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
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...
Cheryl is indeed a trooper. So great to read the latest adventure. Always look forward to it. The shoe fence sounds awesome.
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