Fall is Here!

Over the last three weeks, I have managed to complete four more hikes. Fall is my favorite time of year and I was anxiously awaiting for the signs that it was here. On September 16, Cheryl, Joe and I hiked at Whitewater Memorial State Park in Indiana. The leaves on the trees really weren't changing colors yet, but there were some leaves on the ground and the damp smell of fall was definitely in the air. We hiked 3.75 miles in one hour and thirty minutes. It was great having Cheryl with us on a hike again. The trails were easy to follow and well-cared for. Even though this hike was a long ways from home, I would definitely travel back again. It had some nice hills and a good portion of the hike was along a lake. Cheryl commented that it would be a great winter hike because you would have good views of the lake.

The next week, Joe, Lorrie and I hiked 4 different trails at Mount Airy Forest on the west side of Cincinnati. We hiked 5.07 miles in two hours and thirty-seven minutes. There wasn't as much change in the trees as I expected, but there were a lot of fall flowers starting to bloom. There were two highlights of this hiking trip. One was hiking to a tree house. It is a really cool structure and was a great reward after hiking up and down several hills to get to it. We definitely got a great workout on this hike. There is one part of the trail called "Stone Steps Ridge." This was probably one of the longest and steepest grades that we have hiked. I had to stop four times to catch my breath along the way! Following the trail was a little tricky at times, but we used the map from the book and the Endomondo map and we did well.

This week Joe, Lorrie and I hiked two trails in Kentucky: Blue Licks Battlefield State Park and Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. Total miles hiked for these two trails was 5.03 miles and Fall was everywhere. What a difference a week makes! It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to drive to Blue Licks Battlefield causing us to again question the "with 60 miles of Cincinnati." When we arrived at the park, our first stop was the bathroom. I got to see my first black widow in person. Joe saw it on the side of the building and I got a pretty good picture of it. I was totally creeped out! As we walked through cobwebs on the trail, I couldn't get that spider out of my mind. We also saw a huge wolf spider before starting the hike, so that didn't help either! There was a lot to see on this hike. This park is set on the sight of the last battle of the American Revolution. Who would have thought that the American Revolution was fought this far west? The Licking River and Tanner Station were two other sites we saw. Tanner Station is an old pioneer trading post. We didn't get to go inside, but it was a cool structure to see and a great place to take a quick water break. After completing this 3 plus mile hike, we headed to Quiet Trails Nature Preserve. The fact that we even found this park was a miracle. We only hiked 1.63 miles here, but it was a great workout. We were huffing and puffing to get up the final hill to take us back to the car.

With Fall upon us, this marks my fourth and final season of this fitness goal. It's been a great journey so far and I'm eager to watch the trail change back to winter and what it looked like when I took on this adventure. I have hiked approximately 176.74 miles and completed 50 hikes! Only 10 hikes left! I must admit that I am looking forward to the day when I can hike any place I darn well feel like and am not constricted to a list! I am really pushing hard to complete the last ten hikes. All of them are more than an hour away from home, so due to distance, I need to hike more than one hike in a day for the remaining weekends. Hopefully, I will be done before December and I'm feeling pretty confident that I will complete all 60 hikes this year.