Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer

Even though the calendar says it's still spring, the weather has quickly turned summer-like and that has presented some challenges this week. It's only been eight days since my last blog post, but I have completed 5 more hikes! Here are the locations and stats:

Hike #	Location	Distance	Temp	Time	Date
24	Mary Gray Bird Sanctuary	3.44 mi	77°	1 hr 45 min	5/19/12
25	Shrader-Weaver Nature Preserve	2.2 mi	86°	50 min	5/19/12
26	Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Management Area	1.58 mi	87°	50 min	5/25/12
27	Mullins Wildlife Management Area	3.36 mi	87°	1 hr 36 min	5/25/12
28	Ceasar Creek Lake State Park	5.72 mi	87°	3 hr 26 min	5/27/87

This is a glimpse of the way that I keep track of my hikes so far and how I plan for future hikes. It's been really useful to make sure that I am staying on track to reassure myself that I will be able to get all 60 hikes in by the end of the year. I have all of the hikes mapped out on the table and make adjustments as needed according to my schedule or the weather. It's been very helpful. I'll use this blog post to share a little bit about each of these hikes and then summarize what I've learned this month.

Last weekend Morgan, Lorrie and I headed to Indiana to hike two hikes in one day. The first hike was to the Mary Gray Bird Bug Sanctuary. I had to change the name due to the multitude of bug bites that I got during this hike (no wonder the birds love it here!) This is an example of where my inexperience reveals itself. Every hike I carry a small pack on my back with hiking necessities, but I don't have any bug spray. Duh! The trail here was really pretty, however, I'm not sure the lengthy drive was worth it.  You know you're out in the boonies when every road you turn on for miles doesn't have a name, but is labeled with a number. After the hike we got some lunch in Connersville and then headed to Shrader-Weaver Nature Preserve. This hike was very beautiful as well. There were some really huge old trees, a variety of holes in the ground (we wondered if there is a field guide for this, like animal tracks?) and more bugs! The trip was complete with a pit stop at Shirl's Swirls for some much deserved ice cream to enjoy on the ride home.

On Friday, Joe and I headed out in the afternoon (our first mistake) to hike two hikes in Crittendon, Kentucky. These hikes were hard to follow and the temperature was very hot and muggy. I found myself missing the winter hiking months. We landed first at Curtis Gates Lloyd Wildlife Management Area. There was a shooting range on site so we listened to gunshots as we got started. We hadn't gone far when we took our first wrong turn of the day. We got completely off trail and hiked through a field of weeds and flowers. This mistake in combination of the stinging nettles along the hiking trail contributed to the bleeding cuts on our legs (Note to self: get some summer hiking pants.) Once we figured out where we were, we enjoyed the hike, but it was pretty overgrown in spots and not very well cleared. We both said it was not a place we would like to go back to hike. Next we headed to Mullins Wildlife Management Area. When we pulled up to the small gravel parking lot, it was apparent that this was not going to be like any hike we have done before. The property had a mixed identity - farmland meets hiking area - very confusing, but interesting at the same time. We headed along the mowed trail in the direct sunshine for quite some time before we got to the wooded trail for some shady relief. The hike through the woods was much more enjoyable, however, the trail has changed considerably since Tammy York wrote the book and we took 3 wrong turns which seemed to be the theme of the day. The heat made these mistakes a little unbearable. Joe was leading as we were finally on the home stretch. Because we were hot, sweaty and tired, we were really quiet when suddenly about five feet in front of Joe, a turkey came flying out of the weeds and into the trees! YIKES! It scared us as much as we scared it! We picked up the pace a little and headed our tired selves out of there. Joe and I got in the car and headed straight to the Whippy Dip around the corner. They served 27 different flavors of soft serve ice cream. Genius!

Having learned from the overheated experience from Friday, we headed out early in the morning on Sunday to Caesar Creek State Park. It was still hot, but much more bearable than trying to hike in the afternoon. I was joined on this hike by Cheryl, Lorrie, and Lorries' daughter, Jenna, who was given the nickname "Miss Goody New Shoes" because she had brand new shoes on for the hike. A risky decision considering we were going to hike around 5 miles, but Jenna's new shoes held up well and we were impressed that she got up so early in the morning to join us when she could have stayed in bed.  Thanks for joining us, Jenna! We hiked the Perimeter Trail that weaves its way through a fossil hunting area, into the woods, around Ceasar Creek lake, through several creek beds, and through a historic pioneer village. It was beautiful and we all agreed that it is a place that we would like to hike again.

May has turned out to be a busy hiking month! I hiked 18.9 miles this month for a total so far this year of 89.51 miles. Some things I learned this month:

• How quickly determining the hiking day can change. I used to look for the warmest day, now I am looking for the coolest!
• Morning hiking is preferable to afternoon hiking this time of year.
• Pack bug spray.
• Trail confusion is a normal part of the hiking experience and adds to the sense of accomplishment when you're finished.
• When you do get confused on the trail, stop, assess, and talk it through out loud. You're less likely to go the wrong way.
• Just when I think I'm becoming "experienced," something happens to remind me that I am still a work in progress.

28 hikes down and 32 hikes to go!!!!!

Frogger

Playing a little catch up this week with the blogging, but the hiking has continued! The year I graduated from high school the original Frogger video game came out. The object of this game was to get frogs to their homes one by one while avoiding a road with hazards. The hike we took on May 6 was like Reverse Frogger. We were trying to cross the road and avoid all of the frogs that were crossing our paths!!!!  Cheryl, Lorrie and I ventured out to Gilmore Ponds Metropark in Butler County. We hiked 2.6 miles in about one hour and twenty minutes. The temperature was a beautiful  82 degrees.

The very beginning of the hike was my most favorite part of this park, unfortunately for Cheryl it was her least favorite. The trail starts off on the pond, literally. We were walking on water. I'm not sure how long this floating platform was, twenty or thirty yards? but it was amazing. Check out the picture. You can see the duckweed and the water right there by our feet. There were frogs sunning themselves on the platform and jumping off as Cheryl shrieked with every step! The geese families that were swimming in a row, quickly glided across the water to get away from all of the noise. Poor old gal, she really does have a great fear of amphibians. It's a good thing she didn't know about them before setting out for the day, I know she would have stood us up!

After we crossed the water, we started off on the muddy trail. This part of the trail is a long straight stretch. One side of the trail is a marshy pond, the other side of the hike is a creek that was once to be part of the Miami Erie Canal, a historic abandoned canal system. The trail was extremely muddy and filled with puddles. It was a challenge to get through it.  There were some pretty spring flowers and some nice views of the pond as we continued onward.

Several times, we wondered how we were going to get across the water and deep mud and then the path veered away from the pond and became more wooded. This is called the Gilmore Wetlands Loop.  This hiking felt more familiar and we were now cruising along the trail.  We took the Highlands Trace Trail that departs from the Gilmore Wetlands Trail and the path wound it's way through sparse trees and then a meadow before we headed back to the water area. We now entered the most difficult part of the trail to pass. We actually had no choice but to go off of the path to avoid our boots being completely submerged under water. It was a pretty easy hike as far as hills, there isn't much variance in the elevation. Tammy York classifies Gilmore Ponds as a moderate hike and if it wasn't for the mud, I would agree. I think it was more moderate to difficult for us.

Overall, it was a fun hike. I really enjoyed walking on the floating dock. Cheryl didn't overcome her fear of amphibians, but she survived her elevated heart rate. Lorrie was outfitted in white gym shoes and they suffered through the hike better than expected, but her feet were soaking wet by the end. I think if I lived closer to this park, I might venture to it again, but I'm not sure it was one of my favorites and that I would drive the distance for a repeat visit.

A shout-out to cousin Tammy for my new hiking shirt. Check out the picture! It is from myhappyshirts.com. Great comfort and quality.  For every shirt purchased, a shirt is donated to an orphan.  It was a fun surprise to get in the mail and I thank Tammy for thinking of me! (I have worn it on three hikes now!)

Twenty-three hikes down and thirty-seven to go!  Summer is right around the corner with new challenges and things to see!

Trail Magic

It's been since January 8 (hike #3) since I had the courage to take on the trail by myself.  This week's hike was a good opportunity to hike on my own and reflect about my hiking experiences so far while doing so. I went to Wilderness Preserve which is about 7 miles north of West Union. I had two short hikes picked out to do this day, but it took me an hour and a half to get to the preserve and an hour and a half to hike the 2.19 miles trail.  When I finished at almost 4:30 I need to start the hour and a half drive home for dinner plans with the family. The country drive was beautiful on this sunny 63 degrees day. What a perfect temperature for hiking! I had to stop at a Marathon station to find the roads to the park. This wasn't because I didn't have a co-pilot and it wasn't due to my poor navigation skills. When I realized I was having troubles, I turned on my GPS to use the map so I could get a better sense of where I was and it couldn't get a signal. I knew I was out in the boonies because of the long drive, but geez! To top it off there were all of these streets without street signs. I got as close to the area as I could and pulled into the Marathon station. As it turned out, I was only about 30 yards from the street on which I needed to turn, so my navigation skills were not as bad as I thought!  On to the park!

It was kind of timely that I was setting out to hike this trail alone on this day. The night before I finished reading the book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. My brother, Mark, told me about the book and it was a great read for me right now. In her 20's, Cheryl Strayed hiked a very long portion (over 1,000 miles) on the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from Mexico through California into Canada - ALONE! In the book she writes about her life experiences of growing up and becoming an adult who was faced with very difficult circumstances. She interweaves these memories with her experiences hiking the trail. It is a great book. I highly recommend it! As I prepared to hike Wilderness Preserve, I read in Tammy York's 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles that it is so quiet on this trail that you can hear your heart beat. I thought, "Yeah, right! That's silly." But, it was very true. Sorry for doubting you, Tammy! This hike was so remote and peaceful it was amazing. There were easy parts and there were some challenging hills. It was great!

When I found the trail head after parking the car, I could tell that this was going to be a densely wooded site.  This trail is managed by the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History for educational purposes. What makes it a great trail to hike alone is that it is very clearly marked. Frequently there are trees with yellow spray painted dots. This was definitely "hiking for dummies" as Cheryl would say.  After passing through some short stretches of meadows with some pretty spring flowers, the dense woods took over for the rest of the hike. This is when I experienced my first encounter with some "trail magic." It was so quiet that I could hear insects buzzing. It almost sounded like a constant hum as if there was a huge hive above me - slightly unsettling. A good portion of the trail follows a couple of creeks. At one of the bridges crossing a creek, I decided to sit down, dangle my legs and drink some water. I had just hiked some pretty good hills, so this was a good place to stop. As I sat there peering into this shallow, muddy creek I saw a huge crawdad (trail magic #2) moving around. I watched him for a few minutes. It was so shady, cool and peaceful.

After my short break with my crawdad friend, I got back on the trail. This second half of the hike was a lot of uphill climbing.  This is why I could truly hear my heart beating. There were some interesting trees along the hike. There was one that had some weird pointy pock marks all over it. There was another that served as trail magic #3 - the bark looked like it had a raccoon face in it - not carved - just a natural part of the tree. Take a look at the picture and see what you think.  Just a few feet after I passed this tree I experienced trail magic #4 - a white-tailed deer was spooked by my presence and starting running up the hill on the other side of the creek along which I was hiking.  It was amazing to see how gracefully this animal could move on such a steep grade. I kept trying to find it again as I walked, but never did.

At the end of the hike, there was a sign-in box. I was excited. This was my first opportunity to get to sign in to a trail. I felt like Cheryl Strayed who would meet people along her cumbersome adventure that would follow her and catch up to her after seeing her name recorded on the sign-in sheets.

This hike concluded my fourth month of hiking. Here are some things that I learned this month:

• Spring weather can sometimes be even more unpredictable than winter weather (at least in 2012 it has been!)
• Hiking socks may be as equally as important as the shoe choice - I learned this when hiking the mammoth hike of all so far this year to Clifty Falls.
• After trying to hike one really unkempt trail, don't forget to be grateful for the work that people do to maintain good hiking trails.
• Make sure you have a flashlight for late in the day hikes.
• Since this journey is also about the blogging - urbandictionary.com is a cool place to find fun words.
• An occasional hike alone can provide you with time to reflect and an additional dose of confidence knowing you can accomplish something on your own.

22 hikes down and 38 hikes to go!!! Setting out to hike today to Gilmore Ponds Interpretive Preserve; ready to take on month 5 of hiking.

Boy Scout Jamboree

As we drove along the service road into Fort Ancient State Historical Site it was clear that this week's hike was going to have a good story to it. It was a chilly and damp day. The temperature was 45 degrees - a 35 degree difference from last week's hike!!!! Our first stop was to the museum to pay our entrance fee. Fort Ancient is an archaeologist's dream. It boasts earthworks and mounds constructed by the Hopewell Native Americans around A.D. 1200. Lorrie, Morgan and I hiked 3.2 miles in about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Finding the trail head was probably the hardest part of the hike this week.  It's been awhile since that happened. The unusual thing we faced was that there were people everywhere - boy scouts - LOTS! The cars, tents and bodies obstructed the view of our surroundings. It reminded me of an old Flintstones episode called "Cave Scout Jamboree".  During this episode there is a flood at the gravel pit, so Fred decides to take his family and the Rubbles on a camping trip.  They set up camp at the Shangri-La-Dee-Da Campground and when they wake up in the morning, they are surrounded by Cave Scouts! Not the peaceful retreat that Fred desired.  I felt a little like Fred. It was as if our space was being invaded. Three females walking around tents looking lost.

Before we actually hit the trail, we checked out the earthworks. It took the Hopewell about 200 years to create the walls of earth that span 3.5 miles. There are 70 openings in the walls through which parts of the trail weave.  This was an out-and-back hike, so our plan was to hike to the Serpent Effigy and return along the same path. We stopped to enjoy the South Overlook and then started walking the trail. We were grateful that the drizzle from earlier stopped as we traveled across the muddy and rocky trail. This is a moderate hike.  There are lots of places with bridges, stairs and platforms to help keep the trail passable; thanks to the many Eagle Scouts who built them for their Eagle Scout Projects. I can't imagine hiking this trail without them!

After weaving through the forest we reached the bike path that runs along the Little Miami River. We followed the bike path some distance before reaching State Route 350. As we hiked along this curvy road there was quite a bit of traffic for being out in the country. After crossing the Little Miami, we came to a grassy meadow where we had to follow the tree line to reach the Serpent Effigy. It was discovered in 1983 by John White and others from Youngstown State University.  It's believed that this 46.9 meter stone effigy was constructed as a marker to pinpoint the winter solstice.  It doesn't look like much from the pictures, but when you think about how long ago this structure was put together and the science behind it, it's pretty amazing!

On the way back to our starting point, we decided to take a slightly different route. After climbing a very steep set of stairs, we took a trail that was a little less traveled and very muddy.  We heard some people in the woods and then realized that they were on a platform for a zip line. It was very cool to see them swinging through the air into the valley.  Considering the number of Boy Scouts and their adult chaperones up at the campsite, we were surprised that we didn't run into more people on the trail. Other than the brave souls on the zip line, we only ran into two other small groups of hikers.

The Boy Scout Jamboree really didn't impact the quality of this awesome hiking location. The Native American history and the beautiful setting make it a great place to explore the outdoors. It is definitely a place I would like to go to again and maybe even try to take on the zip line.

This weekend marks the beginning of "two hikes a week." I am wondering what this will be like as one hike a week has already been quite a time commitment. Because of the mild winter, I am slightly ahead of schedule, so some weeks hopefully won't be as bad as others.

21 hikes down and 68.42 miles under my belt!

Kowabunga!

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

all of these seemed to fit as I headed out to Kincaid State Park in Northern Kentucky with nephew, Ryan and long time buddy, Cheryl. It was the first hike in shorts - 80 degrees and sunny. We hiked 3.5 miles in one hour and 35 minutes despite some snags along the way.

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...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                           

Swamp Thing and Fear of the Dark

Setting: Sunny spring day, 75 degrees at Stonelick State Park
Enter: Swamp Thing

As Cheryl and I set off on this hike we were a little suspicious.  The trail sign was hard to find and it looked a little dilapidated.  We set off anyway following the directions from the book in hopes of completing a 6.7 mile hike.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, we only got to hike 3.57 miles.  It took us about 2 hours.

On the Beechtree Trail, we immediately noticed that the trail had a thick covering of leaves and it kept getting wetter and wetter as we hiked.  You can see by the pictures, that the trail path doesn't drain at all, so we were forced to hike along the side of it.  It was really buggy and didn't smell too good. I preferred to hike without breathing through my nose to avoid the smell; Cheryl on the other hand kept her sniffer going and gave me frequent updates about the stench!  It was truly difficult to follow this trail because it wasn't cleared well. Even though we were not enjoying the hike thus far, we decided to continue until...we ran into water. This was more than a puddle. It was more like a small lake in the middle of the woods. It was so deep there were ducks floating on it!  We couldn't go around it or we never would have stood a chance finding the poorly marked trail, so we decided to head back to the car and pick up the trail at another location on the map.  We turned around and started hiking back, but we couldn't find the trail again, so we hiked along a fence that we saw earlier. Even though we were not hiking on a trail, it ended up being easier to hike out this way because we weren't hiking on the swampy trail anymore. We were thankful that we didn't have to contend with thoughts of Swamp Thing popping out at us at any minute!

As we traveled by car down the park road looking for the Lakeview Trail, we saw a wild turkey.  Since he was so close to the trail head, we were hopeful we might run into a turkey on the trail, but no such luck!  This part of the trail was a lot more pleasant. It was mostly cleared, but there were still parts that were hard to follow. Thankfully, the trees were painted with red spots, so that helped us stay on track. It was really peaceful. We saw a lot of interesting trees that were marked with signs. I especially liked one tree that was very knobby. There were times during the hike when it felt like summer hiking because the ground brush was so full.  This trail is called "Lakeview" because portions of it are near the lake, but we couldn't see the lake at all! I found I was kind of missing the views from winter where you can really see the unobstructed landscape - never thought I'd hear myself say that!

Despite the mucky, smelly walk and the difficulties with staying on the trail, it was good to get outside and get a bit of a workout. I'm not sure that I would say this is some place that I would venture back to again when we have so many other wonderful places to hike nearby.

Check out the daylight at the beginning of the hike.

Stonelick didn't quench our thirst for hiking, so two days later we headed out in the early evening to Fort Thomas Landmark Tree Trail. This hike is a hop, skip and a jump from where I live, so when we decided impulsively to set out after dinner time, we thought that we could complete this short 1.1 mile hike before dark.  However, we really pushed it to the limit because it took us forever to find the trail.  It was REALLY hard to find - I will not take the blame as co-pilot on this one. We finally found the trail at 7:55 p.m. I felt that we should wait and come back another time, but Cheryl was persistent and said, "Let's go!"  So, we set off on the trail. We were almost running it so as to try to finish the hike before dark. It was hard to enjoy the sites at this pace, but we managed to see a cool hollowed out tree and some views through the woods of the Ohio River. We were pretty quiet because we were trying to navigate the trail so fast.  Suddenly I sensed that we were not alone and I heard someone moving in the woods about 15 yards away.  We saw 4 deer - they were as curious about us as we were about them.  They stopped what they were doing to check us out before continuing on their way. I tried to take a picture, but it was starting to get dark - not enough light to capture the moment.  Our sense of urgency grew stronger. We finished this hike in 25 short minutes. We only trekked .69 miles and we'd like to go back to see what we missed since it was supposed to be 1.1 miles.  Even though we were afraid darkness was upon us, it was a fun adventure and I'd love to go back to this trail again sometime. It was really hilly and a good workout!

Daylight at the end of our hike.  We made it!

Hikes 18 and 19 down and 41 hikes to go!!!!!  Looking forward to a little bit longer hike this weekend to Kincaid State Park. It's a moderate 3.3 mile hike.  Soliciting fellow hikers!

Please Pass the Ibuprofen

On Saturday, March 31 Lorrie, Joe, Cheryl and I climbed our own Mt. Everest at Clifty Falls State Park and Clifty Canyon Nature Preserve in Madison, Indiana. Okay maybe comparing Clifty Falls to Mt. Everest might be a bit of an exaggeration, but my recuperation from this hike took a couple of days and many doses of ibuprofen. However, the pain was definitely worth it! This is a beautiful hiking location. The temperature was in the 50's as we hiked and the sun came in and out throughout the day. This excursion was a major commitment as it took us 6 hours to complete the most difficult hike so far. Knowing that this was a lengthy hike - the book said 6.1 miles, but we actually hiked 7.83 miles - we decided it would be a good idea to pick up some lunch before we entered the park so that we could eat it somewhere along the way. As we got closer and closer to the park and further and further from civilization, we all started to doubt whether we would find a place to get food.  Resounding cheers came from the car when we spotted a Subway! Little did we know at that time, just how important eating would be considering the calories that we burned doing this hike.

As we ventured onto Trail 1, I noticed some vultures grouped together in the top of a tree. We hiked a little further to the first landmark which was an Observation Tower.  There are great views from the tower of the Ohio River and the Clifty Falls State Park. Sadly part of this view includes two large stacks from a power plant along the river, but it was easy to ignore them with all of the trees and the beautiful valley view of the park.  We could tell from here that there was going to be considerable hills involved on this hike.

As we continued on Trail 1 down to Clifty Creek we immediately noticed the abundance of spring flowers covering the forest floor. This was true throughout the entire hike. It was so gorgeous to be surrounded by all of the flowers. Our next destination was to Hoffman Falls. After hiking down to the creek, we had to cross it - no bridge or huge stones to help us out like last week's hike, so Joe led the way and we followed.  Joe made it look easy, but the rest of us, not so much! In order to get to the view of the falls, we had to hike back up again.  There were spots along this part of the hike where we had to actually climb some rocks to continue on the trail.  It was pretty challenging. When we got to the view of the falls, we were grateful for a brief break, because we were huffing and puffing from the ascent.

From here we took Trail 4 and followed it to Trail 5. This was one of the rockiest parts of the trail. There were some huge rock formations and parts of the trail were on rocky ledges. We came upon another landmark a tunnel/cave that is usually open to park visitors, but it wasn't at this time because of White Nose Syndrome, which has killed thousands of bats in the eastern United States.  They are trying to stop the spread of this disease.  We met a couple of hikers who gave us some great tips about which trails to take and how to navigate around them. The three of us found this humorous because they were back after hiking the trails yesterday.  Even though we weren't even halfway through the hike, the thought of hiking this trail two days in a row seemed unlikely for us! It was around this point that Cheryl claimed the quote of the day, "Do they make self-wicking underwear because I'm having some serious trouble!"

Next we had to head back down to the creek. Going down doesn't sound so bad, but due to the rockiness of the trail and the heavy tree roots, it was pretty rugged! We decided that we would get down to the creek, cross it and then find a spot to sit down and eat.  Everyone was ready for a break. Crossing this creek was pretty challenging. There was a wire line stretched across it to help hikers get from one side to the other more easily. This was my first experience of this type. It was actually pretty fun, but most fun was watching everyone else cross, anticipating that someone might plunge into the water. No such luck! We all got across and stayed dry.  This led us to the most beautiful spot to sit and eat lunch right on the creek. As we were eating, the sun came out for the first time.  The sunshine glimmered on the water. It was so pretty.

Now we were hiking with our next destination in mind, Clifty Falls. We had a long and steady incline toward the top of the canyon. It was rooty, it was rocky, and we had to make frequent stops just to have enough breath to get to the top. When we reached it, the path carried on more reasonably leveling off and giving us a much needed change of pace.  There were pretty views here of the creek. We saw rocky ledges and mossy creek beds running downhill. As we anticipated seeing the falls, we were all hopeful that the work to get there would be worth it. After reaching a nice bathroom facility with real plumbing, a playground, and a large shelter, we finally saw the falls.  They were beautiful! The sound of the rushing water was welcomed. We sat nearby and shared some trail mix and rested up for the 4 mile trek back to the car.

We set off on Trail 8 in hopes that it might get us to the car a little more directly than the combination of trails that we took so far. The nice part about this trail is that it mostly followed the top of the canyon, so it had some really nice elevated views of the park.  There wasn't as much up and down, so when the trail finally descended back down toward Clifty Creek to allow us to get back to Trail 1 to get to the car, we were a little down-trodden because we knew this meant that we were going to have to head back up again.  All four of us were pretty exhausted at this point!  The final crossing of the creek was by far the most challenging.  There were few rocks that were under the rushing water and there was no handy wire for us to grab a hold of. I went first and my strategy was to take my time carefully selecting where I was stepping to try to get the least wet possible, however, when I got about 4 feet from the other side, I just had to bite the bullet and walk through the water. I love my hiking boots! My feet stayed bone dry!  Cheryl and Lorrie didn't have quite the same amount of patience and the were in the water a little sooner. Joe has better balance than the rest of us and he did really well getting across.

We had a HUGE sense of accomplishment when we completed this hike! It was a good thing that it was hike number 17 because there is no way I could have handled it any sooner than this. I feel a little more experienced from Clifty Falls State Park and would like to think that some day I will go back and experience it again...but not this year!