Litte Miss Pocket Knife

On Saturday, September 8, I woke up to the unfamiliar sound of rain pounding on the roof of my house. It's been so long since I've heard that. The weather on the weekends has had a whole new meaning with this hiking challenge. Believe it or not, I have hiked in the rain one time since starting this goal in January of this year and it has only snow flurried lightly once. That is amazing to me! I laid in bed and flipped on the local news to checkout the weather forecast. The rain was going to move out by 10:00 a.m., so I text messaged brother, Joe and let him know we were on. We hiked 7.6 miles in 3 hours and 8 minutes at Germantown Metropark. It is just south of Dayton, Ohio. Thanks to that rain, it was a glorious 65 degrees while we hiked.  Lovely.

Knowing we were not parking in the same place the book suggested, we had to find a place where the Orange Trail met the side of the park where we were driving. We studied the map and saw a sign for the "pond," so we decided to take our chances. Fortunately the trails were very well marked and cared for. It made for a great three hours of hiking. I've gone out for this amount of time and distance before when this wasn't the case, and it can be a little miserable. I was so happy with the trails that when we hit the Nature Center after hiking about 3 miles, I thanked one of the park rangers for all he does and told him how much we were enjoying hiking the trails.

With the cool temperatures and wet leaves starting to cover the ground, fall was definitely in the air. None of the leaves appear to be changing yet, so I would say there was a "hint" of fall. This is my favorite season so I am getting really pumped about hiking over the next couple of months. It's hard to believe I am moving into the last season I have yet to hike! This year has gone quickly. Parts of the trail were soil or gravel covered whereas others were mowed, but most of the trail was nice and wide. We traveled through new forests, old forest, meadows and cedar glades. It was very diverse and kept our interest. There was a lot of ups and downs, we would weave back and forth along Twin Creek, so along with the long distance we traveled, it was a great cardio workout too! After going up one of the steepest hills, we ran into a family with two small children. I smiled and said hello and the little girl (about 5 years old) pointed her toe, pointed her dainty little finger to her pocket and said, "I have a pocket knife!" Followed with a big huge smile. I replied, "That's a really good hiking tool to have in case of an emergency!" Making a mental note that despite my bug spray, waterproof matches, and flashlight, I don't even have a pocket knife!  I must say, I was a little jealous.

We finished out the hike walking along the park road, otherwise we would have traveled well over eight miles to get back to the car. It was a great hike that both Joe and I enjoyed. This park is one of the Five Rivers Metroparks. This is a great park system and has provided some of the best hikes this year. I am looking forward to hiking at one more of these parks in the near future. If you live in the area and want to go on a hike, I highly recommend these parks.

46 hikes down and 14 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!