Sidie Hollow in the Morning

I went to OT [Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy] Friday morning and had an hour and a half to kill before my hair cut appointment. I was way over due for a hair trim!

I followed the foot path from the boat landing and walked out to the floating fishing dock.
I was pretty happy to see the morning mists rising off the water.

I didn't have much time to really explore. But for the 45 minutes I was there, I did find some beautiful things to try out the Tamron lens.

At full zoom it was a bit soft in the low light, but I was able to catch some almost decent shots of some Canada Geese taking off in the shadows across the small bay.

It was a beautiful 45 minutes and I'd really wished I'd had the day to explore.

Sigh.
Now it is the Brown Season. But I think I will see if will challenge myself and see what interesting things I can find.

She needs my help by Morris

I was sleeping and doing my morning daydreaming on my couch when She walked by.

She said something like, "Well Morris what do you think about looking for Parsnips and Skunk Cabbage? Do you think we need to take a hike down into the valley to go find some?"

What I heard was, "Morris...blah blah blah HIKE blah blah..."

So I turned and ear and an eye to watch her. It was still morning and normally we did our hikes in the afternoon when He was taking a nap.

She went upstairs to where she keeps her camera stuff and started to rummage around. "HIKE" echoed in my little ears. We were going on a HIKE!

I hadn't been feeling too well the past few weeks and the doctor guy had given Her some stuff that I had to take every morning. I don't know what the 'stuff' is, but my appetite is back and so is my bounce. Apparently that makes Her a very happy person.
It makes me a happy dog because I can go hiking with Her.

I started to bounce and whine with great vigor. She gave me one of those looks and shook her finger at me. "Calm down Morris, yes you are going!"

Of course I heard, "Blah blah Morris, ... blah blah!" But I got the tone of the thing and although I don't understand much of what She says, I get Her body language very well. I was going with.

Off we went into the forest and climbed down into the creek. I ran ahead and then stopped and smelled the air. It was delicious and full of scents on the breezes.
I tracked deer and followed coyote scent among some other forest creatures.

The coyote scent was old. She stopped to check on the tracks in the sand and the mud of the creek.
I lingered here and there and She would have to call for me. Once I was confused, I had no idea where She went.

She stepped out from behind some brush and called me. I'm pretty much a sight dog so my nose, while not too bad, can't track Her like Dixie can.

She bent down and patted me on the head and then turned to show me what she found. Well, I wasn't really impressed. Plants are not interesting unless they have been marked by a coyote or another dog.

Apparently we were gathering some sort of plant. She pointed out the smelly Skunk Cabbage to me.
Not interested.
She pointed out the Wild Parsnip She'd dug up.
Not interested.

I ran ahead and tested the air at the Big Spring.

Now that interested me.
There were dozens of tracks in and out of the spring. She looked at the Marsh Marigolds and photographed them.

I stood guard and smelled the lingering scents of deer, 'possum, raccoon, coyote, and skunk. They must have all visited the Spring overnight and the damp air was still heavy with their smells.

She filled her bag with wild parsnips to cook as vegetables for supper and then we headed back through the Skunk Cabbage place.

We went upstream and headed home. I was muddy and happy. She was pleased with her wild vegetables.

The Creek Bottom after a Flash flood

I looked out the window as soon as daylight broke and used the binoculars to read the rain gauge.
3.25 inches of rain on the dot.

And water was running like crazy everywhere. My smart phone gave me an alert that flash flooding was occuring in my area. 
Be still my heart! 

Our house is not situated in an area that would be in danger from a flash flood. Our driveway suffers washouts, the creek gets cleansed of all those nasty weeds, and some places do wash in the pastures...but our house? We were not in danger of rising creeks or flash floods.

However. I love a good gully washer. Or should I say I love the aftermath of a good gully-washer/flash flood.

Alas. My poor heart. I had tomatoes to can. My feet however where itchy to go out and see what the gushing waters looked like.

I finished canning the tomatoes, and then proceeded to work on clear coating the Wainscott chair rail wood in the dining area.

Then it was time. I donned my 'woods' pants, 'woods' shirt, camera bag, rubber chore boots...and of course Morris and went to explore. I had promised Rich that it would be a short walk.

Oh what torture that was.

Earlier this year, the creek was not visible due to the amount of Jewel Weed and other weeds that choked the creek bottom.

A few flash floods and gully washers have set things back to normal. 
And I can gleefully look for cool rocks.

And I can find the odd balls rocks. The ones I believe are iron concretions and come in some very strange shapes.

The water was cold that came down the creek from above. Briefly, the sun came out and there was a thin layer of fog on top of the creek water.

It was eerie but amazing at the same time. Cold air and warm air met. Fog in a thin layer oozed across and towards myself and Morris.

Morris and I only hiked a small portion of the creek. 

We hiked enough to know that I wanted to follow the creek down the valley to where it meets up with Black Bottom Creek.

I looked at my watch. Time to get back home. I had work to do inside the house and the sun had come out. It would be a hot and sticky walk home.

I dipped my hands and my baseball cap in the 'new' pond and cooled off before heading up the ridge road towards home.

Morris trotted ahead of me, eager to get home and out of the heat also.

However I was stopped dead in my tracks by some incredible jelly fungi that glistened in the sunlight.

I sure want to get back into the woods and explore the valley.

Alas. Today is Crab Apple Jelly Making Day with the Neighbor.

I promised to show her how to make jelly. Both our households love jelly and homemade jelly.

Tomorrow looks to be promising though.

Fog in the morning and nice temperatures.

Perhaps I can convince my darling hubby to let me off clear coat duty for a couple of hours to explore the valley.

How I love to explore!

Big Rain and Lots of Fun

I looked at the weather on the radar, we were supposed to have a chance of rain and then it would move on.

Oh boy was the weather service wrong! After the first inch of downpour, I checked the weather again. NOAA had said that a line of thunderstorms had developed and stalled.

The expected rainfall could be anywhere from 2 inches to 4 before it moved on.

I stepped out on the porch and watched the rain come down in sheets. After that first downpour water started running across the yard and through my garden.

The water ran across the edge of the yard and right into the garden.

The damage was minimal after the waters receded. I went out to look at the garden and water still trickled through. 
Our ground is super saturated.

Just after the rain stopped I checked the radar and put on my chore boots. It was time to go see how the waters were running.

It came down from our neighbor's cattle pasture and had rushed to the spot where our little creek begins.

And from there the volume increased.

I stayed up on the bank for the most part because the water was still flowing too hard and too fast even though it had subsided from flash flood stage.

After the waters subsided a bit more, I did use this deer trail to get down into the creek and take some shots near the big rock.

Yep, worth the mud on the hands and the seat of my pants. However, climbing back out was interesting. Walking along the stream was not an option.

I went down to the last dry run we have before the creek goes into the neighbor's land.

The water had subsided, but the run off was still very impressive.

I decided to end my exploration there and not continue downstream.
The water would only be faster, deeper, and wider there. It could wait a day for me to go check it out.

I guess I am just a freak for mud, water, and fun in the rain.

I'm going to go search for my rain duster and check it out again today or tomorrow.

Really. I am not crazy. 
Perhaps I can find some cool fungi and mushrooms!

Baxter Hollow

Regretfully, I didn't have enough time to spend the day actually hiking back into Baxter Hollow.  I only had enough time to walk on the road leading into the Hollow itself along Otter Creek.

The road is closed off and there is a small parking lot to use.  I don't know if this place gets crowded or not during the warmer months.  I parked at Stones Pocket Road. Apparently there is another access on the north side.

There is a road closed sign that you will see first and off to your right is the small area for parking.

Once you walk around the gate you will follow the road for a mile before getting to the trail head.

You can view some interesting rock formations as you head towards Otter Creek.  At the bridge you get your first glimpse of Otter Creek.

And it is worth the short walk.

I wanted to get into Baxter Hollow, but because I didn't tell anyone where I was going and a lot of the trail conditions were pretty icy, I stayed on the closed road and took shots of the ice and the creek itself.

I will be coming back to explore this place more thoroughly.

I imagine in the spring it will be teeming with incredible wildflowers and I can't wait!

I've read reviews that the trail is faint and tough in may ways, but I spend time using deer trails as my own hiking trails in the land and woods that surround me, so it sounds just the sort of place I'd enjoy.

Besides, I like 'tough' and rough trails, they are so much for pleasing!

Damn that was Cold!

I took off yesterday afternoon armed with a backpack a bottle of water, my gun [for 'yotes and varmints], my old Nikon D40 and the Nikon D3200.
Various filters were stuffed inside the back pack all sorted carefully with best intentions, the Dolica tripod was securely fastened by Velcro.
I was ready.

I stuck my little pink fugly camera in my coveralls breast pocket and launched myself out the door.

I slid into my snowshoes and made extremely good time across the 'Merry Meadow'.  I stayed on top of the snow most of the way which amazed me.
I barely made any noise because the 6" snowfall we were receiving muffled my footsteps.



My goal was to get to the creek and get some awesome long exposure shots as per our group's assignment this week.

I warmed up while hiking across the meadow and on the steep descent into the valley.  ~ Reminder to self ~ take the GPS and see just how steep that point is!

The forest was pretty quiet.  I stopped often to look around the hillsides.  The snow was gently falling and I kept wondering if that would mess up my photos.
Would I even get any good photos?
Would it stay overcast?

One foot in front of the other.

I was quite surprised to find that much of the creek had frozen over.  Okay, you say water freezes, but normally not this water.  Several springs feed the creek and it runs fairly fast in places.  I could hear water under the ice.

My normal spot for shooting some icy little water falls was a sheet of white.  In fact I could walk on the ice with the snowshoes and because of the weight distribution, not break through.

I walked clear to the end of the valley before I found anything I thought worth taking a shot of.  I carefully started to climb down the steep bank.
Poof.
The snow bank broke away and I landed on the creek ice.

Lucky me, it supported my weight.

So I set up the tripod.  Got out the D3200 and set it up.  I focused the lens on what I wanted, or thought I wanted.  Set the focus, put on the Hoya ND 400X filter and let the timer do its magic.  I stuck a piece of electrical tape across the eyepiece as to not confuse the camera with light leaking in.
This was a new trick learned from my 'group'.

The water fall I'd picked was choosing to be a rather difficult model.  I couldn't get closer without breaking ice and getting wet.  The water was falling in a rather dark area and the snow and ice presented all sorts of settings issues.

I don't know how long I worked at it, but I realized that my hands were becoming red and very painful.

I shut the camera off and stuck my hands through the coveralls and laid them under my shirt.
Talk about stinging!  Owe!
I would have hopped up and down and said some curse words but just shuffled from one frozen foot to the other.
Jeeze.
When did the feet freeze?

I'm glad no one was watching, I'd have been sent to the loonie bin for sure.

I seriously considering getting some dry grasses together so I could start a wee fire and warm my hands up.
Then I decided to just pack up and head home.



Did I forget to say that it was all of about 3 degrees F out?  Well, I very un-gracefully climbed the snow-dirt bank out of the creek and did a near face first into the snow.

Then I put on my determined face and marched hard to warm up my feet and the rest of my body.  I bypassed some really cool spots that would have stopped me on a warmer day.

Eventually I got to our creek bottom and was warm enough to take a shot or two for 'The Creek Project'.

 

Here the water was flowing quite nicely although the creek was much narrower than usual.

I was amazed at how clear the water was.  And it even became more evident when I used a polarized filter with a weaker ND filter.  It was getting late and the light was fading fast.

Morris did not come with me on this trip.  It was just too darned cold.
Just before I got to the summer pasture I stopped and watched several deer browsing.  No, I didn't get any shots, I'd already put the cameras safely in zip lock bags inside my insulated camera back pack.

I simply watched and enjoyed.

By the time I made it back to the house I regained feeling in my toes and my fingers.