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!