Angry Skies are always Interesting

Stepping out of the back door at work today, it was hard to ignore Mother Nature.

Dorothy would truly be impressed.

My First Hike - Hickory Canyons in Ste Genevieve

Mom and Dad have been doing this "hiking" thing for a while.  Probably since before I was born, oh, like, 11 weeks ago.  Apparently it's really just walking in the woods, which I can get behind.  So today they took me along on their "Sunday Adventure" to Hickory Canyons.  It's pretty close to Pickle Springs and Hawn State Park, so they say.  Whatever, I just wanted out of the car and into the woods.

Signs, signs, reading, reading, let's get on with it Mom!

I really like walking in the woods and stopping to sniff stuff, but Mom and Dad really like to hurry things along.  Ok, at least let me pee on things, please?  Soon enough, we came to a set of stairs.  I am practically the stair master around my house.  I like to bark or growl as I go down them, I think because it makes me feel like I'm showing the stairs who's boss!

The stairs led down to some really sweet rock formations.  Mom and Dad ooooh'd and aaahhh'd a lot, so it must've been cool.  I mean, you've seen one rock you've seen 'em all, right?

There were some really cool rock things.  

There was this big cavern in the rocks that Dad was really excited about, so he made me and Mom pose.

Then Dad got into the rock cavern and took our picture again.  He called it a pana-something.

Of course, I owned this walk in the woods.  After all, I have all-wheel drive and the rocks and roots and uphills are no match for all-wheel drive.

There were some very steep uphills, though.  I was pretty happy that Mom and Dad opted not to go up and over some of the big rocks.  In my defense, I was only carried ONCE.

At the end of the walk in the woods, my all-wheel drive was on it's last paw.  It was pretty hot and it was my first hike, so it's no surprise that I'm really worn out.  I slept all the way home and then I got a bath.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more napping to do.

My Youngest and Most Challenging Child - Remi

He's growing fast but he's still a little squirt.  Remi is a precious little dude, and at the same time he's a ton of work. I took an opportunity yesterday to catch him while he was zonked out in his kennel. He has the most perfect little paws I've ever seen.

Remi has a crazy fascination with the dishwasher.  Even when the dishes are clean.  Soon he will be too big to stand on the door like this.  For now it's hillarious.

The other day I had to go into the hardware store for something while the Beautiful Mrs K sat in the car with Remi.  I had to get this shot of him being his usual curious self and checking everything out.

And when the party is over, it's over!  He will fall asleep anywhere.  Not for long, though.

Don't Let the Tree Beat You

It wasn't even storming the other day when I got a text and photo of this monster branch that broke off from our busted ass tree in the back yard.  I knew it was going to be a lot of work.  I really don't have a lot of extra money sitting around to pay a tree trimmer to come and clear it up for me.  So it was me versus the tree.

The worst part was cutting up the leafy branches so that I could get to the big stuff.  I ended up with 10 yard waste bags.  And my back hurt.

I borrowed a chainsaw from my brother in law.  This thing was awesome.  I sliced this stuff up like it was warm butter.  But like, a LOT of warm butter.  It took a while. And my back hurt.

So after all the crying was done, I went inside, took a shower, and sat down for a minute.  I don't drink often, and certainly don't drink much beer.  In the fridge was this pint bottle from the Dirty South gravel race I did in March.  So I drank it.  It was strong.  My back didn't hurt anymore.

And since I had sat down in front of Eli's gaming computer, he prompted me to play GTA with him.  I drove some cool cars badly, ran over some pedestrians, and we had a good laugh.

Then this happened.

Tim = 1.  Tree = 0.

Weekend Adventure - Salt Lick Point in Valmeyer

For this weeks adventure, we took the advice of my coworker Evan.  He told us to try Salt Lick Point in Valmeyer, Illinois.  So we saddled up for what we thought was Father's Day.  We figured out that it wasn't actually Father's Day today...it's Flag Day??  Anyway, it got Eli to come with us, because he thought he was doing Dad a solid by going along with us on our adventure.

Calendar mistakes aside, it turned out to be a very interesting place.  Many people know that Illinois is flat.  And there is a lot of flat.  But there are bluffs and crazy steep hills if you look in the right places, and Valmeyer has no shortage of killer bluffs and views.  They're pretty insistent on not letting people go into the old caves and mines here which was a huge bummer because they look so awesome.

The 3-ish mile loop starts on a dead flat parking lot.  We chose the Johnson Trail, which takes you along a dead flat path right next to the rocky bluffs.

Whoa.  Cool cave in the side of the bluff straight away along the trail.  The sun made this shot particularly awesome.

Next up was a small inlet that allowed us to get up close to some bluffs and a cave.  This is a weird panoramic shot that I was really pleased with...but it doesn't really show the awesomeness of the bluff.  You'd have to see it for yourself.

At the end of the Johnson trail (1 mile, I think) was the start of the trail up to Salt Lick Point.  It went UP AND UP, super steep like, for about .8 miles, at times up to 24%.

I was a bit ahead of the Beautiful Mrs K and Eli, so I took a photo, again one that doesn't show the gradient.  But if you zoom in on the photo, dead center is Eli.  That may help you with the steepness.

On the way up, we saw this dude.  Talk about blending in with the scenery.  If he hadn't moved, we would not have seen him in the first place.

Atop the mountain, we could look out on the flat farm fields below.  Not in the photo would be the St. Louis skyline, way, way off in the distance.

Another really cool cave, right at the end of the trail.  Nice, cool air around this one.  Looked like a great place to hide a body, Eli kept reiterating. 

Last cool view. I was very disappointed not to be able to go into this one.  It lead straight out to the parking lot.  At one time, maybe people were able to use this part of the trail, but not any more.

Very cool family friendly hike.  Just be sure that you are ready to climb.  The total distance for us was 3.1 miles with an elevation gain of 482 feet!

More Adventuring - Don Robinson State Park

For the next installment of our weekly adventure series, we drove just a short way down to Don Robinson State Park.  We are totally into the rugged, feature-heavy hiking trails and this place did not disappoint. Very well done park, with beautiful entrance roads and nice facilities...although the bathrooms were not open because of the plague.

We chose the Sandstone Canyon Trail, because, well, it sounded really cool.  Who doesn't like canyons?

After just a few hundred yards of shady pavement, we were delighted to see the single track trail.  Right away, the treats started coming.  This crazy rock bridge would be FABULOUS with heavy running water.  Mental note...visit this in a downpour or in the dead of winter...I can imagine the awesome ice features!

Water has it's way with the sandstone in the region, and there are so many rock features as evidence of that.

One doesn't have to walk far to see the power of water.  The big elevation changes in the park mean that water has plenty of speed to cut into whatever stands in it's way.

Of course, the big draw to this place (as if there aren't plenty) is the huge rock hollow.  Coming upon it, it looks like an old quarry.  But it's a massive hole, with the walls cut out by running water.  You know that cool rock overhang on the Rock Hollow (Zombie) Trail?  This is about 5 times that.

I was feeling small, but very comfortable in the much-cooler temps in the hollow.  There was plenty of water dripping through the rocks, too.

Leaving the hollow, there were plenty of other massive walls of carved rock.

Another wall that reminded us of Flintstone apartment buildings.

Getting close to the end, there was quite a bit of climbing.  We didn't realize we were doing a lot of descending along the way until we had to climb out of this really cool valley.

Mr. Robinson was an old dude with a real love of the wilderness.  He donated his land at his death to be made into a park.  This is his house on location that is undergoing renovation.

We highly recommend the place.  We could have done a lot more hiking if we had the time, as there was another whole trail system we didn't get to see.

Spring Time in St. Louis = Wild Skies

Driving to work this morning, I was greeted with some rather interesting skies.  The dreary looking sky had this dramatic line across it that signified a big change coming.  I'm not sure I've seen such an odd cut line before.  Yes I was driving, yes I apologize, and yes it was worth it for this photo.

I drove toward the highway and as I got onto the on-ramp, I had a much wider view of craziness going on up there.  Not a drop of rain yet, but rumbling thunder.  I had to drive south, right into under this scene. Good thing I just bought new tires for the car!