It was a party of six for the final two hikes and a beautiful fall day to boot! I was joined by Joe, Cheryl, Ryan, Morgan and Morgan's friend Chase. Our first destination was to Miami University Natural Areas Hiking Trails. We hiked 3.77 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes. You would think that having six of us on a hike that one of us would have noticed the trailhead as we walked past it at the onset of the hike, but not so much! I guess being part of a small crowd, we were more interested in socializing than thinking about the trailhead. After walking about a half a mile, I looked at the Endomondo map and compared it to the map in the book and I could then tell we were going in the wrong direction. We turned around and as we walked I read the narrative in the book and I had a pretty good idea of where we went wrong. As soon as you leave the parking lot, there is a bridge and right at the bridge's end there is a set of stairs that leads down to the trail. There was a small sign, but we all missed it. Wah wah wahhh! There is always a silver lining though. Before we got to the trailhead, we saw a really cool historic log cabin and some horses. There was one particular horse who I thought looked like Mr. Ed, but Cheryl mistakenly called a donkey. He didn't seem to like that much because he kept staring at her. I think it was her high-pitched voice, but she felt it was because she insulted him. This is a really nice trail with some fun landmarks. Just after we met up with one of the biggest fallen trees I've ever seen, we came to a creek crossing made of concrete posts. We haven't had any new members to the "Fall on Your Butt Club" in a long time and I wondered if this was our big chance. I took some pictures as everyone was crossing and then I followed up from behind. As I concentrated on my footing I heard Cheryl scream and when I looked up she was on the ground laughing with everyone standing around her. Poor Cheryl! She didn't fall on her butt, she fell on her face!!! She took quite a beating and had red marks later in the day to show for it. As always she was a good sport and started making jokes about being the first member of the "Fall on Your Face Club." There was a a nice sized pond and another creek crossing with a cool footbridge made with swinging ropes. I crossed that one first and took video of everyone else crossing. Pretty funny!
As soon as we finished our hike at Miami University, we headed to Governor Bebb Preserve to complete the final hike before dark. Upon arrival to the Pelewa trailhead we were greeted by an unexpected visitor of the feline variety, a cute little tabby cat. She hung out with us while we took pictures at the trail sign and then when we started hiking she followed right along. I found this so funny and unexpected. I was thinking how I could see a dog following us, but a cat? As we kept going I expected that she would take off on her own, but she never did. She followed right along. When we returned to the trail sign, the tabby laid down in the dirt right where we had started. It was her resting place after completing her tour guide duties. Very cute! This was a nice trail, but there wasn't much to it. A good portion of it was meadow trail and as the sun started to set the sky was pretty. I was grateful that we had the four legged creature to make the hike more interesting. We hiked 1.23 miles in 27 minutes.
After hiking we all went out to dinner to celebrate. It was fun talking about all of the different happenings over the months of hiking. It's kind of a strange feeling knowing that all 60 hikes are complete. When I went to fill in my tracking sheet with the final mileage and dates, I was sad that there weren't any names of trails left on the list! What I am excited about is that I have all of these great places that I know about now to hike. Also, I can go hike when I want, wherever I want. No longer dictated by specific places from the book.
I learned so many things about hiking and about myself from this adventure. I learned a lot about navigating trails, using modern technology tools, and how to dress for different kinds of weather. Blogging about this experience taught me a lot as well. Knowing I would blog about each trail heightened my awareness of everything I saw and everything that happened during each outing. I learned that a little more dust on the furniture isn't the end of the world! Taking time for myself still allowed me to get my work done and keep up with household chores.
Depak Chopra says, "Spending time in nature will give you access to infinite creativity, freedom, and bliss." Until I spent significant time in nature this year, I couldn't truly understand this statement. I think today we often get so caught up in our daily activities that we forget to stop and take in all of the beautiful things around us. Every time I went out for a hike, I was so far away from it all that I felt a feeling of renewal.
Hiking is a great way to spend time with friends and family. This was one of the greatest gifts of the 60 hikes. I am eternally grateful to everyone who joined me for one hike or many hikes. Having other people to share in the adventures made the experience that much more fun.
I don't see this as the end of hiking for me or the end of my blogging about hiking. I'd like to write a post about hikes from the book I would recommend. I'd also like to write future posts about new hiking trails that I tackle that are not a part of the 60 Hikes book.
Some final stats:
60 hikes down with 0 hikes left!
Completed in 10 months and 18 days
About 196.5 miles hiked
1704 page views of this blog from 10 countries
3 four-legged hikers (2 dogs + 1 cat)
Frogs - too many to count
Mileage on my car - don't want to count
Calories burned - lots
Calories consumed - probably more than burned between trail snacks, creamy whip stops, and Quaker Steak and Lube celebratory dinner
Thanks also to all of the readers of this blog! You inspired me to keep on hiking and keep on blogging!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Snap! Crackle! Sniff!
As I set off today for my two final hikes of this adventure, it only seems appropriate to squeak in a quick blog post about the two hikes last weekend to Hardy Lake State Recreation Area and Pennywort Cliffs Nature Preserve. These hikes were over 100 miles from my house. Since I live just 20 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, I am still confused about how the "within 60 miles of Cincinnati" was established, but so be it. I have come this far, so we gassed up the car and headed on the road.
Hardy Lake State Recreation Area has a really nice trail. As we set off, it was unbelievable the thick layer of leaves on which we were walking. It was so loud, that if we wanted to say something to each other we either had to stop to say it or shout at each other. There were plenty of leaves on other hikes recently, but for some reason the dryness of them on this day made them extra loud, along with the crackling of twigs and branches we couldn't see under the layers of leaves. The first landmark that we reached was McClain Cemetery. The sign said that the oldest occupant is John McClain who was buried in 1770. There was a cement wall surround the graves that were so old you could read what many of them said. As we continued on the trail, we reached the lake. The scenery was beautiful on this sunny day. My favorite part of the trail was when it followed along the edge of a peninsula jutting out into the lake. We didn't realize how peaceful it was until we stopped to really appreciate the scenery. At this point after hiking about 2 miles both Joe and I agreed that between the snapping of the twigs, the loud crackling of the leaves and the sniffling from our noses due to fall allergies the sound was getting really annoying! After taking quite a few pictures we headed back to the car and on to find Pennywort Cliffs.
Here's what Tammy York writes in her book about Pennywort Cliffs Nature Preserve: "Finding the trailhead is an adventure in itself. It is easy to miss-repeatedly. The entrances to Pennywort are simple cut-ins through the standard overgrowth of edge species such as multiflora rose and poison ivy. This alone probably discourages less-adventurous hikers who would turn around and head for a trail system in a more civilized setting." Really, Tammy? I travel over 100 miles to get to this trail and that's the best you can do within 60 miles of Cincinnati? I am baffled, befuddled and bewildered by this choice. Let me just say that finding this trailhead was just as Tammy described and thankfully we were hiking in what was not poison ivy season, so we were probably more game. When we thought we found the trailhead, Joe said, "I don't care if you want to skip it." I said, "What? Skip it? I am three hikes away from my goal. I am not skipping this hike." We drove up and down the road like Tammy said would happen. Her landmark was "barns" which there was only one across from a gap in the woods that had a white sign that wasn't much bigger than a sheet of copy paper and was as white, with no printing on it. I had the sports tracker going so we could watch the trail. We decided we would hike until we felt like it got too hard to follow and then we would just turn around and travel back the way we came. As we hiked along on top of the leaves wondering if we were even on a trail, we came upon a picnic table which I told Joe was on her map, so I got out the sports tracker and compared the map in the book to the map on the sports tracker and sure enough they matched perfectly. I was shocked that we were actually on the trail. It felt like we were wandering through the woods. Finally we came upon a fork in the trail that didn't looked cleared and you could tell not traveled on frequently. We decided this was the point to head back the way we came. I was satisfied that we made at least an effort to tackle this location.
Between the two hikes we hiked over 4 miles in about an hour and a half of hiking time. I don't even want to think about the travel time. UGH!
Today I set out for hikes 59 and 60 with a band of merry hikers. The temperature is supposed to reach 60 degrees and be sunny. It's amazing the outstanding weather that has prevailed throughout this whole experience. I'm not sure how I'm feeling that we are completing this today, but I'm sure I'll be ready to write about it when it's all said and done.
Hardy Lake State Recreation Area has a really nice trail. As we set off, it was unbelievable the thick layer of leaves on which we were walking. It was so loud, that if we wanted to say something to each other we either had to stop to say it or shout at each other. There were plenty of leaves on other hikes recently, but for some reason the dryness of them on this day made them extra loud, along with the crackling of twigs and branches we couldn't see under the layers of leaves. The first landmark that we reached was McClain Cemetery. The sign said that the oldest occupant is John McClain who was buried in 1770. There was a cement wall surround the graves that were so old you could read what many of them said. As we continued on the trail, we reached the lake. The scenery was beautiful on this sunny day. My favorite part of the trail was when it followed along the edge of a peninsula jutting out into the lake. We didn't realize how peaceful it was until we stopped to really appreciate the scenery. At this point after hiking about 2 miles both Joe and I agreed that between the snapping of the twigs, the loud crackling of the leaves and the sniffling from our noses due to fall allergies the sound was getting really annoying! After taking quite a few pictures we headed back to the car and on to find Pennywort Cliffs.
Here's what Tammy York writes in her book about Pennywort Cliffs Nature Preserve: "Finding the trailhead is an adventure in itself. It is easy to miss-repeatedly. The entrances to Pennywort are simple cut-ins through the standard overgrowth of edge species such as multiflora rose and poison ivy. This alone probably discourages less-adventurous hikers who would turn around and head for a trail system in a more civilized setting." Really, Tammy? I travel over 100 miles to get to this trail and that's the best you can do within 60 miles of Cincinnati? I am baffled, befuddled and bewildered by this choice. Let me just say that finding this trailhead was just as Tammy described and thankfully we were hiking in what was not poison ivy season, so we were probably more game. When we thought we found the trailhead, Joe said, "I don't care if you want to skip it." I said, "What? Skip it? I am three hikes away from my goal. I am not skipping this hike." We drove up and down the road like Tammy said would happen. Her landmark was "barns" which there was only one across from a gap in the woods that had a white sign that wasn't much bigger than a sheet of copy paper and was as white, with no printing on it. I had the sports tracker going so we could watch the trail. We decided we would hike until we felt like it got too hard to follow and then we would just turn around and travel back the way we came. As we hiked along on top of the leaves wondering if we were even on a trail, we came upon a picnic table which I told Joe was on her map, so I got out the sports tracker and compared the map in the book to the map on the sports tracker and sure enough they matched perfectly. I was shocked that we were actually on the trail. It felt like we were wandering through the woods. Finally we came upon a fork in the trail that didn't looked cleared and you could tell not traveled on frequently. We decided this was the point to head back the way we came. I was satisfied that we made at least an effort to tackle this location.
Between the two hikes we hiked over 4 miles in about an hour and a half of hiking time. I don't even want to think about the travel time. UGH!
Today I set out for hikes 59 and 60 with a band of merry hikers. The temperature is supposed to reach 60 degrees and be sunny. It's amazing the outstanding weather that has prevailed throughout this whole experience. I'm not sure how I'm feeling that we are completing this today, but I'm sure I'll be ready to write about it when it's all said and done.
58 hikes down and 2 hikes left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
An Interesting First
On Sunday, November 4, I set off to tackle three of the seven hikes that remain. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to travel 84 miles to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. I was hopeful after traveling that far that I would be rewarded with some awesome trails. When I entered the park there was a large sign that said "Deer Hunting Today - Check In at Visitor's Center." I got a little butterfly twinge in my stomach at that point. Then, my stubborn inner self said, "I didn't drive this far to not get to hike today." So I proceeded. Previous to arrival I decided that I would start with the longest hike on the East River Trail that was supposed to be 3.6 miles long. I followed the directions in the book, but had no luck finding the trail head. As I drove back through the gravelly park roads, I decided I would hike one of the other trails and then head to the Visitor's Center to ask about the location of the East River Trail.
I got out of my car at the Richart Trail with my ears cocked. I was listening for the sound of gunshots. I don't know what I was expecting...to hear constant rapid gunfire? The sun was shining, the day was beautiful and I was ready to go. I took a picture of myself at the the kiosk because this is what we have done on almost all of the previous hikes. I'm glad no one happened by because I'm sure I looked pretty ridiculous. Richart Trail is 0.9 miles long. The beginning of the trail is mowed grass and it's still really green. It was amazing how quiet it was. You can really appreciate the solitude when you are hiking alone. And then my thoughts started to wander: What if the hunters are using bows and arrows? I really wouldn't hear them if that is the case. I started to make as much noise as I could with my feet as I walked. Silly! Some of the trail follows along one side of Richart Lake. There is a pretty gazebo with an overlook. I stopped to take some pictures and then hiked back along the trail to my car deciding that all was clear and I was letting my imagination run away with me.
Next stop was the Visitor's Center to ask about the trail head for the East River Trail. When I walked through the door I was greeted by two older ladies. One of them was doing some computer work and the other walked over to see how she could help. I told her I was looking for the trail head for the East River Trail. She said, "Oh that trail was closed a little over a year ago. It was just too hard to maintain." I said, "Well that's a first! I have hiked over 50 hikes this year and none of the other trails have been closed." I showed the ladies my book and they both congratulated me on my efforts. They asked me how many miles I've hiked this year and I told them that I've hiked over 180 miles. The greeter then told me that she used to volunteer on the trails and that she hiked 500 to 700 miles a year. WOW! I couldn't believe it! She then showed me some alternate trails in the park that I could hike, also warning me about which ones to stay clear of because of the bow hunting for deer that was taking place in one area of the park. Then my little voice in my head said, "Next time, you WILL check the Visitor's Center first!"
All of the hikes were relatively short. I hiked the Chestnut Ridge Trail that was 0.5 miles. This trail is in the book. I replaced the closed East River Trail with hikes on the Turkey and Bird Trails (1.95 miles) and the Wood Duck Trail (0.64 mile). The trails were really flat and didn't present much of a challenge except that at times it was hard to follow the trail because almost all of the leaves are off the trees and are on the ground now.
Considering the time and distance traveled, I probably wouldn't head out to Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge again, but the sun was shining, the solitude was rejuvenating, and the ladies at the Visitor's Center were interesting so it was a pleasant day.
56 hikes down and 4 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got out of my car at the Richart Trail with my ears cocked. I was listening for the sound of gunshots. I don't know what I was expecting...to hear constant rapid gunfire? The sun was shining, the day was beautiful and I was ready to go. I took a picture of myself at the the kiosk because this is what we have done on almost all of the previous hikes. I'm glad no one happened by because I'm sure I looked pretty ridiculous. Richart Trail is 0.9 miles long. The beginning of the trail is mowed grass and it's still really green. It was amazing how quiet it was. You can really appreciate the solitude when you are hiking alone. And then my thoughts started to wander: What if the hunters are using bows and arrows? I really wouldn't hear them if that is the case. I started to make as much noise as I could with my feet as I walked. Silly! Some of the trail follows along one side of Richart Lake. There is a pretty gazebo with an overlook. I stopped to take some pictures and then hiked back along the trail to my car deciding that all was clear and I was letting my imagination run away with me.
Next stop was the Visitor's Center to ask about the trail head for the East River Trail. When I walked through the door I was greeted by two older ladies. One of them was doing some computer work and the other walked over to see how she could help. I told her I was looking for the trail head for the East River Trail. She said, "Oh that trail was closed a little over a year ago. It was just too hard to maintain." I said, "Well that's a first! I have hiked over 50 hikes this year and none of the other trails have been closed." I showed the ladies my book and they both congratulated me on my efforts. They asked me how many miles I've hiked this year and I told them that I've hiked over 180 miles. The greeter then told me that she used to volunteer on the trails and that she hiked 500 to 700 miles a year. WOW! I couldn't believe it! She then showed me some alternate trails in the park that I could hike, also warning me about which ones to stay clear of because of the bow hunting for deer that was taking place in one area of the park. Then my little voice in my head said, "Next time, you WILL check the Visitor's Center first!"
All of the hikes were relatively short. I hiked the Chestnut Ridge Trail that was 0.5 miles. This trail is in the book. I replaced the closed East River Trail with hikes on the Turkey and Bird Trails (1.95 miles) and the Wood Duck Trail (0.64 mile). The trails were really flat and didn't present much of a challenge except that at times it was hard to follow the trail because almost all of the leaves are off the trees and are on the ground now.
Considering the time and distance traveled, I probably wouldn't head out to Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge again, but the sun was shining, the solitude was rejuvenating, and the ladies at the Visitor's Center were interesting so it was a pleasant day.
56 hikes down and 4 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Full Circle
Had a great hike today to Cox Arboretum and Gardens Metropark near Dayton, Ohio. Originally I wanted to hike this trail on Wednesday last week when it was 75 plus degrees, but sadly my transmission went out on my car and by the time I got my car settled, acquired a rental car and drove the distance to the park, it was already getting dark. It was around 50 degrees today for the hike, but instead of hiking alone like I would have on Wednesday, my friend Lorrie joined me so it was worth the wait! We hiked 2.83 miles in one hour and 10 minutes.
It was a really blustery day today and Lorrie and I both thought that the wind would make the hike somewhat unpleasant, but it didn't really bother us much. This was another beautiful park, one of several that we hiked this year in the Dayton Metroparks park system. I will look forward to hiking some of the other parks that were not in the book next year. There is a beautiful educational building at the entrance to the park with a couple of ponds and some amazing gardens. I was surprised by the number of people at the park considering the gloomy, chilly and windy weather. There was a young couple getting their engagement pictures taken and several families enjoying the park.
When we finally reached the hiking trail it was mostly gravel. There were signs along the route with the park maps and "You are here." Love it! Hiking for dummies! We didn't have to think much about which way we were going at all! It makes for a much more relaxed hike! I was surprised by the drastic change in the amount of leaves on the trees in just two weeks time since my last hike. Most were on the ground. Lorrie and I both commented about how it felt like this whole adventure is now coming full circle because the trail is starting to look like it did when I started almost a year ago. Many of the trees were marked with signs that had a phone number you could call on your cell phone or you could use your cell phone's QR reader and get information about each individual tree. How's that for modern technology?
It was an easy hike with very few ups and downs, and the trail was wide enough for Lorrie and I to walk side-by-side. Once we finished the wooded part of the trail we entered a wetland area. As we returned near the park entrance there was a very cool observation tower that we climbed. It had spiral stairs and when we got to the top it was swaying in the wind. It made me a little nervous. We took a few pictures and descended quickly!
As we walked along the ponds and gardens to head back toward the car, we noticed a sign that said "Working Dog in the Area." It explained that Zipp, a border collie, was trained to work in the park doing "goose patrol." We saw Zipp when we first entered the park and wondered who he belonged to...now we know. I wonder what a job like "goose patrol" pays? I hope they take good care of Zipp for doing such a thankless job!
Nearing the end of 10 months of hiking. I only hiked 6.77 miles in October. That seems like a very pathetic number. I am definitely losing steam! I have 7 hikes left that will need to be done in 3 outings because of their remote locations. It sounds doable, but I am really pushing myself at this point. I am hopeful that I can get some friends rallying behind me and come and join in a fall outdoor adventure to get me through these final trails to my goal.
53 hikes down and 7 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a really blustery day today and Lorrie and I both thought that the wind would make the hike somewhat unpleasant, but it didn't really bother us much. This was another beautiful park, one of several that we hiked this year in the Dayton Metroparks park system. I will look forward to hiking some of the other parks that were not in the book next year. There is a beautiful educational building at the entrance to the park with a couple of ponds and some amazing gardens. I was surprised by the number of people at the park considering the gloomy, chilly and windy weather. There was a young couple getting their engagement pictures taken and several families enjoying the park.
When we finally reached the hiking trail it was mostly gravel. There were signs along the route with the park maps and "You are here." Love it! Hiking for dummies! We didn't have to think much about which way we were going at all! It makes for a much more relaxed hike! I was surprised by the drastic change in the amount of leaves on the trees in just two weeks time since my last hike. Most were on the ground. Lorrie and I both commented about how it felt like this whole adventure is now coming full circle because the trail is starting to look like it did when I started almost a year ago. Many of the trees were marked with signs that had a phone number you could call on your cell phone or you could use your cell phone's QR reader and get information about each individual tree. How's that for modern technology?
It was an easy hike with very few ups and downs, and the trail was wide enough for Lorrie and I to walk side-by-side. Once we finished the wooded part of the trail we entered a wetland area. As we returned near the park entrance there was a very cool observation tower that we climbed. It had spiral stairs and when we got to the top it was swaying in the wind. It made me a little nervous. We took a few pictures and descended quickly!
As we walked along the ponds and gardens to head back toward the car, we noticed a sign that said "Working Dog in the Area." It explained that Zipp, a border collie, was trained to work in the park doing "goose patrol." We saw Zipp when we first entered the park and wondered who he belonged to...now we know. I wonder what a job like "goose patrol" pays? I hope they take good care of Zipp for doing such a thankless job!
Nearing the end of 10 months of hiking. I only hiked 6.77 miles in October. That seems like a very pathetic number. I am definitely losing steam! I have 7 hikes left that will need to be done in 3 outings because of their remote locations. It sounds doable, but I am really pushing myself at this point. I am hopeful that I can get some friends rallying behind me and come and join in a fall outdoor adventure to get me through these final trails to my goal.
53 hikes down and 7 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Camouflage...Not Always a Safety Measure!
Throughout this entire experience I have been barraged with matters of social studies, language arts, science and mathematics! Because I'm getting down to the nitty gritty, all of these thoughts are flooding my mind. The elementary school teacher in me just can't help myself.
Related to social studies, I've visited historical sites that included Indian mounds, battlefields, pioneer villages and cemeteries. I've used map reading skills and appreciated the roles that different organizations and government agencies (both county and state) have played in the creation and maintenance of the many beautiful places I've visited.
Things I've learned and taught about in the language arts classroom were valuable as well. I did a lot of reading about the places I've visited. I used communication skills, both oral and written. I recruited my fellow hikers via phone calls, text messages and FaceBook messages. I also solicited information from locals when I was lost. Most of these skills have come into play while writing this blog. For example, I created a graphic organizer before writing this post!
Scientifically speaking, this subject was the greatest part of my graphic organizer. I visited a variety of habitats: forests, wetlands, meadows. All of the plants in these habitats were more than one could imagine. Not only were there all kinds of trees, there was ground cover, vines, flowers, lily pads and stinging nettles!!!! I saw fossils and a life-sized diorama of mastadons and wooly mammoths. The weather has factored into every hike. Will it be sunny or cloudy? Dry or Rainy? Snowy? Windy? I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the rocks and landforms. Also, the animals! I saw toads, frogs, a snake, birds, deer and LOTS of insects. One insect that we saw on a hike this week to Beaver Creek was a praying mantis that reached an unfortunate demise. Morgan was leading with Joe following closely behind. We were walking through a wetland area and the trail was a boardwalk. Morgan shouted, "A praying mantis!" But, not soon enough. When Joe looked down we couldn't find it. It was under his foot. In this case, the science of camouflage did not work in this little bug's favor. His whole body was brown in order to conceal his appearance, thus he got stepped on. Camouflage...not always a safety measure! So sad.
Every week I was using mathematics to estimate, calculate, and reflect on the journey. I figured how long it would take to travel to each location and the time it would take to complete the hike. This allowed us to determine what time we would leave. I measured the distance of each hike to see how far I traveled and kept a running total. I counted the number of hikes down and the number of hikes left. I studied the elevation changes for the hikes on graphs included in the book. I also studied the graphs for this blog that show statistics for page views and visitor information. I know there is so much more that I could include in this post about all of the different disciplines that were part of this journey. But the constant integration of all of these subjects over this experience makes me wonder, why do we teach each in such isolation in schools?
One of the hikes this week was to John Bryan State Park. I took over 70 pictures. The fall beauty was overwhelming and I think it has put me in a very reflective state. I have completed 52 hikes and have 8 hikes left. There are some challenges that remain. One of these is the far distances necessary to get to the remaining hikes; they involve doing more than one hike in a day. I am finding it hard to carve out this kind of time. Another challenge is the weather. It is unpredictable in the fall and I'm hopeful that the blessings I've had with good weather will continue. Finally, I have some weekend commitments that will make it difficult to hike. So, even though I have only 8 hikes left, this is all still taking quite a bit of effort. I will take a deep breath and trust that this can be done.
Related to social studies, I've visited historical sites that included Indian mounds, battlefields, pioneer villages and cemeteries. I've used map reading skills and appreciated the roles that different organizations and government agencies (both county and state) have played in the creation and maintenance of the many beautiful places I've visited.
Things I've learned and taught about in the language arts classroom were valuable as well. I did a lot of reading about the places I've visited. I used communication skills, both oral and written. I recruited my fellow hikers via phone calls, text messages and FaceBook messages. I also solicited information from locals when I was lost. Most of these skills have come into play while writing this blog. For example, I created a graphic organizer before writing this post!
Scientifically speaking, this subject was the greatest part of my graphic organizer. I visited a variety of habitats: forests, wetlands, meadows. All of the plants in these habitats were more than one could imagine. Not only were there all kinds of trees, there was ground cover, vines, flowers, lily pads and stinging nettles!!!! I saw fossils and a life-sized diorama of mastadons and wooly mammoths. The weather has factored into every hike. Will it be sunny or cloudy? Dry or Rainy? Snowy? Windy? I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the rocks and landforms. Also, the animals! I saw toads, frogs, a snake, birds, deer and LOTS of insects. One insect that we saw on a hike this week to Beaver Creek was a praying mantis that reached an unfortunate demise. Morgan was leading with Joe following closely behind. We were walking through a wetland area and the trail was a boardwalk. Morgan shouted, "A praying mantis!" But, not soon enough. When Joe looked down we couldn't find it. It was under his foot. In this case, the science of camouflage did not work in this little bug's favor. His whole body was brown in order to conceal his appearance, thus he got stepped on. Camouflage...not always a safety measure! So sad.
Every week I was using mathematics to estimate, calculate, and reflect on the journey. I figured how long it would take to travel to each location and the time it would take to complete the hike. This allowed us to determine what time we would leave. I measured the distance of each hike to see how far I traveled and kept a running total. I counted the number of hikes down and the number of hikes left. I studied the elevation changes for the hikes on graphs included in the book. I also studied the graphs for this blog that show statistics for page views and visitor information. I know there is so much more that I could include in this post about all of the different disciplines that were part of this journey. But the constant integration of all of these subjects over this experience makes me wonder, why do we teach each in such isolation in schools?
One of the hikes this week was to John Bryan State Park. I took over 70 pictures. The fall beauty was overwhelming and I think it has put me in a very reflective state. I have completed 52 hikes and have 8 hikes left. There are some challenges that remain. One of these is the far distances necessary to get to the remaining hikes; they involve doing more than one hike in a day. I am finding it hard to carve out this kind of time. Another challenge is the weather. It is unpredictable in the fall and I'm hopeful that the blessings I've had with good weather will continue. Finally, I have some weekend commitments that will make it difficult to hike. So, even though I have only 8 hikes left, this is all still taking quite a bit of effort. I will take a deep breath and trust that this can be done.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Fall is Here!
Over the last three weeks, I have managed to complete four more hikes. Fall is my favorite time of year and I was anxiously awaiting for the signs that it was here. On September 16, Cheryl, Joe and I hiked at Whitewater Memorial State Park in Indiana. The leaves on the trees really weren't changing colors yet, but there were some leaves on the ground and the damp smell of fall was definitely in the air. We hiked 3.75 miles in one hour and thirty minutes. It was great having Cheryl with us on a hike again. The trails were easy to follow and well-cared for. Even though this hike was a long ways from home, I would definitely travel back again. It had some nice hills and a good portion of the hike was along a lake. Cheryl commented that it would be a great winter hike because you would have good views of the lake.
The next week, Joe, Lorrie and I hiked 4 different trails at Mount Airy Forest on the west side of Cincinnati. We hiked 5.07 miles in two hours and thirty-seven minutes. There wasn't as much change in the trees as I expected, but there were a lot of fall flowers starting to bloom. There were two highlights of this hiking trip. One was hiking to a tree house. It is a really cool structure and was a great reward after hiking up and down several hills to get to it. We definitely got a great workout on this hike. There is one part of the trail called "Stone Steps Ridge." This was probably one of the longest and steepest grades that we have hiked. I had to stop four times to catch my breath along the way! Following the trail was a little tricky at times, but we used the map from the book and the Endomondo map and we did well.
This week Joe, Lorrie and I hiked two trails in Kentucky: Blue Licks Battlefield State Park and Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. Total miles hiked for these two trails was 5.03 miles and Fall was everywhere. What a difference a week makes! It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to drive to Blue Licks Battlefield causing us to again question the "with 60 miles of Cincinnati." When we arrived at the park, our first stop was the bathroom. I got to see my first black widow in person. Joe saw it on the side of the building and I got a pretty good picture of it. I was totally creeped out! As we walked through cobwebs on the trail, I couldn't get that spider out of my mind. We also saw a huge wolf spider before starting the hike, so that didn't help either! There was a lot to see on this hike. This park is set on the sight of the last battle of the American Revolution. Who would have thought that the American Revolution was fought this far west? The Licking River and Tanner Station were two other sites we saw. Tanner Station is an old pioneer trading post. We didn't get to go inside, but it was a cool structure to see and a great place to take a quick water break. After completing this 3 plus mile hike, we headed to Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. The fact that we even found this park was a miracle. We only hiked 1.63 miles here, but it was a great workout. We were huffing and puffing to get up the final hill to take us back to the car.
With Fall upon us, this marks my fourth and final season of this fitness goal. It's been a great journey so far and I'm eager to watch the trail change back to winter and what it looked like when I took on this adventure. I have hiked approximately 176.74 miles and completed 50 hikes! Only 10 hikes left! I must admit that I am looking forward to the day when I can hike any place I darn well feel like and am not constricted to a list! I am really pushing hard to complete the last ten hikes. All of them are more than an hour away from home, so due to distance, I need to hike more than one hike in a day for the remaining weekends. Hopefully, I will be done before December and I'm feeling pretty confident that I will complete all 60 hikes this year.
The next week, Joe, Lorrie and I hiked 4 different trails at Mount Airy Forest on the west side of Cincinnati. We hiked 5.07 miles in two hours and thirty-seven minutes. There wasn't as much change in the trees as I expected, but there were a lot of fall flowers starting to bloom. There were two highlights of this hiking trip. One was hiking to a tree house. It is a really cool structure and was a great reward after hiking up and down several hills to get to it. We definitely got a great workout on this hike. There is one part of the trail called "Stone Steps Ridge." This was probably one of the longest and steepest grades that we have hiked. I had to stop four times to catch my breath along the way! Following the trail was a little tricky at times, but we used the map from the book and the Endomondo map and we did well.
This week Joe, Lorrie and I hiked two trails in Kentucky: Blue Licks Battlefield State Park and Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. Total miles hiked for these two trails was 5.03 miles and Fall was everywhere. What a difference a week makes! It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to drive to Blue Licks Battlefield causing us to again question the "with 60 miles of Cincinnati." When we arrived at the park, our first stop was the bathroom. I got to see my first black widow in person. Joe saw it on the side of the building and I got a pretty good picture of it. I was totally creeped out! As we walked through cobwebs on the trail, I couldn't get that spider out of my mind. We also saw a huge wolf spider before starting the hike, so that didn't help either! There was a lot to see on this hike. This park is set on the sight of the last battle of the American Revolution. Who would have thought that the American Revolution was fought this far west? The Licking River and Tanner Station were two other sites we saw. Tanner Station is an old pioneer trading post. We didn't get to go inside, but it was a cool structure to see and a great place to take a quick water break. After completing this 3 plus mile hike, we headed to Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. The fact that we even found this park was a miracle. We only hiked 1.63 miles here, but it was a great workout. We were huffing and puffing to get up the final hill to take us back to the car.
With Fall upon us, this marks my fourth and final season of this fitness goal. It's been a great journey so far and I'm eager to watch the trail change back to winter and what it looked like when I took on this adventure. I have hiked approximately 176.74 miles and completed 50 hikes! Only 10 hikes left! I must admit that I am looking forward to the day when I can hike any place I darn well feel like and am not constricted to a list! I am really pushing hard to complete the last ten hikes. All of them are more than an hour away from home, so due to distance, I need to hike more than one hike in a day for the remaining weekends. Hopefully, I will be done before December and I'm feeling pretty confident that I will complete all 60 hikes this year.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Litte Miss Pocket Knife
On Saturday, September 8, I woke up to the unfamiliar sound of rain pounding on the roof of my house. It's been so long since I've heard that. The weather on the weekends has had a whole new meaning with this hiking challenge. Believe it or not, I have hiked in the rain one time since starting this goal in January of this year and it has only snow flurried lightly once. That is amazing to me! I laid in bed and flipped on the local news to checkout the weather forecast. The rain was going to move out by 10:00 a.m., so I text messaged brother, Joe and let him know we were on. We hiked 7.6 miles in 3 hours and 8 minutes at Germantown Metropark. It is just south of Dayton, Ohio. Thanks to that rain, it was a glorious 65 degrees while we hiked. Lovely.
Knowing we were not parking in the same place the book suggested, we had to find a place where the Orange Trail met the side of the park where we were driving. We studied the map and saw a sign for the "pond," so we decided to take our chances. Fortunately the trails were very well marked and cared for. It made for a great three hours of hiking. I've gone out for this amount of time and distance before when this wasn't the case, and it can be a little miserable. I was so happy with the trails that when we hit the Nature Center after hiking about 3 miles, I thanked one of the park rangers for all he does and told him how much we were enjoying hiking the trails.
With the cool temperatures and wet leaves starting to cover the ground, fall was definitely in the air. None of the leaves appear to be changing yet, so I would say there was a "hint" of fall. This is my favorite season so I am getting really pumped about hiking over the next couple of months. It's hard to believe I am moving into the last season I have yet to hike! This year has gone quickly. Parts of the trail were soil or gravel covered whereas others were mowed, but most of the trail was nice and wide. We traveled through new forests, old forest, meadows and cedar glades. It was very diverse and kept our interest. There was a lot of ups and downs, we would weave back and forth along Twin Creek, so along with the long distance we traveled, it was a great cardio workout too! After going up one of the steepest hills, we ran into a family with two small children. I smiled and said hello and the little girl (about 5 years old) pointed her toe, pointed her dainty little finger to her pocket and said, "I have a pocket knife!" Followed with a big huge smile. I replied, "That's a really good hiking tool to have in case of an emergency!" Making a mental note that despite my bug spray, waterproof matches, and flashlight, I don't even have a pocket knife! I must say, I was a little jealous.
We finished out the hike walking along the park road, otherwise we would have traveled well over eight miles to get back to the car. It was a great hike that both Joe and I enjoyed. This park is one of the Five Rivers Metroparks. This is a great park system and has provided some of the best hikes this year. I am looking forward to hiking at one more of these parks in the near future. If you live in the area and want to go on a hike, I highly recommend these parks.
Knowing we were not parking in the same place the book suggested, we had to find a place where the Orange Trail met the side of the park where we were driving. We studied the map and saw a sign for the "pond," so we decided to take our chances. Fortunately the trails were very well marked and cared for. It made for a great three hours of hiking. I've gone out for this amount of time and distance before when this wasn't the case, and it can be a little miserable. I was so happy with the trails that when we hit the Nature Center after hiking about 3 miles, I thanked one of the park rangers for all he does and told him how much we were enjoying hiking the trails.
With the cool temperatures and wet leaves starting to cover the ground, fall was definitely in the air. None of the leaves appear to be changing yet, so I would say there was a "hint" of fall. This is my favorite season so I am getting really pumped about hiking over the next couple of months. It's hard to believe I am moving into the last season I have yet to hike! This year has gone quickly. Parts of the trail were soil or gravel covered whereas others were mowed, but most of the trail was nice and wide. We traveled through new forests, old forest, meadows and cedar glades. It was very diverse and kept our interest. There was a lot of ups and downs, we would weave back and forth along Twin Creek, so along with the long distance we traveled, it was a great cardio workout too! After going up one of the steepest hills, we ran into a family with two small children. I smiled and said hello and the little girl (about 5 years old) pointed her toe, pointed her dainty little finger to her pocket and said, "I have a pocket knife!" Followed with a big huge smile. I replied, "That's a really good hiking tool to have in case of an emergency!" Making a mental note that despite my bug spray, waterproof matches, and flashlight, I don't even have a pocket knife! I must say, I was a little jealous.
We finished out the hike walking along the park road, otherwise we would have traveled well over eight miles to get back to the car. It was a great hike that both Joe and I enjoyed. This park is one of the Five Rivers Metroparks. This is a great park system and has provided some of the best hikes this year. I am looking forward to hiking at one more of these parks in the near future. If you live in the area and want to go on a hike, I highly recommend these parks.
46 hikes down and 14 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, September 14, 2012
You Gotta Kiss a lot of Toads
You gotta kiss a lot of toads...17 so far to be exact. How does this apply to my hiking adventures? One of my recent hikes was to Miami Whitewater Forest. In my hiking world, it was a "toad." This is a beautiful park, but the trail is paved - which is great for the runners and the bicyclists, but not so great for hikers wanting to take in the wilderness. I had a great time on this "hike" because I got to hike with my daughter and my sister (who was visiting from Nevada.) We hiked 6.3 miles in two hours and 10 minutes.
We started the hiking by walking along the lake. We saw people out on paddle boats and others fishing. It wasn't long before we were headed into the park and away from the water. We hit the Shaker Trace Trail and decided to try walking the Outer Loop. We came upon a parking lot for horse trailers and the spot on the trail that can be used by horseback riders, bikers, and walkers alike. We found it funny that it said "Yield to Horses." Wondering who wouldn't know to get out of the way of an animal as large as a horse. Soon we reached a bridge and we noticed that the river was low and the water was hardly moving. This was true each time the path met up with the river. I'm sure when we have the normal amount of rainfall you would likely hear the water moving, but that wasn't the case on this day. We reached a spot where we were walking through open fields and had views of farms and an old cemetery. Morgan was recovering from a stomach bug from a couple of days prior, so we turned around at this point and headed back the way we came. Suddenly it didn't seem like a very good idea for her to be out walking that far in the heat. To break up the monotony of the paved trail, Morgan and Pam posed near the horse signs. We were grateful for the big clouds in the sky because it was a really muggy day, we were very sweaty and knew it would be worse if the sun was beating on the pavement.
Blogging about this hike gave me pause to think about how many of these hikes have been "toads" and how many have been "princes." I went back through the hikes, reading some posts and looking at pictures. I counted 25 princes, 17 toads, and 3 hikes that I couldn't really decide weather they were princes or toads because they were kind of a mixture of each - maybe I could call them "proads" or "trinces?"
Total miles hiked through August: 155.29
45 hikes down and 15 to go!!!!!
We started the hiking by walking along the lake. We saw people out on paddle boats and others fishing. It wasn't long before we were headed into the park and away from the water. We hit the Shaker Trace Trail and decided to try walking the Outer Loop. We came upon a parking lot for horse trailers and the spot on the trail that can be used by horseback riders, bikers, and walkers alike. We found it funny that it said "Yield to Horses." Wondering who wouldn't know to get out of the way of an animal as large as a horse. Soon we reached a bridge and we noticed that the river was low and the water was hardly moving. This was true each time the path met up with the river. I'm sure when we have the normal amount of rainfall you would likely hear the water moving, but that wasn't the case on this day. We reached a spot where we were walking through open fields and had views of farms and an old cemetery. Morgan was recovering from a stomach bug from a couple of days prior, so we turned around at this point and headed back the way we came. Suddenly it didn't seem like a very good idea for her to be out walking that far in the heat. To break up the monotony of the paved trail, Morgan and Pam posed near the horse signs. We were grateful for the big clouds in the sky because it was a really muggy day, we were very sweaty and knew it would be worse if the sun was beating on the pavement.
Blogging about this hike gave me pause to think about how many of these hikes have been "toads" and how many have been "princes." I went back through the hikes, reading some posts and looking at pictures. I counted 25 princes, 17 toads, and 3 hikes that I couldn't really decide weather they were princes or toads because they were kind of a mixture of each - maybe I could call them "proads" or "trinces?"
Total miles hiked through August: 155.29
45 hikes down and 15 to go!!!!!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Spider Webmaster
Mother of the Groom duties and work travel has really invaded my blogging time lately, however, I have still managed to get in three hikes. This post is about a hike to Big Bone Lick State
Park on Wednesday, August 22, 2012. I
was blessed to get to hike with my brother, Mark and his wife, Carolyn, who
reside in Flagstaff, Arizona. They were in town to help us celebrate my son
Nick’s wedding. Brother Joe also joined in the fun. Mark and Carolyn are
seasoned hikers so it was great to share this experience with them. We hiked
4.94 miles in 2 hours and 34 minutes.
Before setting out, we went into the Nature Center and checked out the awesome displays of old dinosaur bones and descriptions of the past. We were amazed to find out the story of how the very large animals; mastadons, wolly mammoths, and grounds sloths, got stuck in the swampy mud and couldn't get themselves out. They would fall victim to other creatures that could navigate their way around the sludge due to their smaller size. Outside of the Nature Center is a life-sized diorama - pretty cool!
It was early in
the morning, the combination of the fog and the old forest created an awesome setting. As we started out on the trail we followed the signs to the bison observation area. You can tell by the pictures how foggy it was. The area in which the bison were contained wasn't very close, so it was hard to get a good picture. Carolyn shared that there was a little "love action" going on, but I missed it. We were off to a good start.
We hiked along the fence on a gravel trail towards the Cedar Run Trail which would take us into the woods. Because of the prehistoric significance, as we entered the forest all three of us couldn’t help but comment on the fact
that we felt like we were walking among the land of dinosaurs. From time to time we saw deer running through woods. This was the second week in a row where the spider webs were overtaking the trail. I'm not sure if it's the time of year or lack of hikers, but it's always helpful when I have my trekking poles with me so that I can swing them in front of us to break the webs. I didn't bring them along, so Mark had the genius idea of using a long stick. We each took turns being the "Spider Webmaster" for the group. It was quite a busy job and if you look closely in the pictures you will see what looks like a spider condominium community. Along the sides of the trail were lots of groups of spider webs. We reached a clearing with a picnic table and a sign and used the map and Endomondo to figure out where we were before proceeding.
The next part of the trail traveled along the fence marking the outskirts of the park. On the other side of the fence was a cattle farm and we were greeted by lots of cows. After hiking uphill for a bit we reached a nice overlook of the valley below. By now the fog had cleared and it was a pretty scene of the surrounding farmland. We eventually reached a small lake and sat down to take a brief break and refuel with a snack and water. I steered us wrong on the next part of the trail and we had to backtrack to get back on course. I guess it wouldn't really be a hike without some trail confusion! Once we got ourselves back on track, we hit the most confusing part of the trail. We traveled up and down and weaved back and forth and had to keep checking in with the compass and the Endomondo map. This provided us with some much needed confidence because the trail was not clearly marked at all.
Eventually we reached the trail head for the Gobbler's Trace trail and we took that trail to get back to the parking lot. This was a great hike. Good exercise and great company. I would definitely return to hike these trails again. Thanks to Mark, Carolyn and Joe for joining in the adventure!
44 hikes down and 16 to go!!!!!!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Never Let Your Guard Down
On Saturday, August 18, Ryan and I headed to Versailles State Park in Indiana. That's not where we were planning on going to hike, but when we put the two hiking locations we were intending to go to into the GPS, it said that they were 79 miles away, a 2 hour drive..."within 60 miles" my #@*! This is not the first time that we have wondered if Tammy York traveled to these hiking locations by flying through the air or from some unique teleporting capabilities. Regardless, next week we will be celebrating the Mitchger Wedding Palooza, so the weekend was busy with preparations to make. With so much to do, hiking two hikes over two hours away was not in the cards.
The park was really easy to find, but the trail head, not so much. Fortunately, Ryan and I figured out pretty quickly that we were not headed on the right trail, so we got out the compass and oriented ourselves. After the small adjustment, we found the trail head and we were on our way. I was proud that I remembered last week I'd wished I'd gotten the compass out a little more often. It definitely came in handy several times during this hike.
We were looking forward to the waterfalls that Tammy York describes in her book, but I guess they weren't really flowing - maybe due to the drought? The trail had some great hills from the start and we both agreed that it was an awesome workout throughout. Ryan and I were surprised by the fall colored leaves littering the trail. We wondered if this was also a result of the drought. It was a strange contrast to the summer greenery around us.
The trail was a loop and a figure 8, so we used the Endomondo map, the park map, and the compass to keep ourselves oriented and make sure that we were staying on track. We did a really great job with this and after we hiked almost 5 miles and were nearing the end, we started chatting a little too much, we let our guard down and suddenly we were lost. There were some detours, backtracking, tracing and retracing of steps. Just when I thought I had no idea which way to go next, we got out the compass and it gave us the confidence we needed to know that we were at least going in the right direction. Where we took our wrong turn, I have no idea. Instead of hiking the 4.77 miles as stated in the book, we hiked 6.1 miles.
Despite the wrong turns and extra steps, this was a great hike and somewhere that I'd return to hike again. The trails were well-kept and the ups and downs made it a great workout. Thanks to Ryan I was not on my own and I was grateful for that. This hike definitely helped contribute to the development of my map reading skills-which still need a lot of development!
The park was really easy to find, but the trail head, not so much. Fortunately, Ryan and I figured out pretty quickly that we were not headed on the right trail, so we got out the compass and oriented ourselves. After the small adjustment, we found the trail head and we were on our way. I was proud that I remembered last week I'd wished I'd gotten the compass out a little more often. It definitely came in handy several times during this hike.
We were looking forward to the waterfalls that Tammy York describes in her book, but I guess they weren't really flowing - maybe due to the drought? The trail had some great hills from the start and we both agreed that it was an awesome workout throughout. Ryan and I were surprised by the fall colored leaves littering the trail. We wondered if this was also a result of the drought. It was a strange contrast to the summer greenery around us.
The trail was a loop and a figure 8, so we used the Endomondo map, the park map, and the compass to keep ourselves oriented and make sure that we were staying on track. We did a really great job with this and after we hiked almost 5 miles and were nearing the end, we started chatting a little too much, we let our guard down and suddenly we were lost. There were some detours, backtracking, tracing and retracing of steps. Just when I thought I had no idea which way to go next, we got out the compass and it gave us the confidence we needed to know that we were at least going in the right direction. Where we took our wrong turn, I have no idea. Instead of hiking the 4.77 miles as stated in the book, we hiked 6.1 miles.
Despite the wrong turns and extra steps, this was a great hike and somewhere that I'd return to hike again. The trails were well-kept and the ups and downs made it a great workout. Thanks to Ryan I was not on my own and I was grateful for that. This hike definitely helped contribute to the development of my map reading skills-which still need a lot of development!
43 hikes down and 17 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Big Fat Greek Family Reunion
One of the cool things about this blog is that I can go into the statistics and see how many Page Views there were of the blog by day, week, month or all time. I can also see "Traffic Sources," for example, from Facebook, by web browser, etc. I can also see Page Views by country. This is one of the most interesting to me. So far there are 1330 Page Views from the U.S., 55 from Russia, 16 from Germany, 11 from Afghanistan, 8 from the Ukraine, 4 from the United Kingdom, 3 Page Views each from Latvia and the Netherlands, 2 from India and 1 from Australia. The 11 Page Views from Afghanistan are not surprising to me because my longtime friend Sue is living there. During the winter she sent me an email explaining that she would be in the States in August and was wondering if one of the hiking locations was at General Butler State Park, and if it was, would I be willing to save the date of that hike to when she would be there for her family reunion. Sue was hoping to join in the hiking fun. I emailed her back and confirmed that indeed General Butler State Park was in the book and that I would definitely save that hike to do with her (and we hoped her husband, which sadly did not work out...long story!) So, on Saturday, August 11, at 6:00 a.m. Sue, Lorrie and I set out on a "first light" hike. We hiked 4.73 miles in two hours and forty-four minutes. The temperature was a cool 63 degrees.
It all started on Friday night. Lorrie and I picked up Sue at the Cincinnati International Airport and headed to General Butler. Sue is in the middle of observing Ramadan, so she is fasting from sunup to sundown. The first stop was to Kroger, so she could get some food for her room at the lodge. It was important stuff: Cheezits, Diet Pepsi, bananas, more Cheezits, brownies, and Cheezit Snack Mix. I guess when you are food deprived both from Ramadan and living outside of the country, you must indulge in as much junk food as possible. Well, at least there were bananas in the bag.
Next, we headed to the lodge to get Sue checked in. It was fun to see her greeted by family who were not expecting her to show up at the reunion - sneaky little devil! After checking in, we made our way to the cabin area so Sue could say hello and visit with more of her family members (there were over 100 in all at the reunion.) Lorrie and I milled around and introduced ourselves as the "family reunion crashers." Interestingly we found we were not the only ones crashing and we were greeted with warm welcomes - that says a lot about this family. When the clock hit 8:30, Sue was allowed to eat and drink whatever she wanted. She was now on a quest for the campers with the best food. As she carried her box of Cheezits and found other tidbits here and there we enjoyed visiting and sitting around the fire. It was an absolutely beautiful evening for August - cool and no bugs!
In the morning, Sue was up before 5:00 a.m. getting in her last meal (brownies and who knows what else?) She woke us up at 5:30 and we were on the trail shortly after 6:00 a.m. It was pitch dark! I was using my flashlight on my phone, while she and Lorrie trailed behind. It was very cool to see first light hit and then a little later watch the sunrise. It was a great hike! The trail had some nice grade to it, so we got a good workout. We saw so many deer that I lost count. One actually was on the trail right in front of us and just stared at us as we approached. There were also a lot of spider webs and a couple of times we weren't just covered in webs, but also had spiders dangling from our bodies. Lorrie really hated that...there was some squealing involved!
We missed hiking part of the trail due to poor navigation. We tried using the map on Endomondo with the other map that we had, but it didn't really help. We should have used the compass more - note to self. It was a great hike and a wonderful way to catch up with old friends. My thanks to Sue for reading the blog and reaching out to join in this adventure!
It all started on Friday night. Lorrie and I picked up Sue at the Cincinnati International Airport and headed to General Butler. Sue is in the middle of observing Ramadan, so she is fasting from sunup to sundown. The first stop was to Kroger, so she could get some food for her room at the lodge. It was important stuff: Cheezits, Diet Pepsi, bananas, more Cheezits, brownies, and Cheezit Snack Mix. I guess when you are food deprived both from Ramadan and living outside of the country, you must indulge in as much junk food as possible. Well, at least there were bananas in the bag.
Next, we headed to the lodge to get Sue checked in. It was fun to see her greeted by family who were not expecting her to show up at the reunion - sneaky little devil! After checking in, we made our way to the cabin area so Sue could say hello and visit with more of her family members (there were over 100 in all at the reunion.) Lorrie and I milled around and introduced ourselves as the "family reunion crashers." Interestingly we found we were not the only ones crashing and we were greeted with warm welcomes - that says a lot about this family. When the clock hit 8:30, Sue was allowed to eat and drink whatever she wanted. She was now on a quest for the campers with the best food. As she carried her box of Cheezits and found other tidbits here and there we enjoyed visiting and sitting around the fire. It was an absolutely beautiful evening for August - cool and no bugs!
In the morning, Sue was up before 5:00 a.m. getting in her last meal (brownies and who knows what else?) She woke us up at 5:30 and we were on the trail shortly after 6:00 a.m. It was pitch dark! I was using my flashlight on my phone, while she and Lorrie trailed behind. It was very cool to see first light hit and then a little later watch the sunrise. It was a great hike! The trail had some nice grade to it, so we got a good workout. We saw so many deer that I lost count. One actually was on the trail right in front of us and just stared at us as we approached. There were also a lot of spider webs and a couple of times we weren't just covered in webs, but also had spiders dangling from our bodies. Lorrie really hated that...there was some squealing involved!
We missed hiking part of the trail due to poor navigation. We tried using the map on Endomondo with the other map that we had, but it didn't really help. We should have used the compass more - note to self. It was a great hike and a wonderful way to catch up with old friends. My thanks to Sue for reading the blog and reaching out to join in this adventure!
42 hikes down and 18 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Slump Cave Millionaire
Ooh la la!!! These are the first words that come to my mind when I think about the hike that we took to Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve on Sunday, August 5. This hike is in the top 5 hikes of this whole adventure. It is located in Yellow Springs just outside of Dayton. Joe, Lorrie, Ryan and I were amazed by all of the beautiful scenery along the way. We hiked 3.2 miles in two hours and the temperature was a very humid 82 degrees.
After parking the car and setting off on the trail we were immediately confronted by a series of overlooks of the Little Miami River. The sound of the rushing water and the views of the forest and rock formations were breathtaking. After hiking less than a mile, we hit trails end and were confused about our map and our location. Our only alternative was to walk back the way we came, which wasn't such a bad deal since the views were so beautiful. As we approached the trail head where we started the hike, we realized that the parking lot where we parked the car was different than the parking lot designated in the book. Trail confusion resolved!
As we proceeded in the proper direction, the trail changed from just being soil to rocky. It headed downhill toward the river and we continued to be serenaded by the sound of running water. When we got to the lowest point, several trails converged in one place and there was a bridge that led over the river and to a trail at a different park. This was a big turning point in the hike. We were enjoying the scenery thus far, but we had no idea what was yet to come.
The trail now headed along the water, zigzagging in different directions. There were a couple of overlooks near the water where you could step out and see some pretty views of the river. We stopped and enjoyed the views. The most amazing accents along the trail were the big boulders and rocky cliff formations. The rocks were HUGE and you could tell there was a lot of movement in them a long time ago. There were giant boulders that looked like they were randomly thrown down into the water by a fairytale giant. Layers and layers of dolomite (thank you trail sign) accented the trail. Fortunately we had our geology expert, Ryan, with us. He explained that when layers of rock fall in the way these rocks were, geologists would say, "That rock has nice cleavage."
There were some nice up and down grades along this part of the trail and the rockiness of the path continued. The next cool spotlight of this hike was the slump-block cave. Here's how Tammy York describes this natural wonder, "A slump-block cave is formed when water dissolves softer rock and instead of a block of rock falling away from the cliff, the block falls towards the cliff and creates a cave." This was definitely one of the coolest sights along the trail.
The steep cliffs contrasted by the river and beautiful green forest are what made this such a beautiful hiking location. We talked about returning in the spring because there is supposed to be a great display of blooming flowers. We hiked up a steep set of stairs to finish the trail and celebrated the completion of another hike with some authentic Chinese food in the artsy little town of Yellow Springs.
41 hikes down and 19 to go!!!! Will be blogging about another hike soon that involved a special guest hiker.
After parking the car and setting off on the trail we were immediately confronted by a series of overlooks of the Little Miami River. The sound of the rushing water and the views of the forest and rock formations were breathtaking. After hiking less than a mile, we hit trails end and were confused about our map and our location. Our only alternative was to walk back the way we came, which wasn't such a bad deal since the views were so beautiful. As we approached the trail head where we started the hike, we realized that the parking lot where we parked the car was different than the parking lot designated in the book. Trail confusion resolved!
As we proceeded in the proper direction, the trail changed from just being soil to rocky. It headed downhill toward the river and we continued to be serenaded by the sound of running water. When we got to the lowest point, several trails converged in one place and there was a bridge that led over the river and to a trail at a different park. This was a big turning point in the hike. We were enjoying the scenery thus far, but we had no idea what was yet to come.
The trail now headed along the water, zigzagging in different directions. There were a couple of overlooks near the water where you could step out and see some pretty views of the river. We stopped and enjoyed the views. The most amazing accents along the trail were the big boulders and rocky cliff formations. The rocks were HUGE and you could tell there was a lot of movement in them a long time ago. There were giant boulders that looked like they were randomly thrown down into the water by a fairytale giant. Layers and layers of dolomite (thank you trail sign) accented the trail. Fortunately we had our geology expert, Ryan, with us. He explained that when layers of rock fall in the way these rocks were, geologists would say, "That rock has nice cleavage."
There were some nice up and down grades along this part of the trail and the rockiness of the path continued. The next cool spotlight of this hike was the slump-block cave. Here's how Tammy York describes this natural wonder, "A slump-block cave is formed when water dissolves softer rock and instead of a block of rock falling away from the cliff, the block falls towards the cliff and creates a cave." This was definitely one of the coolest sights along the trail.
The steep cliffs contrasted by the river and beautiful green forest are what made this such a beautiful hiking location. We talked about returning in the spring because there is supposed to be a great display of blooming flowers. We hiked up a steep set of stairs to finish the trail and celebrated the completion of another hike with some authentic Chinese food in the artsy little town of Yellow Springs.
41 hikes down and 19 to go!!!! Will be blogging about another hike soon that involved a special guest hiker.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Nail Biters Unite!
July has come to a close and so has another month of hiking. To finish off the month, Joe, Cheryl and I headed off to Indiana to Muscatatuck Park and Selmier State Forest. It was a great way to bring 7 months of hiking to a close: an amazing hike with a bit of a challenge contrasted with one of those "rustic" hikes that kept us scratching our heads.
Because the distance to the parks from home was about an hour and a half and the temperatures earlier in the week had been in the 100's, we decided to head out early to try to catch the coolest time of the day. It was a good plan as the temperature was 75 degrees when we set off at 8:10 am to hike at Muscatatuck Park. When we entered the parking lot, there were two historic buildings. One was an old house serving as the Visitor's Center. The other was an old schoolhouse. We followed a simple sign with an arrow down to the trail. Thank goodness for that sign because it didn't look like we were going anywhere! The trail started out with us trotting through really tall weeds growing over flat stones. It was difficult to know where to place your feet on the stones because of those weeds. I was a little concerned about what the rest of the trail was going to be like, but soon we reached a dirt trail used for both hiking and mountain biking and we had a fantastic hike.
The trail wound its way with a series of curves and there wasn't a lot of ground cover, so we had some really beautiful views. At one point along the trail, we reached a downed tree that we couldn't go around. Cheryl demonstrated her limbo skills (for a Kodak moment.) I went under it and my pack got stuck on the sharp, dry branches while Cheryl stood there and watched. Joe was continuing on the trail. Classic! We proceeded and crossed a park road. The tree roots on this part of the trail were painted neon green and we wondered if this was standard operating procedure for a mountain bike trail or if there was some kind of night time biking event that occurs here. It doesn't seem to me to be a good idea to mountain bike at night, but who knows? There are some crazy mountain bikers out there!
The last part of this trail was the best! This was because it followed the Vernon Fork Muscatatuck River. The hiking suddenly became difficult and it was like walking on a ledge. Also, there were cliffs formed by huge boulders. It was a great workout with some really beautiful scenery. After the trail headed away from the river and back towards the start, we traveled across a bridge and then up a series of stone steps to "Vinegar Mill" that was really a location for an old stone-cutting mill. At this point the park road and hiking trail become one. We were a little winded from the steps and therefore we were walking quietly, which was good because we saw a mama deer and her two freckled babies. Very cool! I think I can speak for all three of us when I say, we loved this hike!
It took us an hour and 21 minutes to hike 2.85 miles. As we regrouped in the car, we decided to refuel with our packed food and head to the next trail. Cheryl brought with her some Sport Beans, "quick energy for sports performance." This was a new snack for her and I think she was anticipating great things. They looked like little fruit snacks to me. As she bit into the first one she said, "They taste like poison!" I said, "How do you know what poison tastes like?" She said, "I'm a nail biter. I know what everything tastes like." I thought to myself, well that must come in handy, but was happy settling for my old favorite, a Clif Bar and the fact that I am not a nail biter.
Just a few short miles away was Selmier State Forest. We were happy that the temperature had only risen five degrees and that it looked like we were going to escape the extreme heat of the day. I'm not going to say much about this hike. The trail itself was wide and almost felt like we were continually walking on park roads. There were no signs and so many different ways to go. Sometimes there were 4 and 5 trails converging in one spot. After a couple of miles, we decided that we would let go of the idea of following the directions in the book and just hike. We hiked 3.99 miles in one hour and forty-three minutes.
Although the second trail was disappointing, Muscatatuck really made up for it! The day was a success and it was great way to end the month of July. Instead of sharing things I learned this month, I thought I would share "What's In" and "What's Out" as far as hiking gadgets:
An unbelievable 40 hikes down and only 20 left to go!!!! It's hard to believe that I'm even typing this, but I have hiked over 130 miles this year. If summer storms stay at bay tomorrow, I am hoping to hike Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a 2.7 mile difficult hike. Rain, rain, stay away!
Because the distance to the parks from home was about an hour and a half and the temperatures earlier in the week had been in the 100's, we decided to head out early to try to catch the coolest time of the day. It was a good plan as the temperature was 75 degrees when we set off at 8:10 am to hike at Muscatatuck Park. When we entered the parking lot, there were two historic buildings. One was an old house serving as the Visitor's Center. The other was an old schoolhouse. We followed a simple sign with an arrow down to the trail. Thank goodness for that sign because it didn't look like we were going anywhere! The trail started out with us trotting through really tall weeds growing over flat stones. It was difficult to know where to place your feet on the stones because of those weeds. I was a little concerned about what the rest of the trail was going to be like, but soon we reached a dirt trail used for both hiking and mountain biking and we had a fantastic hike.
The trail wound its way with a series of curves and there wasn't a lot of ground cover, so we had some really beautiful views. At one point along the trail, we reached a downed tree that we couldn't go around. Cheryl demonstrated her limbo skills (for a Kodak moment.) I went under it and my pack got stuck on the sharp, dry branches while Cheryl stood there and watched. Joe was continuing on the trail. Classic! We proceeded and crossed a park road. The tree roots on this part of the trail were painted neon green and we wondered if this was standard operating procedure for a mountain bike trail or if there was some kind of night time biking event that occurs here. It doesn't seem to me to be a good idea to mountain bike at night, but who knows? There are some crazy mountain bikers out there!
The last part of this trail was the best! This was because it followed the Vernon Fork Muscatatuck River. The hiking suddenly became difficult and it was like walking on a ledge. Also, there were cliffs formed by huge boulders. It was a great workout with some really beautiful scenery. After the trail headed away from the river and back towards the start, we traveled across a bridge and then up a series of stone steps to "Vinegar Mill" that was really a location for an old stone-cutting mill. At this point the park road and hiking trail become one. We were a little winded from the steps and therefore we were walking quietly, which was good because we saw a mama deer and her two freckled babies. Very cool! I think I can speak for all three of us when I say, we loved this hike!
It took us an hour and 21 minutes to hike 2.85 miles. As we regrouped in the car, we decided to refuel with our packed food and head to the next trail. Cheryl brought with her some Sport Beans, "quick energy for sports performance." This was a new snack for her and I think she was anticipating great things. They looked like little fruit snacks to me. As she bit into the first one she said, "They taste like poison!" I said, "How do you know what poison tastes like?" She said, "I'm a nail biter. I know what everything tastes like." I thought to myself, well that must come in handy, but was happy settling for my old favorite, a Clif Bar and the fact that I am not a nail biter.
Just a few short miles away was Selmier State Forest. We were happy that the temperature had only risen five degrees and that it looked like we were going to escape the extreme heat of the day. I'm not going to say much about this hike. The trail itself was wide and almost felt like we were continually walking on park roads. There were no signs and so many different ways to go. Sometimes there were 4 and 5 trails converging in one spot. After a couple of miles, we decided that we would let go of the idea of following the directions in the book and just hike. We hiked 3.99 miles in one hour and forty-three minutes.
Although the second trail was disappointing, Muscatatuck really made up for it! The day was a success and it was great way to end the month of July. Instead of sharing things I learned this month, I thought I would share "What's In" and "What's Out" as far as hiking gadgets:
|
What’s
In
|
What’s
Out
|
|
Endomondo – an app that keeps track of your distance, time, calories
burned and more. I highly recommend it!
|
Old school pedometer – to keep your stats you have to connect it to
your computer. Also, it seemed to be a little unreliable with distance.
|
|
Wearing long pants and cheap standard bug spray – no ticks for me!
|
Expensive tick spray – sprayed all over your clothes – Face it, Cheryl,
NOT working!
|
|
The Old School Bandana – great for maintaining your sweat
|
A tissue out of your bag – yuck!
|
|
Waze – another app. It’s a GPS on the phone that is enhanced through
social networking.
|
The Garmin. Always in need of updates and often unreliable.
|
An unbelievable 40 hikes down and only 20 left to go!!!! It's hard to believe that I'm even typing this, but I have hiked over 130 miles this year. If summer storms stay at bay tomorrow, I am hoping to hike Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a 2.7 mile difficult hike. Rain, rain, stay away!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
What Defines a "Hike"?
On July 21st, a group of five of us headed to
Eden Park set in the hills above downtown Cincinnati. This was one of those
places that we asked ourselves, “Why did Tammy York include this location in a
book about hiking?” We had a great time and we saw lots of cool things, but it
was a paved walk around and about a city park. It really made me ponder, “What
defines a 'hike'?” We “hiked” 3.37 miles in 1 hour and 23 minutes. The temperature was a refreshing 73
degrees.
After parking the car near the Cincinnati Art Museum we
headed down the hill on the sidewalk along the park road towards Mirror Lake.
The day was so pretty with blue skies and big puffy white clouds. Just like the
name implies, the reflections in the water of the sky above were so beautiful.
I’m sure the pictures on this blog page are too small to even get an idea of
how pretty the scenery was. We walked around Mirror Lake taking in the large
fountain in the middle and stopping to watch a mama duck with her ducklings
(they really looked like teenagers, they weren’t very small, but they were cute.)
At one end of the lake was a huge gazebo and we went past it to Hinkle Floral
Trail and the Krohn Conservatory. (Hinkle
Floral “Trail” is a sidewalk through a short span of woods.)
We didn’t stop to take time to visit the conservatory (we
were on a hike, remember?), but we enjoyed all of the plants and flowers
decorating the outside of the building. At the conservatory we crossed the
street to a set of stairs that led up to the Presidential Grove where trees are
planted in dedication to the U.S. Presidents. The big old trees were beautiful
and the sidewalk wound its way to an old brick water tower that we walked
around before heading down towards the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The memorial
is a metal sculpture of two army soldiers. We only spent a couple of minutes
here before we headed across the street again to another part of the park with
a beautiful view overlooking the Ohio River. We stopped to take a break, listen
to Lorrie’s questions and I tried to take pictures of everyone. Ryan and Morgan
kept running away from the camera. There is a pond with lots of pretty
landscaping and a bridge going over the water in this part of the park. Morgan
and Ryan decided to do a little jogging, but were almost attacked by geese that
were guarding one edge of the water.
This was the halfway point of the “hike”. We headed back
toward the water tower, down the stairs, past Krohn Conservatory, and through the Hinkle Floral “Trail”
(paved) to Mirror Lake again. This time Joe joined Ryan and Morgan and they ran
together all the way around the lake (a much longer distance.) I was impressed
and they had a good feeling of accomplishment. At this point the map led us along
the sidewalks to a different park road and we took some steep steps back up
toward the Art Museum and my car. This was the closest part of the outing that
felt like a hike to me because we walked on dirt for about 10 feet. We ended the hike with one of our favorite sites of the day, a flying pig sculpture called "Shark Girl on Pig."
So, I want to put this question out to the readers. What
defines a “hike”? Does this sound like a “hike” to you? Please help me think
about this on my quest to becoming an experienced hiker.
I LOVE Eden Park! We had a great time. It was a beautiful
day and there was so much to see. This
was “hike” number 38 – 22 hikes to go!!!!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Tick Magnet
I'm a little behind on my blogging and I was going to try to combine the last four hikes into one blog. After downloading the photos, I realized it just wouldn't be fair to the great places that I've been to recently. I wouldn't be able to paint a picture of the happenings and the surroundings of each hike. So, I really have my work cut out for me catching everyone up on these outstanding hikes.
On Monday July 8th, Cheryl, Morgan and I set out in the early evening to hike Winton Woods. Well, that really isn't the true story. We were heading out towards Oxford to hike two trails, but I got turned around on the highway and we made the spontaneous decision to hike Winton Woods when we inadvertently ended up on the exit off of the highway that takes you to this park. Although certain aspects of Winton Woods are more city like, there are some pretty wooded dirt trails that make for some great hiking.
After hiking along Winton Lake on the paved trail we reached the Kingfisher Trailhead. This trail is dirt, gravel and decking. We headed downhill to Winton Lake Creek. Because of the drought conditions the water was really low. It was still very beautiful along the creek because it was heavily wooded. Parts of the trail felt like you were hiking through a green leaf tunnel. Very cool! There were some ups and downs and twists and turns that provided us with a nice little workout. We passed a sinkhole (that I honestly wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the sign.) The sign said that the sinkholes are created when the limestone beneath the surface of the soil is dissolved by acid bearing water. We finished up the Kingfisher Trail by hiking uphill and headed back to the trailhead.
There was one small portion of the hike left, so we headed across the park road to a small loop around a wetland restoration area. There were many layers of limestone rock they made a basin for the water. As we hiked around the loop, Cheryl was re-hashing her intimate experiences with the ticks from our hikes the previous week. I must admit, just the thought of it makes me start itching! She sprayed herself down heavily before we set off to hike to prevent a re-occurrence. Joe had previously shared with me that the ticks fall down out of the trees. So when she was hiking under the trees, I teased her to stay out from under to avoid her tiny little friends. We headed back to the car via the paved trail feeling we'd gotten some good exercise.
When I got home I received a picture of a tick that Cheryl found on her when she was undressing! YIKES! Morgan and I didn't have any ticks on us. Cheryl now has a new nickname: Tick Magnet! Not really sure why they are attracted to her. Maybe they can tell that she has a big furry dog at home. Who knows?
This was hike number 37 - 23 more hikes to go! I would definitely go back to this park. It's nice to know that it is only about a half an hour away and has a deep woods feel to it. Watch for another post very soon. It's catch up time!
On Monday July 8th, Cheryl, Morgan and I set out in the early evening to hike Winton Woods. Well, that really isn't the true story. We were heading out towards Oxford to hike two trails, but I got turned around on the highway and we made the spontaneous decision to hike Winton Woods when we inadvertently ended up on the exit off of the highway that takes you to this park. Although certain aspects of Winton Woods are more city like, there are some pretty wooded dirt trails that make for some great hiking.
After hiking along Winton Lake on the paved trail we reached the Kingfisher Trailhead. This trail is dirt, gravel and decking. We headed downhill to Winton Lake Creek. Because of the drought conditions the water was really low. It was still very beautiful along the creek because it was heavily wooded. Parts of the trail felt like you were hiking through a green leaf tunnel. Very cool! There were some ups and downs and twists and turns that provided us with a nice little workout. We passed a sinkhole (that I honestly wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the sign.) The sign said that the sinkholes are created when the limestone beneath the surface of the soil is dissolved by acid bearing water. We finished up the Kingfisher Trail by hiking uphill and headed back to the trailhead.
There was one small portion of the hike left, so we headed across the park road to a small loop around a wetland restoration area. There were many layers of limestone rock they made a basin for the water. As we hiked around the loop, Cheryl was re-hashing her intimate experiences with the ticks from our hikes the previous week. I must admit, just the thought of it makes me start itching! She sprayed herself down heavily before we set off to hike to prevent a re-occurrence. Joe had previously shared with me that the ticks fall down out of the trees. So when she was hiking under the trees, I teased her to stay out from under to avoid her tiny little friends. We headed back to the car via the paved trail feeling we'd gotten some good exercise.
When I got home I received a picture of a tick that Cheryl found on her when she was undressing! YIKES! Morgan and I didn't have any ticks on us. Cheryl now has a new nickname: Tick Magnet! Not really sure why they are attracted to her. Maybe they can tell that she has a big furry dog at home. Who knows?
This was hike number 37 - 23 more hikes to go! I would definitely go back to this park. It's nice to know that it is only about a half an hour away and has a deep woods feel to it. Watch for another post very soon. It's catch up time!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Sweat at Sunrise
Independence Day celebrations started REALLY early for Joe, Cheryl and I as we set out to spend part of our day off conquering three hikes. Due to the extreme heat, I suggested starting our first hike at sunrise, so I picked Joe up at 4:30 in the morning. We met Cheryl about 15 minutes later and we were on our way to Adams County, Ohio. We hiked a total of 6.65 miles at Buzzardroost Rock, Adams Lake State Park and Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. It was a truly sweaty and bug infested experience!
We started with the longest hike to Buzzardroost Rock. Finding the trail head was a little bit challenging causing us to start our hike about 15 minutes after sunrise officially started. The temperature was about 68 degrees. That sounds cool, but it was very muggy and it didn't take long for the sweat to break. The soil trail was curvy and rocky with lots of ups and downs. We got an amazing workout! We traveled 3.55 miles in two hours. The first thing that I noticed about this trail was that it was different than others we have hiked in the warm weather. Even though it was in the woods like the other hikes, we could really see the terrain - we weren't walking through a maze of green brush. It was truly beautiful, especially with the early morning light. This is an out and back hike and as we headed to the overlook (the halfway point) we were mostly hoofing it uphill. A recent storm dropped trees along the trail and we had some minor detours, but because there was not an abundance of ground cover, it was easy to keep track of where we were going. By the time we got to the overlook, we were all ready for a break and what a fantastic break it was! There was an awesome view of the valley below and a much appreciated breeze. We took several minutes to enjoy the view and study the next hiking location. Joe and Cheryl refueled with some protein bars, we all drank some water, and we headed back down the trail to the trail head. On the way back, we stopped to take several pictures of Buzzardroost Rock. It was so HUGE!!! How huge was it, you ask? It was so huge that there were full size trees growing out of it! We didn't have much farther to go to be back at the trail head, but it was a slow and steady climb back to the car and we were grateful when we got there. I would love to return to Buzzardroost to enjoy the views and to get a challenging workout.
We jumped in the car, cranked the A.C. and headed to Adams Lake State Park. The trail here was a big contrast to the first trail. Most of it was a paved surface along the lake. The morning sunlight on the water was pretty. There were a lot of geese on the water and some beautiful water plants. After hiking along the lake, we came to the kiosk marking a more traditional hiking trail. A good portion of this trail is prairie land and the trail was sunny. There were some neat plants that can endure the hot sun and dry weather and still maintain their green color. The coolest thing we saw on this trail were these incredible ant mounds. They were so GIGANTIC!!! How gigantic were they, you ask? They were so gigantic that some of them are more than 4 feet high and some are more than 20 years old! Next we followed a small loop that winds its way through the woods. The shade gave us a little relief from the hot sun. It was now around 78 degrees and more humid. After completing the loop we headed back along the lake and finished the 2.1 mile hike in about one hour.
At this point, it was about 9:45 in the morning and we decided that it might be good to get some food. Then we would have a short 1 mile hike left and we could head home. These hikes are in the West Union area, a very small country town. As we headed into town, we noticed that people were lined up all along Main Street - YIKES! We realized a Fourth of July parade was about to begin! Scratch the search for somewhere to eat, we didn't want to get stuck unable to get through the streets, so we headed to the trail instead. I am sure the locals were wondering who these outsiders were that were driving around in circles around their "city blocks." We smiled and did our best parade wave!
In about 10 minutes we arrived at Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. Just like the name says, this was mostly prairie land. Now the temperature was 84 degrees. We saw a lot of the same plants that we saw at the other prairie trail. Joe was in the lead, as was true the whole day, and Cheryl and I were a little bit pokey - the tiredness from the other hikes were kicking in. Our feet were starting to hurt and our muscles were feeling sore. Cheryl stopped to admire some light green moss and I noticed she had some ticks on her. After pulling several off of her, our speed suddenly picked up and we were practically running to catch up with Joe and get away from this tick infested trail. When we got to the car, we found a couple more on Cheryl and I pulled another one off of her in the bathroom at lunch. She found three more on herself when she got home. Needless to say, the two of us were itching and scratching for a couple of days with tick paranoia!
Despite the ticks, I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday than being out on the trail. 36 hikes down and 24 to go!!! The weather is continuing to be toasty, so I am thinking about an evening hike for this week. I guess this is how I will have to roll in order to continue hiking in this crazy hot weather. If you like to sweat, join in!
We started with the longest hike to Buzzardroost Rock. Finding the trail head was a little bit challenging causing us to start our hike about 15 minutes after sunrise officially started. The temperature was about 68 degrees. That sounds cool, but it was very muggy and it didn't take long for the sweat to break. The soil trail was curvy and rocky with lots of ups and downs. We got an amazing workout! We traveled 3.55 miles in two hours. The first thing that I noticed about this trail was that it was different than others we have hiked in the warm weather. Even though it was in the woods like the other hikes, we could really see the terrain - we weren't walking through a maze of green brush. It was truly beautiful, especially with the early morning light. This is an out and back hike and as we headed to the overlook (the halfway point) we were mostly hoofing it uphill. A recent storm dropped trees along the trail and we had some minor detours, but because there was not an abundance of ground cover, it was easy to keep track of where we were going. By the time we got to the overlook, we were all ready for a break and what a fantastic break it was! There was an awesome view of the valley below and a much appreciated breeze. We took several minutes to enjoy the view and study the next hiking location. Joe and Cheryl refueled with some protein bars, we all drank some water, and we headed back down the trail to the trail head. On the way back, we stopped to take several pictures of Buzzardroost Rock. It was so HUGE!!! How huge was it, you ask? It was so huge that there were full size trees growing out of it! We didn't have much farther to go to be back at the trail head, but it was a slow and steady climb back to the car and we were grateful when we got there. I would love to return to Buzzardroost to enjoy the views and to get a challenging workout.
We jumped in the car, cranked the A.C. and headed to Adams Lake State Park. The trail here was a big contrast to the first trail. Most of it was a paved surface along the lake. The morning sunlight on the water was pretty. There were a lot of geese on the water and some beautiful water plants. After hiking along the lake, we came to the kiosk marking a more traditional hiking trail. A good portion of this trail is prairie land and the trail was sunny. There were some neat plants that can endure the hot sun and dry weather and still maintain their green color. The coolest thing we saw on this trail were these incredible ant mounds. They were so GIGANTIC!!! How gigantic were they, you ask? They were so gigantic that some of them are more than 4 feet high and some are more than 20 years old! Next we followed a small loop that winds its way through the woods. The shade gave us a little relief from the hot sun. It was now around 78 degrees and more humid. After completing the loop we headed back along the lake and finished the 2.1 mile hike in about one hour.
At this point, it was about 9:45 in the morning and we decided that it might be good to get some food. Then we would have a short 1 mile hike left and we could head home. These hikes are in the West Union area, a very small country town. As we headed into town, we noticed that people were lined up all along Main Street - YIKES! We realized a Fourth of July parade was about to begin! Scratch the search for somewhere to eat, we didn't want to get stuck unable to get through the streets, so we headed to the trail instead. I am sure the locals were wondering who these outsiders were that were driving around in circles around their "city blocks." We smiled and did our best parade wave!
In about 10 minutes we arrived at Chaparral Prairie State Nature Preserve. Just like the name says, this was mostly prairie land. Now the temperature was 84 degrees. We saw a lot of the same plants that we saw at the other prairie trail. Joe was in the lead, as was true the whole day, and Cheryl and I were a little bit pokey - the tiredness from the other hikes were kicking in. Our feet were starting to hurt and our muscles were feeling sore. Cheryl stopped to admire some light green moss and I noticed she had some ticks on her. After pulling several off of her, our speed suddenly picked up and we were practically running to catch up with Joe and get away from this tick infested trail. When we got to the car, we found a couple more on Cheryl and I pulled another one off of her in the bathroom at lunch. She found three more on herself when she got home. Needless to say, the two of us were itching and scratching for a couple of days with tick paranoia!
Despite the ticks, I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday than being out on the trail. 36 hikes down and 24 to go!!! The weather is continuing to be toasty, so I am thinking about an evening hike for this week. I guess this is how I will have to roll in order to continue hiking in this crazy hot weather. If you like to sweat, join in!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Rocky Balboa Cheer
On Saturday, June 23, Joe, Morgan and I set out to do a
couple of hikes at Shawnee Lookout.
We hiked a total of 3.11 miles in about one hour and twenty-five minutes. When
we started hiking it was 77 degrees and when we finished it was in the 80’s. This
is a beautiful park. It sits up high between the Ohio and the Great Miami Rivers.
The views were spectacular!
First, we hiked the Miami Fort Trail. It was mostly shaded
and one of the first great views we had was of a valley. You could see huge
fields with abundant green crops. Along the way there were a lot of signs about
Native American life of the past in the area. There were also markings where
different mounds existed. On our way into the park, we stopped at the park “museum.”
It was a tiny room connected to the golf course clubhouse. There were some
really cool artifacts that were uncovered by University of Cincinnati students
back in the 70’s. As we kept climbing upward we soon reached other viewing
areas where we got to enjoy some pretty views of the Ohio River, including one
of the bridges that connects the states of Indiana and Ohio near Lawrenceburg. The trail was well-cleared and had great ups
and downs, so we felt like we got in some good exercise despite the fact that
the trail was only about 1.3 miles long.
Next we hiked the Little Turtle Trail. This trail was not quite
as hilly and was a little longer (1.81 miles.) The peaceful shady atmosphere
was really pleasant. Right after we were commenting about how much easier this
trail was than the other, we met up with a pretty sizable hill, one that really
got our hearts pumping and our lungs puffing. At the top, Joe celebrated with
his “Rocky Balboa Cheer.” Without saying any words the cheer says, “We did it!”
The most exciting part of this day happened at the very end of the hike when we
arrived back at the trail head. I was in the lead and Morgan was right behind
me. I heard a sound at the ground to my left and then we both saw it – a black
slithery snake! Joe didn’t get to see it because it took off into the woods so
fast when it saw us, but Joe said it was probably a black rat snake. I googled
a picture and that is certainly possible.
I love trail magic!!!!
It’s hard to believe that this is the end of 6 months of
hiking. Thirty-three hikes later and I am still learning. Here are my insights
for this month:
- A hike just isn’t a “hike” when the trail is paved.
- If the title of the park has “wildlife area” or “nature preserve” in it, it’s likely that the trail will be rustic. Be prepared.
- I hate deer flies!
- Temperatures can fluctuate a lot even in the summertime.
- Clif Bars are my new favorite hiking companion.
- Summer hiking can be like walking through a maze. All of the green leaves are pretty, but they block the beautiful landscape views.
- There's nothing like putting on a pair of flipflops after a long hot hike.
33 hikes down and 27 to go!!!! I have hiked a total of
110.16 miles so far this year. I will take a “Rocky Balboa Cheer” for that!
Next blog post will be about a sunrise hike I’ll be taking on the Fourth of
July. Anyone want to get out of bed while it’s still dark on your day off and
join me?
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