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!