is so much warmer than the air that moisture collects on the grasses and makes the most incredible frost formations.

Below is one tiny spring the flows gently into the creek. The formations of ice and frost constantly change here. It is also a hot spot for the deer and carnivores to gather for a drink.

I guess I am just a sucker for the strange beauty of winter in this area. More and more I am realizing just how lucky I have been to live here.

Have you ever...

Have you ever wandered lonely through the woods?
And everything feels just as it should
You're a part of life there
You're part of something good
If you've ever wandered lonely through the woods
If you've ever wandered lonely through the woods.

Have you ever stared into a starry sky?
Lying on your back you're asking why
What's the purpose I wonder who I am
If you've ever stared into a starry sky
Have you ever stared into a starry sky.

Have you ever been out walking in the snow?
Tried to get back where you were before
You always end up not knowing where to go
If you've been out walking in the snow
If you'd ever been out walking you would know.

~Brandi Carlile

So I was listening to Pandora and this song came on. I had to pause it and look up the lyrics. It was that stunning and spoke to me. 

Yesterday was a wandering day. I just slid on the snowshoes and started out. I had absolutely nothing in mind but just to go and observe. To see what would catch my eye.

Ice Crystals

Sunburst Lichen
I think...

I have no idea...

.....but it is

crazy cool...

Robins eating

Buckthorn berries
and spreading the seeds

in poop.

The ice wall

I took off the snowshoes and meandered down the creek. I had no idea what I was looking for or what I wanted to do.

Grumpy Dragon to his 

brother the Forest Dragon:

Hey, I thought you said

Spring was on the Way!

Cool Clear

Water

Moss along the 

rock wall.

Have you ever been out walking in the snow?
Tried to get back where you were before
You always end up not knowing where to go
If you've been out walking in the snow
If you'd ever been out walking you would know.

That was me. 

Chionophile

Chionophile: Any animal that thrives in winter conditions, especially one that thrives in snow.

Chee--on--ooo-file.

This term refers to those who absolutely adore winter also. I am one of those.

Winter is my time. I love...underline that and put it in italics...I love winter.

I am lucky that I live in a region where getting out of that cold wind is an option simply by hiking.
Yesterday was my first foray out in a week. Hubby was okay with watching some Amazon or Netflix while I went out to wander. 

I didn't tell him the temps were only 2 degrees F or that the wind chills were far below 0. I dressed and headed out.

On the east end of the valley the creek runs faster with a higher volume of water. The overhanging grasses are splashed by bits of water and humidity from the warm springs....and make....

Ice Fingers

Further upstream where the water flow is much slower, the creek did a flash freeze when the temperatures dropped from 45 degrees to 6 degrees over a period of 6 hours.

Even the little water falls froze. The water that seeped over the ice froze in what almost can be described as ice waves.

I found the leaves below to be very interesting. I haven't figured out exactly why it looks like this. Perhaps because the leaves soak up sunlight and heat and melt a bit around the edges changing the consistency of the ice?

I think winter is the best.

Interesting tracks...

Interesting ice formations along the creek or any small stream for that matter.

And the beauty of Ice Walls.

December 11th...

December 25th...

I rest my case.

I am a true blue Chionophile and proud of it.

Today I took a long hike downstream with Charlie.

We had an incredible adventure and found the Blue Ice.

I just do love winter.

Fun and ice

First the photobomb of Dixie.

Then as she bounds off to more adventure along the creek with a whine of ...Come ON!

She kept getting in the way of me trying to set up a photo using a tripod in the creek.

I think her intent was to whack the whole works with her tail to let me know how happy she was to keep moving.
There is the new challenge.
Morris would just wait and let me do my thing.
I'm sure Dixie and I will come to an understanding.

I really didn't bring the cheapo tripod to do that while hiking with her anyway.
I thought it would be fun to set up a 'selfie' with her. Little camera on the cheap tripod with a self timer and call her to me....

Seems to have worked fairly well.

We had a very successful walk despite her impatience to keep moving. In that respect, she is a great hiking partner.

...and she is curious and still quite young.
I think I explained that I keep the training collar on her when we hike in the woods as she is prone to chasing things or following her exquisite nose.

Dixie wears a bright collar with our name, address, and phone number on it.
Since she has been trained to come on a whistle I am confident that I'll never  lose her.
The biggest challenge I've had with hounds is that sometimes they get very distracted by scents and will run off. Dixie has never been trained to hunt so I'm pretty sure I can keep her close while off leash.
However we do hike in a remote area. If I were hiking at the Reserve or the State Park, she'd be leashed of course per the rules. But when brush busting and creek leaping, you do not want to wrangle a large dog on a leash.

However. I would rather be safe than sorry.
Dixie is trained to 'find' me if she loses me. We used to play 'hide and go seek'. I'd go hide while she was distracted and then let out a call and she'd have to track me to find me. She excels at that. Bless that big hound dawg nose!

Morris cannot find me unless he hears my voice or sees me. But given that we've hiked for 14 yrs together and he has learned all the trails and my habits, I'm sure that Dixie will also.

So for now, Dixie and I do hikes but no complicated stuff.

Our really bitterly cold temperatures did some amazing things to the ice wall and the creek.

Isn't this ice amazing? Looks as if it froze instantly while running! However this wall is a sandstone mix that seeps water constantly.

This is a shot of the section of the creek that froze solid on top. Towards the top of the photo you can see the frozen deer tracks. It must have been slush when the deer walked on the ice and it froze like that!
I need to get back over to the long dry run that has a spring in it.

There should be a nice long ice flow in it and the colors ought to be incredible like those greenish blue colors in the photo above.

I do love winter. Didn't I say that?
It is so interesting in the forest.

Meanwhile at home ... later that day...
Morris relaxes with my new blanket.

It will be warm enough this week for me to take Morris and Dixie out together for a little walk up the road. Morris has been feeling quite playful the last few days and is enjoying the sudden warm up.

The weather is supposed to get cold and wicked again after some rain/sleet and snow comes.

Take A Hike!

There is an App that can be used with cell phones called MapMyHike. I had been using my Etrex Garmin GPS for years, but it seems to have issues now, so I thought I'd try this out.

I thought this graph was pretty interesting. It shows that I kept a fairly good pace even with the elevation changes. I know that since May I have increased my power and strength for hill hiking. I surprised myself last weekend when hiking the KVR. It was rather flat and I covered ground in 12 minute miles or less depending on when I stopped for taking photos or re-routing along the river.

My hands may ache and feel horrid, but my legs are strong and can carry me along. Some of this route was similar to what I can ride Sunshine, Mica, or Siera on. However the majority of this hike was on deer trails and not groomed trails.
It involved 'creek leaping' as well as ducking and hopping over dead falls.

I love to chose to go along the creek first anyway. I've even tossed out some flat rocks to assist with the creek crossings.
I went past the Ice Wall to see if there was any ice forming. This area is wet with a lot of water seepage so the ice is forming.

Last year....
in January...

The temperatures will be dropping drastically through the weekend and since I have some avid hikers coming to visit, I thought I'd check out the route we like to take together.

These are the trails I take. There is an old logging road that is a bit wider but nothing is groomed so it is always rough going. I am not complaining as this has been my backyard hiking for the past 20 some years.

I wanted to see if the 'Ice Cave' had any ice on it yet. The ice formation on these rocks are dependent on moisture from the ridge. There hasn't been enough rain or snow melt to create any formations here.
The raccoon have taken over the 'cave' area. I could smell the scat from above it.

As I entered the cropland area I saw this mud-grass bird nest full of cracked corn and berries. I wondered if some field mice didn't use this as a storage bin.

Then it was back out onto the cropland. I hiked through the corn stubble and cut across to our property line.

I hustled down the steep hillside to the creek. I checked my time and I wasn't far off schedule. I'd told Rich that I'd take about an hour and a half. I had 20 minutes to spare.

I marched an slid down the hillside and back to the creek. I grabbed the knotted rope we call "the elevator" and used it for balance while climbing up the steep bank.

The arrow points to the rope I use to go up the bank.

View from the top of the bank into the creek.

I made it home with two minutes to spare.

I grabbed some dry clothes [I'd sweat through my shirt and sweatshirt] and helped Rich finish the stock tanks.

How did I feel afterward? I thought I'd ache all over.
I did not.
I thought I'd feel it today.
I do not.

However, I did sleep like a baby last night. 8 full hours of sound sleep. After 9 years of odd shift work and no sleep pattern, I am finally feeling a bit more normal. I feel like leaving that job gave me back years of life.

I'm already plotting my next hike.

The Night Hikers

Message: "Hey can we go on a night hike?"

It was from my Kenosha Crew. They were coming to visit Rich and I for the weekend.
I typed back: "Yes, of course!"

I had told them how fun it had been to use headlamps and challenge the wooded trials and the creek in the dark.

Years ago my husband and I had redtick hounds and we hunted raccoon at night. I'd always enjoyed our adventures in the dark and rediscovered how fun it actually is to explore trails in the dark.
Things just don't appear the same in the daylight.

After they arrived Friday evening, we gathered up headlamps and flashlights and headed out the door. We headed through the gates and into the cattle's summer pasture.

Photo: Daryl Clausen

We climbed down the steep bank and into the creek bottom. 

Creek Leaping at night is always more fun than in the day time.

During the day one can see exactly where the rocks are to use as stepping stones.

Photo: Daryl Clausen

We got to the ice wall fairly quickly.

The ice wall is way cooler at night...what can I say?

Here the wall was lit up by sticking a headlamp behind the ice.

Day view of approximately the same place.

Friday night's adventure was incredible. The Kenosha Crew loved it.

We used different colored lights in our flashlights to light the ice up from the backside. The kids climbed the ice wall in the dark and slid down it.

Daryl Clausen took this incredible shot of us exploring the ice wall from my Zen rock pile.

We moved on down the creek. We tromped through the snow and headed for the snowmobile crossing. I knew there would be some neat ice formations there.

Amanda and Daryl are rock hounds and they kept finding rocks with Drusy quartz in them. I've learned over the 20 some years of living in this area that even during the most casual walk in the creek or woods in this area, one will always find an interesting rock to pick up.

When we got to the 'Crossing' there were "oohs and ahhhs" as we admired the ice formations that clung to the grasses and roots where the stream had been tamed by the snowmobile club and directed through a culvert.

Photo by Daryl Clausen

Everyone gathered and admired the beautiful ice formations. My cell phone camera didn't do the 'Crossing' any justice what so ever...

But Daryl caught some beauties with his cell phone:

Photo credits to Daryl Clausen

We headed back with the kids and climbed a steep hill to cross the Merry Meadow.
The new snowfall that we'd had earlier this week was wet and heavy. It was frozen and made for difficult walking. If we'd all had snowshoes or had skis, it would have been an easier walk.

Everyone was tired but excited about going exploring the next day to the Ice Cave and the Lost or Secret Valley.

The Kenosha Crew had been hooked by Night Hiking. They definitely wanted to do it again.