WOWZERS!

As evidenced by the title of this week's post, our hike to Sugarcreek Metropark just south of Dayton, Ohio was amazing! There were so many unusual things to see and so many awesome pictures taken that I fear for the length of this post, but I'll try to control myself. It was another beautiful day - 59 degrees and sunny. We hiked 4.02 miles in two hours.

After a forty-five minute drive, a couple of wrong turns, two parking lots, a couple of trail heads and a bathroom stop, we finally set off to hike. We traveled south on the Red-Green trail and were greeted by some beautiful spring flowers that I have yet to identify.  I have posted a picture and will await reader's comments to see if anyone knows what they are.  I tried to use a flower identification website, but because I don't understand the terminology of the dichotomous key, it turned up no results.  I know this flower exists because I took a picture of it! I'm just not sure how to describe it's parts. I guess that's why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.  There were some really muddy and very wet parts to the trail, but because the trail is so well cared for and so wide, it was very easy to get around these areas. Something that surprised us was the number of runners on the trail.  There must have been around a dozen.  Cheryl and I both agreed that we are not cut out for trail running, but we cheered each group on as they passed us by.

There are so many unique features of this park.  One of those features were the creek crossings.  On most of our other hikes, there were man-made bridges, however, this trail has huge boulders for hikers to step on to get across the creeks.  These really kept to the natural beauty of the surroundings and were fun to travel across. Another cool  feature of this park were "The Three Sisters". Cheryl loved the signs for this since she is one of three sisters! So, we kept following the signs along the Green Trail until we reached them.  I think the park sign describes them best: "Three ancient white oak trees, nicknamed 'The Three Sisters'...The trees have towered over the woodlands for over 550 years. When Columbus reached America, they were already over 50 years old!"  Although the trees survived the settlers moving through Ohio, they are declining. The park has done a lot to preserve them, but despite their efforts, one of the sisters has fallen to the ground.  After taking in these amazing old trees, we headed to the Orange Trail where I think we saw our most favorite feature of all the "Osage Orange Tunnel."  The Osage orange trees line this part of the trail creating a natural tunnel.  The trail sign explained that in the early 1800's these trees were used as a living fence to create boundaries along farmers' properties.  Fascinating!  I can't even explain the feeling we both had when we unexpectedly came across this tunnel, looking up and taking it all in - we were giddy!  We are truly turning into hiking nerds!

It's hard to believe this is the close of my third month of hiking and 16 hikes down. Things that I learned this month...

• Puppies can be great hiking companions.
• Hiking is a family bonding experience.
• Spring has sprung!
• Look out for the "inner princess" as bug season is upon us.
• There are worse things you can be than a hiking nerd.
• No matter how crazy life gets, I can perform better in all aspects of my life if I take time to stop and enjoy nature.
•  The importance of gratitude.

I'll close this post with a quote from Heather Zimmerman that we saw along the trail at Sugarcreek:

"I thank you for this day of life

  For feet to walk amidst the trees"