Never Let Your Guard Down

On Saturday, August 18, Ryan and I headed to Versailles State Park in Indiana. That's not where we were planning on going to hike, but when we put the two hiking locations we were intending to go to into the GPS, it said that they were 79 miles away, a 2 hour drive..."within 60 miles" my #@*! This is not the first time that we have wondered if Tammy York traveled to these hiking locations by flying through the air or from some unique teleporting capabilities. Regardless, next week we will be celebrating the Mitchger Wedding Palooza, so the weekend was busy with preparations to make. With so much to do, hiking two hikes over two hours away was not in the cards.

The park was really easy to find, but the trail head, not so much. Fortunately, Ryan and I figured out pretty quickly that we were not headed on the right trail, so we got out the compass and oriented ourselves. After the small adjustment, we found the trail head and we were on our way. I was proud that I remembered last week I'd wished I'd gotten the compass out a little more often.  It definitely came in handy several times during this hike.

We were looking forward to the waterfalls that Tammy York describes in her book, but I guess they weren't really flowing - maybe due to the drought? The trail had some great hills from the start and we both agreed that it was an awesome workout throughout.  Ryan and I were surprised by the fall colored leaves littering the trail. We wondered if this was also a result of the drought. It was a strange contrast to the summer greenery around us.

The trail was a loop and a figure 8, so we used the Endomondo map, the park map, and the compass to keep ourselves oriented and make sure that we were staying on track. We did a really great job with this and after we hiked almost 5 miles and were nearing the end, we started chatting a little too much, we let our guard down and suddenly we were lost. There were some detours, backtracking, tracing and retracing of steps. Just when I thought I had no idea which way to go next, we got out the compass and it gave us the confidence we needed to know that we were at least going in the right direction. Where we took our wrong turn, I have no idea. Instead of hiking the 4.77 miles as stated in the book, we hiked 6.1 miles.

Despite the wrong turns and extra steps, this was a great hike and somewhere that I'd return to hike again. The trails were well-kept and the ups and downs made it a great workout. Thanks to Ryan I was not on my own and I was grateful for that. This hike definitely helped contribute to the development of my map reading skills-which still need a lot of development!

43 hikes down and 17 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Fat Greek Family Reunion

One of the cool things about this blog is that I can go into the statistics and see how many Page Views there were of the blog by day, week, month or all time. I can also see "Traffic Sources," for example, from Facebook, by web browser, etc. I can also see Page Views by country. This is one of the most interesting to me. So far there are 1330 Page Views from the U.S., 55 from Russia, 16 from Germany, 11 from Afghanistan, 8 from the Ukraine, 4 from the United Kingdom, 3 Page Views each from Latvia and the Netherlands, 2 from India and 1 from Australia. The 11 Page Views from Afghanistan are not surprising to me because my longtime friend Sue is living there. During the winter she sent me an email explaining that she would be in the States in August and was wondering if one of the hiking locations was at General Butler State Park, and if it was, would I be willing to save the date of that hike to when she would be there for her family reunion. Sue was hoping to join in the hiking fun. I emailed her back and confirmed that indeed General Butler State Park was in the book and that I would definitely save that hike to do with her (and we hoped her husband, which sadly did not work out...long story!) So, on Saturday, August 11, at 6:00 a.m. Sue, Lorrie and I set out on a "first light" hike. We hiked 4.73 miles in two hours and forty-four minutes. The temperature was a cool 63 degrees.

It all started on Friday night. Lorrie and I picked up Sue at the Cincinnati International Airport and headed to General Butler. Sue is in the middle of observing Ramadan, so she is fasting from sunup to sundown. The first stop was to Kroger, so she could get some food for her room at the lodge. It was important stuff:  Cheezits, Diet Pepsi, bananas, more Cheezits, brownies, and Cheezit Snack Mix. I guess when you are food deprived both from Ramadan and living outside of the country, you must indulge in as much junk food as possible. Well, at least there were bananas in the bag.

Next, we headed to the lodge to get Sue checked in. It was fun to see her greeted by family who were not expecting her to show up at the reunion - sneaky little devil!  After checking in, we made our way to the cabin area so Sue could say hello and visit with more of her family members (there were over 100 in all at the reunion.) Lorrie and I milled around and introduced ourselves as the "family reunion crashers." Interestingly we found we were not the only ones crashing and we were greeted with warm welcomes - that says a lot about this family.  When the clock hit 8:30, Sue was allowed to eat and drink whatever she wanted. She was now on a quest for the campers with the best food. As she carried her box of Cheezits and found other tidbits here and there we enjoyed visiting and sitting around the fire. It was an absolutely beautiful evening for August - cool and no bugs!

In the morning, Sue was up before 5:00 a.m. getting in her last meal (brownies and who knows what else?) She woke us up at 5:30 and we were on the trail shortly after 6:00 a.m. It was pitch dark! I was using my flashlight on my phone, while she and Lorrie trailed behind. It was very cool to see first light hit and then a little later watch the sunrise. It was a great hike! The trail had some nice grade to it, so we got a good workout. We saw so many deer that I lost count. One actually was on the trail right in front of us and just stared at us as we approached. There were also a lot of spider webs and a couple of times we weren't just covered in webs, but also had spiders dangling from our bodies. Lorrie really hated that...there was some squealing involved!

We missed hiking part of the trail due to poor navigation. We tried using the map on Endomondo with the other map that we had, but it didn't really help. We should have used the compass more - note to self. It was a great hike and a wonderful way to catch up with old friends. My thanks to Sue for reading the blog and reaching out to join in this adventure!

42 hikes down and 18 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slump Cave Millionaire

Ooh la la!!! These are the first words that come to my mind when I think about the hike that we took to Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve on Sunday, August 5. This hike is in the top 5 hikes of this whole adventure. It is located in Yellow Springs just outside of Dayton. Joe, Lorrie, Ryan and I were amazed by all of the beautiful scenery along the way. We hiked 3.2 miles in two hours and the temperature was a very humid 82 degrees.

After parking the car and setting off on the trail we were immediately confronted by a series of overlooks of the Little Miami River. The sound of the rushing water and the views of the forest and rock formations were breathtaking. After hiking less than a mile, we hit trails end and were confused about our map and our location. Our only alternative was to walk back the way we came, which wasn't such a bad deal since the views were so beautiful. As we approached the trail head where we started the hike, we realized that the parking lot where we parked the car was different than the parking lot designated in the book. Trail confusion resolved!

As we proceeded in the proper direction, the trail changed from just being soil to rocky. It headed downhill toward the river and we continued to be serenaded by the sound of running water. When we got to the lowest point, several trails converged in one place and there was a bridge that led over the river and to a trail at a different park. This was a big turning point in the hike. We were enjoying the scenery thus far, but we had no idea what was yet to come.

The trail now headed along the water, zigzagging in different directions. There were a couple of overlooks near the water where you could step out and see some pretty views of the river. We stopped and enjoyed the views. The most amazing accents along the trail were the big boulders and rocky cliff formations. The rocks were HUGE and you could tell there was a lot of movement in them a long time ago. There were giant boulders that looked like they were randomly thrown down into the water by a fairytale giant. Layers and layers of dolomite (thank you trail sign) accented the trail.  Fortunately we had our geology expert, Ryan, with us. He explained that when layers of rock fall in the way these rocks were, geologists would say, "That rock has nice cleavage."

There were some nice up and down grades along this part of the trail and the rockiness of the path continued. The next cool spotlight of this hike was the slump-block cave. Here's how Tammy York describes this natural wonder, "A slump-block cave is formed when water dissolves softer rock and instead of a block of rock falling away from the cliff, the block falls towards the cliff and creates a cave."  This was definitely one of the coolest sights along the trail.

The steep cliffs contrasted by the river and beautiful green forest are what made this such a beautiful hiking location. We talked about returning in the spring because there is supposed to be a great display of blooming flowers. We hiked up a steep set of stairs to finish the trail and celebrated the completion of another hike with some authentic Chinese food in the artsy little town of Yellow Springs.

41 hikes down and 19 to go!!!! Will be blogging about another hike soon that involved a special guest hiker.

Nail Biters Unite!

July has come to a close and so has another month of hiking. To finish off the month, Joe, Cheryl and I headed off to Indiana to Muscatatuck Park and Selmier State Forest. It was a great way to bring 7 months of hiking to a close: an amazing hike with a bit of a challenge contrasted with one of those "rustic" hikes that kept us scratching our heads.

Because the distance to the parks from home was about an hour and a half and the temperatures earlier in the week had been in the 100's, we decided to head out early to try to catch the coolest time of the day. It was a good plan as the temperature was 75 degrees when we set off at 8:10 am to hike at Muscatatuck Park. When we entered the parking lot, there were two historic buildings. One was an old house serving as the Visitor's Center. The other was an old schoolhouse. We followed a simple sign with an arrow down to the trail. Thank goodness for that sign because it didn't look like we were going anywhere! The trail started out with us trotting through really tall weeds growing over flat stones. It was difficult to know where to place your feet on the stones because of those weeds. I was a little concerned about what the rest of the trail was going to be like, but soon we reached a dirt trail used for both hiking and mountain biking and we had a fantastic hike.

The trail wound its way with a series of curves and there wasn't a lot of ground cover, so we had some really beautiful views. At one point along the trail, we reached a downed tree that we couldn't go around. Cheryl demonstrated her limbo skills (for a Kodak moment.) I went under it and my pack got stuck on the sharp, dry branches while Cheryl stood there and watched. Joe was continuing on the trail. Classic! We proceeded and crossed a park road. The tree roots on this part of the trail were painted neon green and we wondered if this was standard operating procedure for a mountain bike trail or if there was some kind of night time biking event that occurs here. It doesn't seem to me to be a good idea to mountain bike at night, but who knows? There are some crazy mountain bikers out there!

The last part of this trail was the best! This was because it followed the Vernon Fork Muscatatuck River. The hiking suddenly became difficult and it was like walking on a ledge. Also, there were cliffs formed by huge boulders.  It was a great workout with some really beautiful scenery. After the trail headed away from the river and back towards the start, we traveled across a bridge and then up a series of stone steps to "Vinegar Mill" that was really a location for an old stone-cutting mill. At this point the park road and hiking trail become one. We were a little winded from the steps and therefore we were walking quietly, which was good because we saw a mama deer and her two freckled babies. Very cool! I think I can speak for all three of us when I say, we loved this hike!

It took us an hour and 21 minutes to hike 2.85 miles. As we regrouped in the car, we decided to refuel with our packed food and head to the next trail. Cheryl brought with her some Sport Beans, "quick energy for sports performance." This was a new snack for her and I think she was anticipating great things. They looked like little fruit snacks to me. As she bit into the first one she said, "They taste like poison!" I said, "How do you know what poison tastes like?" She said, "I'm a nail biter. I know what everything tastes like." I thought to myself, well that must come in handy, but was happy settling for my old favorite, a Clif Bar and the fact that I am not a nail biter.

Just a few short miles away was Selmier State Forest. We were happy that the temperature had only risen five degrees and that it looked like we were going to escape the extreme heat of the day. I'm not going to say much about this hike. The trail itself was wide and almost felt like we were continually walking on park roads. There were no signs and so many different ways to go. Sometimes there were 4 and 5 trails converging in one spot. After a couple of miles, we decided that we would let go of the idea of following the directions in the book and just hike. We hiked 3.99 miles in one hour and forty-three minutes.

Although the second trail was disappointing, Muscatatuck really made up for it! The day was a success and it was great way to end the month of July.  Instead of sharing things I learned this month, I thought I would share "What's In" and "What's Out" as far as hiking gadgets:

What’s In	What’s Out
Endomondo – an app that keeps track of your distance, time, calories burned and more. I highly recommend it!	Old school pedometer – to keep your stats you have to connect it to your computer. Also, it seemed to be a little unreliable with distance.
Wearing long pants and cheap standard bug spray – no ticks for me!	Expensive tick spray – sprayed all over your clothes – Face it, Cheryl, NOT working!
The Old School Bandana – great for maintaining your sweat	A tissue out of your bag – yuck!
Waze – another app. It’s a GPS on the phone that is enhanced through social networking.	The Garmin. Always in need of updates and often unreliable.

An unbelievable 40 hikes down and only 20 left to go!!!! It's hard to believe that I'm even typing this, but I have hiked over 130 miles this year.  If summer storms stay at bay tomorrow, I am hoping to hike Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a 2.7 mile difficult hike. Rain, rain, stay away!