Boy Scout Jamboree

As we drove along the service road into Fort Ancient State Historical Site it was clear that this week's hike was going to have a good story to it. It was a chilly and damp day. The temperature was 45 degrees - a 35 degree difference from last week's hike!!!! Our first stop was to the museum to pay our entrance fee. Fort Ancient is an archaeologist's dream. It boasts earthworks and mounds constructed by the Hopewell Native Americans around A.D. 1200. Lorrie, Morgan and I hiked 3.2 miles in about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Finding the trail head was probably the hardest part of the hike this week.  It's been awhile since that happened. The unusual thing we faced was that there were people everywhere - boy scouts - LOTS! The cars, tents and bodies obstructed the view of our surroundings. It reminded me of an old Flintstones episode called "Cave Scout Jamboree".  During this episode there is a flood at the gravel pit, so Fred decides to take his family and the Rubbles on a camping trip.  They set up camp at the Shangri-La-Dee-Da Campground and when they wake up in the morning, they are surrounded by Cave Scouts! Not the peaceful retreat that Fred desired.  I felt a little like Fred. It was as if our space was being invaded. Three females walking around tents looking lost.

Before we actually hit the trail, we checked out the earthworks. It took the Hopewell about 200 years to create the walls of earth that span 3.5 miles. There are 70 openings in the walls through which parts of the trail weave.  This was an out-and-back hike, so our plan was to hike to the Serpent Effigy and return along the same path. We stopped to enjoy the South Overlook and then started walking the trail. We were grateful that the drizzle from earlier stopped as we traveled across the muddy and rocky trail. This is a moderate hike.  There are lots of places with bridges, stairs and platforms to help keep the trail passable; thanks to the many Eagle Scouts who built them for their Eagle Scout Projects. I can't imagine hiking this trail without them!

After weaving through the forest we reached the bike path that runs along the Little Miami River. We followed the bike path some distance before reaching State Route 350. As we hiked along this curvy road there was quite a bit of traffic for being out in the country. After crossing the Little Miami, we came to a grassy meadow where we had to follow the tree line to reach the Serpent Effigy. It was discovered in 1983 by John White and others from Youngstown State University.  It's believed that this 46.9 meter stone effigy was constructed as a marker to pinpoint the winter solstice.  It doesn't look like much from the pictures, but when you think about how long ago this structure was put together and the science behind it, it's pretty amazing!

On the way back to our starting point, we decided to take a slightly different route. After climbing a very steep set of stairs, we took a trail that was a little less traveled and very muddy.  We heard some people in the woods and then realized that they were on a platform for a zip line. It was very cool to see them swinging through the air into the valley.  Considering the number of Boy Scouts and their adult chaperones up at the campsite, we were surprised that we didn't run into more people on the trail. Other than the brave souls on the zip line, we only ran into two other small groups of hikers.

The Boy Scout Jamboree really didn't impact the quality of this awesome hiking location. The Native American history and the beautiful setting make it a great place to explore the outdoors. It is definitely a place I would like to go to again and maybe even try to take on the zip line.

This weekend marks the beginning of "two hikes a week." I am wondering what this will be like as one hike a week has already been quite a time commitment. Because of the mild winter, I am slightly ahead of schedule, so some weeks hopefully won't be as bad as others.

21 hikes down and 68.42 miles under my belt!

Kowabunga!

When I woke up the morning of hike #20, I was so excited.  Not just because I felt like I was reaching a milestone, but I knew it was going to be a beautiful day and I'm really getting addicted to being out on the trail.  The word that came to my mind was "Kowabunga!" I remember my son, Nick, watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when he was a little guy, and this is the term the turtles would use when they got really excited about something. I looked up the definition on Urban Dictionary and there were several definitions:

• fantastic
• wonderful
• look out, here I come

all of these seemed to fit as I headed out to Kincaid State Park in Northern Kentucky with nephew, Ryan and long time buddy, Cheryl. It was the first hike in shorts - 80 degrees and sunny. We hiked 3.5 miles in one hour and 35 minutes despite some snags along the way.

The drive to the park was through the beautiful rolling hills of Kentucky.  Cheryl didn't find it much fun.  She was sitting in the back seat and got to feeling car sick, which continued throughout the hike and also throughout her work week - wasn't actually car sickness after all! She was such a trooper!  I knew something was wrong when she wasn't keeping up and she's often leading the pack.  More to follow...As we approached the park, I pulled over so Ryan and I could take some pictures of an unusual site: the fence of a farm that had shoes at the top of the fence posts - all kinds of shoes - green tennis shoes, barn cleaning boots, heavy work shoes, rubber boots. It was quite a site and left us with many questions.  Who do those shoes belong to? Who put them there? What does it mean?  Loved it!

We drove into the park and didn't have much trouble finding the trail head.  Now that's progress!  Cheryl and I were donning our trekking poles.  They are our new favorite hiking gear.  I think that Ryan was a little embarrassed by them (I know you were, Ryan, don't try to deny it!) What I like about them is that I don't feel like I'm as conscious of where I am placing every step on the trail.  Whether it's because they make me feel more confident or that I actually am more stabilized by them, I don't know.  What I do know is that when we were hiking some of the more difficult trails, I sure wish I would have had them to get up and especially down some of the steeper and muddier terrain.

There isn't very good signage on these trails, as Cheryl would say, "Not hiking for dummies!" I now know that we started off hiking the Spicebush Trail. We quickly reached a creek and the trail was muddy, but not soft or mushy.  We saw a lot of deer tracks that looked to be pretty fresh, but didn't see any deer. I truly thought we would see more wildlife animals on these hikes. Oh well, the surroundings were beautiful. We crossed a pretty fancy man-made bridge and soon reached our first nemesis, a VERY steep, rocky hill.  It really got the heart pumping! Poor Cheryl was still suffering from "car sickness," she did not enjoy this hill.  When we reached the top, the trail was very grassy and we saw an old antique rusty plow looking really out of place in the middle of nowhere without a field to be plowed in site.  As we looped around the Spicebush Trail, we entered a pine forest.  Ryan and I both commented that it felt like we were out west.  I love the smell of pine! It reminds me of being at Girl Scout camp as a little girl in the Sierra Mountains.  I went kicking and screaming, tried hard all week to get the counselors to send me home, and when my parents finally picked me up I asked if I could come back next year. Classic!

These trails are two loops within each other, so to do it all you have to hike the same part of the trail twice.  When we reached the creek again, this time from the other side, Ryan and I suddenly realized that we were going to have to go up that mother of a hill again!  It took Cheryl a few minutes to realize it.  Sorry, girl!  We all took a deep breath and got going.  This is what finally did the old gal in.  We reached the top and Cheryl asked us to give her some privacy so that she could get sick.  Ryan referenced The Biggest Loser and told her she was getting a great workout. I told her to chew on some minty gum and she would get over it.  Hopefully, it wasn't as bad for her as this sounds!

We were now finally on the Ironwood Trail. It was very shady and cool for a good portion of this trail.  The shade was a nice change and Ryan and I had an interesting discussion about modern technology, calculators, translation software and whether these things make people more or less efficient.  When we finally got to a sign helping us to know which trail we were on, it was laying by the side of the trail, not in it's proper place.  We had to do some Sherlock Holmes-ing to figure out where we were and which way we needed to go.  Thankfully, we're not as "inexperienced" any more, so it wasn't too difficult to figure out.  Ryan did some nice acting to help illustrate this part of the hike.

As we started descending the hill back down toward the creek, we saw a cool hollow tree.  We also finally saw live wildlife that wasn't a plant! It was a cute little toad. Ryan picked it up so that I could get a picture. This was a big deal after all.  Cheryl didn't like it too much - it's a texture thing.  She would emphatically tell you that she is a "fur" girl.  Thanks Ryan for picking up Mr. Toad so we could document this special event and also for torturing Cheryl just a bit (especially when she was already feeling pukey - teehee!) Cruel, very cruel...feeling bad about it now, knowing she was actually coming down with something.  Sorry, friend!  I promise to take better care of you in the future!

After 3 and a half months of hiking, I have hiked 65.22 miles. It's hard to believe that one third of my goal is completed!  20 hikes down and 40 to go!!!!!  This week's hike is to Fort Ancient State Historical Site.  It's supposed to rain, but hopefully it will stop before we start hiking.  I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday.  Until next time...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                           

Swamp Thing and Fear of the Dark

Setting: Sunny spring day, 75 degrees at Stonelick State Park
Enter: Swamp Thing

As Cheryl and I set off on this hike we were a little suspicious.  The trail sign was hard to find and it looked a little dilapidated.  We set off anyway following the directions from the book in hopes of completing a 6.7 mile hike.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, we only got to hike 3.57 miles.  It took us about 2 hours.

On the Beechtree Trail, we immediately noticed that the trail had a thick covering of leaves and it kept getting wetter and wetter as we hiked.  You can see by the pictures, that the trail path doesn't drain at all, so we were forced to hike along the side of it.  It was really buggy and didn't smell too good. I preferred to hike without breathing through my nose to avoid the smell; Cheryl on the other hand kept her sniffer going and gave me frequent updates about the stench!  It was truly difficult to follow this trail because it wasn't cleared well. Even though we were not enjoying the hike thus far, we decided to continue until...we ran into water. This was more than a puddle. It was more like a small lake in the middle of the woods. It was so deep there were ducks floating on it!  We couldn't go around it or we never would have stood a chance finding the poorly marked trail, so we decided to head back to the car and pick up the trail at another location on the map.  We turned around and started hiking back, but we couldn't find the trail again, so we hiked along a fence that we saw earlier. Even though we were not hiking on a trail, it ended up being easier to hike out this way because we weren't hiking on the swampy trail anymore. We were thankful that we didn't have to contend with thoughts of Swamp Thing popping out at us at any minute!

As we traveled by car down the park road looking for the Lakeview Trail, we saw a wild turkey.  Since he was so close to the trail head, we were hopeful we might run into a turkey on the trail, but no such luck!  This part of the trail was a lot more pleasant. It was mostly cleared, but there were still parts that were hard to follow. Thankfully, the trees were painted with red spots, so that helped us stay on track. It was really peaceful. We saw a lot of interesting trees that were marked with signs. I especially liked one tree that was very knobby. There were times during the hike when it felt like summer hiking because the ground brush was so full.  This trail is called "Lakeview" because portions of it are near the lake, but we couldn't see the lake at all! I found I was kind of missing the views from winter where you can really see the unobstructed landscape - never thought I'd hear myself say that!

Despite the mucky, smelly walk and the difficulties with staying on the trail, it was good to get outside and get a bit of a workout. I'm not sure that I would say this is some place that I would venture back to again when we have so many other wonderful places to hike nearby.

Check out the daylight at the beginning of the hike.

Stonelick didn't quench our thirst for hiking, so two days later we headed out in the early evening to Fort Thomas Landmark Tree Trail. This hike is a hop, skip and a jump from where I live, so when we decided impulsively to set out after dinner time, we thought that we could complete this short 1.1 mile hike before dark.  However, we really pushed it to the limit because it took us forever to find the trail.  It was REALLY hard to find - I will not take the blame as co-pilot on this one. We finally found the trail at 7:55 p.m. I felt that we should wait and come back another time, but Cheryl was persistent and said, "Let's go!"  So, we set off on the trail. We were almost running it so as to try to finish the hike before dark. It was hard to enjoy the sites at this pace, but we managed to see a cool hollowed out tree and some views through the woods of the Ohio River. We were pretty quiet because we were trying to navigate the trail so fast.  Suddenly I sensed that we were not alone and I heard someone moving in the woods about 15 yards away.  We saw 4 deer - they were as curious about us as we were about them.  They stopped what they were doing to check us out before continuing on their way. I tried to take a picture, but it was starting to get dark - not enough light to capture the moment.  Our sense of urgency grew stronger. We finished this hike in 25 short minutes. We only trekked .69 miles and we'd like to go back to see what we missed since it was supposed to be 1.1 miles.  Even though we were afraid darkness was upon us, it was a fun adventure and I'd love to go back to this trail again sometime. It was really hilly and a good workout!

Daylight at the end of our hike.  We made it!

Hikes 18 and 19 down and 41 hikes to go!!!!!  Looking forward to a little bit longer hike this weekend to Kincaid State Park. It's a moderate 3.3 mile hike.  Soliciting fellow hikers!

Please Pass the Ibuprofen

On Saturday, March 31 Lorrie, Joe, Cheryl and I climbed our own Mt. Everest at Clifty Falls State Park and Clifty Canyon Nature Preserve in Madison, Indiana. Okay maybe comparing Clifty Falls to Mt. Everest might be a bit of an exaggeration, but my recuperation from this hike took a couple of days and many doses of ibuprofen. However, the pain was definitely worth it! This is a beautiful hiking location. The temperature was in the 50's as we hiked and the sun came in and out throughout the day. This excursion was a major commitment as it took us 6 hours to complete the most difficult hike so far. Knowing that this was a lengthy hike - the book said 6.1 miles, but we actually hiked 7.83 miles - we decided it would be a good idea to pick up some lunch before we entered the park so that we could eat it somewhere along the way. As we got closer and closer to the park and further and further from civilization, we all started to doubt whether we would find a place to get food.  Resounding cheers came from the car when we spotted a Subway! Little did we know at that time, just how important eating would be considering the calories that we burned doing this hike.

As we ventured onto Trail 1, I noticed some vultures grouped together in the top of a tree. We hiked a little further to the first landmark which was an Observation Tower.  There are great views from the tower of the Ohio River and the Clifty Falls State Park. Sadly part of this view includes two large stacks from a power plant along the river, but it was easy to ignore them with all of the trees and the beautiful valley view of the park.  We could tell from here that there was going to be considerable hills involved on this hike.

As we continued on Trail 1 down to Clifty Creek we immediately noticed the abundance of spring flowers covering the forest floor. This was true throughout the entire hike. It was so gorgeous to be surrounded by all of the flowers. Our next destination was to Hoffman Falls. After hiking down to the creek, we had to cross it - no bridge or huge stones to help us out like last week's hike, so Joe led the way and we followed.  Joe made it look easy, but the rest of us, not so much! In order to get to the view of the falls, we had to hike back up again.  There were spots along this part of the hike where we had to actually climb some rocks to continue on the trail.  It was pretty challenging. When we got to the view of the falls, we were grateful for a brief break, because we were huffing and puffing from the ascent.

From here we took Trail 4 and followed it to Trail 5. This was one of the rockiest parts of the trail. There were some huge rock formations and parts of the trail were on rocky ledges. We came upon another landmark a tunnel/cave that is usually open to park visitors, but it wasn't at this time because of White Nose Syndrome, which has killed thousands of bats in the eastern United States.  They are trying to stop the spread of this disease.  We met a couple of hikers who gave us some great tips about which trails to take and how to navigate around them. The three of us found this humorous because they were back after hiking the trails yesterday.  Even though we weren't even halfway through the hike, the thought of hiking this trail two days in a row seemed unlikely for us! It was around this point that Cheryl claimed the quote of the day, "Do they make self-wicking underwear because I'm having some serious trouble!"

Next we had to head back down to the creek. Going down doesn't sound so bad, but due to the rockiness of the trail and the heavy tree roots, it was pretty rugged! We decided that we would get down to the creek, cross it and then find a spot to sit down and eat.  Everyone was ready for a break. Crossing this creek was pretty challenging. There was a wire line stretched across it to help hikers get from one side to the other more easily. This was my first experience of this type. It was actually pretty fun, but most fun was watching everyone else cross, anticipating that someone might plunge into the water. No such luck! We all got across and stayed dry.  This led us to the most beautiful spot to sit and eat lunch right on the creek. As we were eating, the sun came out for the first time.  The sunshine glimmered on the water. It was so pretty.

Now we were hiking with our next destination in mind, Clifty Falls. We had a long and steady incline toward the top of the canyon. It was rooty, it was rocky, and we had to make frequent stops just to have enough breath to get to the top. When we reached it, the path carried on more reasonably leveling off and giving us a much needed change of pace.  There were pretty views here of the creek. We saw rocky ledges and mossy creek beds running downhill. As we anticipated seeing the falls, we were all hopeful that the work to get there would be worth it. After reaching a nice bathroom facility with real plumbing, a playground, and a large shelter, we finally saw the falls.  They were beautiful! The sound of the rushing water was welcomed. We sat nearby and shared some trail mix and rested up for the 4 mile trek back to the car.

We set off on Trail 8 in hopes that it might get us to the car a little more directly than the combination of trails that we took so far. The nice part about this trail is that it mostly followed the top of the canyon, so it had some really nice elevated views of the park.  There wasn't as much up and down, so when the trail finally descended back down toward Clifty Creek to allow us to get back to Trail 1 to get to the car, we were a little down-trodden because we knew this meant that we were going to have to head back up again.  All four of us were pretty exhausted at this point!  The final crossing of the creek was by far the most challenging.  There were few rocks that were under the rushing water and there was no handy wire for us to grab a hold of. I went first and my strategy was to take my time carefully selecting where I was stepping to try to get the least wet possible, however, when I got about 4 feet from the other side, I just had to bite the bullet and walk through the water. I love my hiking boots! My feet stayed bone dry!  Cheryl and Lorrie didn't have quite the same amount of patience and the were in the water a little sooner. Joe has better balance than the rest of us and he did really well getting across.

We had a HUGE sense of accomplishment when we completed this hike! It was a good thing that it was hike number 17 because there is no way I could have handled it any sooner than this. I feel a little more experienced from Clifty Falls State Park and would like to think that some day I will go back and experience it again...but not this year!