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!