Shenanigans at Sharon Woods

On Saturday, June 16, the family and our honorary member, Cheryl, headed to Sharon Woods for a hike. I think we all agreed that this felt more like a "walk" instead of a "hike." If one of you disagrees, it doesn't really matter, as Ryan pointed out during the hike, seeing as this blog is only written from my perspective. So, I have all the power! Hee-hee-hee! Although, there is a place for comments, of which I don’t seem to get very many. I am going to assume that means that I am always on the mark! Huh! Power again! Even though the trail was paved and the hike had a very public park atmosphere, we still had a fun time on this 80 degree day. We walked 4.53 miles in an hour and 50 minutes.

After crossing the bridge and stopping to look at a pretty waterfall, we took a few minutes to explore the Cummins Historic Cemetery. The graves were marked with tiny white marble headstones without any writing on them. The headstones popped out of a lush ivy-like groundcover. I did some internet researching to find out how old the cemetery is, but I didn’t have any luck. I guess the park office may have more info.

The path was one of those fitness trails where it has pit stops to do a variety of exercises as you walk. This is where the shenanigans come in. At one stop, there were some parallel bars. You had to hoist your body weight off of the ground and move across them using your arm strength. Cheryl was interested in trying them, so she gave it a whirl and only hoisted herself off of the ground. She didn’t know how to get herself moving. Then, Ryan showed her how it was done. You can tell by the pictures he really knew what he was doing! Cheryl took a second try and moved a little bit, but I think because she was laughing, she didn’t get far. A big pat on the back to Cheryl and Ryan – none of the rest of us even tried!

After hiking through some wonderful shaded areas, we reached Sharon Lake. There were some pretty views. Lots of people were at the park. There were boats on the lake, including people in paddle boats. We walked around the lake and went through a cool tunnel to travel underneath the road. It was constructed as part of a stone bridge and was a pretty spot on the lake. The trail curved around the lake and passed through two big tunnels to go under the highway. These were really loud with passing cars.

This is a very nice park for the local community. If I lived nearby, I would walk it all the time for exercise. Although, it didn’t satisfy my appetite for a deep woods peaceful hike, the company was stupendous.  Thanks to Ryan, Morgan, Cheryl, and Joe for keeping me company. I’m so grateful for it!

32 hikes down and 28 to go!!!!

I will blog again soon about a couple of hikes we took at Shawnee Lookout. Not sure about hiking this weekend as the weatherman is forecasting temperatures in the hundreds…missing winter hiking!

Abundance

One thing that I have learned about the different places that we have hiked is that when the name of our destination has the words "wildlife area" in it, you are pretty much guaranteed a pretty rustic trail. This epiphany came to me during last weekend's hikes because we hiked at two extremely different places in one day. Lorrie, Joe and I started the day hiking 1.51 miles at Caesar Creek Gorge State Nature Preserve. It was a cool 66 degrees - unexpected for June. Caesar Creek Gorge was beautiful. The trails were well manicured, easy to follow and had fancy bridges and steps built all over the place. It was just on the other side of the dam at Caesar's Creek State Park where we hiked a few weeks ago. This was a welcome retreat after the mishaps on unmarked trails the last couple of hikes. Even though this was a short hike, I would return to this spot because there are so many other trails nearby that would make for a great day of hiking.

We got back in the car and drove about 15 minutes to Spring Valley Wildlife Area, and "wildlife area" it was!  The trail was nice and flat and easy to follow, but pretty rustic at times. Although it was rustic the word that foremost comes to my mind when thinking of Spring Valley is "abundance." What is the most plentiful thing that you have ever seen? A crowd in a stadium? A forest full of trees from an airplane? Blades of grass in a lawn? Multiply that vision times ten and that was what looking at Spring Valley Lake was like. To give you an idea of the size of the lake's area: the trail is about 2.75 miles around the lake . There is an abundance of lily pads that is truly unbelievable covering the entire surface of the lake, side by side and on top of each other, they were everywhere! We hiked about 2.36 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes and the temperature had risen to about 75 degrees.

There was an abundance of many other living things as well. The cattails were so thick along the boardwalk to the observation deck that you couldn't see any water. Birds are also in abundance at Spring Valley. The sign along the trail said that more than 230 birds have been recorded there. One type of bird that is most plentiful here are geese, so there was quite an abundance of goose poop. My least favorite thing at Spring Valley Lake was the abundance of bugs!  Even though we had previously sprayed ourselves, we stopped to spray again at one point because they were relentless!  Particularly annoying were the deer flies who seem to purposely fly from one ear to the other even though I was continuously moving and swatting at them. I hate those deer flies!  I would love to go back to Spring Valley when all of those lily pads are blooming. I bet it is an amazing site. There were only a few blooms here and there when we were hiking and I wondered what it would look like with all of them in bloom.

After Caesar Creek Gorge and Spring Valley...31 hikes down and 29 hikes to go. Past the halfway mark!!!!!!!  This is starting to feel achievable!

This past weekend we hiked at Sharon Woods, so I will be blogging again soon in order to catch up!

Identity Crisis

Joe and I tackled the longest hike so far over the weekend to Mounds State Recreation Area in Whitcomb, Indiana. We hiked 9.14 miles  in 5 hours and 8 minutes and the weather was amazing. I guess my post title from last week was a little premature. It sure felt like July last week and this week it was absolutely beautiful! The temperature was 62 degrees when we started and only went up to 73 degrees by the end of the hike. It was really breezy and partly cloudy. The absolute perfect day for a hike!

We started on the Wildlife Wander Trail. This trail was the easiest part of the hike. The surface was soil and it was very well cleared. There was no guesswork involved about where to go. It was a great start and I had a good feeling that it was going to be a great hike. The number of miles ahead of us was looming, but because the weather was so pretty and we were well-stocked with protein bars, I was ready to take it on! There were a bunch of shagbark hickory trees on this part of the trail. The only tree that I can really easily identify because it actually looks exactly like its name. The end of this trail was at a creek crossing that was unlike any I had seen before - large concrete pillars across the creek. We crossed one of the park roads and headed to the Templeton Creek Trailhead.
 
The Templeton Creek Trail surface changed drastically compared to the Wildlife Wander Trail. What was not so perfect was it's unpredictability. It had a serious identity crisis! The trail surface changed more often than a traffic light changes colors (that might be a slight exaggeration...)  Thankfully we had asked for a map when we paid our entrance fee into the park, so we were able to keep our bearings to some degree. Some of the trail was soil, some of it was mowed, and some of it was completely covered over with weeds and was almost impossible to follow.  The funny thing was we would only be hiking a couple of minutes on one surface and then it would change again. It was pretty frustrating at times considering the trails did not have many signs or markers of any other kind.

We persevered and finally reached a clearing where there were several trail signs.  I reached into my pocket for the trail map to identify where we were on the map and it was gone. It had fallen out of my pocket when we were trying to negotiate the trail. Yikes! We had only traveled around 2 miles at this point, so we still had a long way to go. Although Joe and I were grateful for the nice park map (easy portability compared to the book), when we left the car I made a last minute decision to put the 60 Hikes book in my pack - this was a very good thing. We sat down in the grass, got the book out and were able to figure out exactly where we were.  Realizing we were just a short walk from a picnic area, we picked up and headed down to it to study the book and its map and to eat our lunch.

Rested and feeling familiar with where we were headed, we set off for the Long Loop and Short Loop Trails as well as the Glidewell Indian Mounds. As we traveled along the soil trail, the weeds got taller and taller until they were taller than us. We were excited to get to the mounds, but it was very anticlimactic as we would not have known we were looking at them except there was a sign nearby. Crazy grassy weeds were all over the place and it was hard to get a sense of exactly where the mounds started and ended. We continued on this trail and started to see lake views of Brookville Lake. Since the temperature was so nice and we had plenty of water and protein bars, we decided to go with the Long Loop Trail instead of the Short Loop Trail. This was both good and bad. What was great about it was that the trail eventually wound its way all the way down to the lake and we were hiking on a trail along the shore. It was beautiful. The not so great part about it was that we eventually hit a spot in the trail where the weeds were so thick and so tall there was absolutely no way to tell where the trail was anymore and there was no where to step. Sadly, we had to turn around. It was a long haul back because we had almost completed the Long Loop, however, because hiking along the lake was by far the prettiest part of this hike, the unfortunate mishap turned out in our favor.

At this point, we were pretty sick of the weeds and the unmarked trails. We decided to hike along the road and then pick up the Wildlife Wander Trail from there to get back to the car. This was a nice change of pace for us. We had now traveled a little over 7 miles and our feet were starting to hurt.  We hiked about two more miles and were glad to reach the car.  Joe and I both said that we weren't sure if we would hike these trails again. Had they been cleared, it would be a definite yes for me, but the distance we had to drive and the aggravation of the overly bushy trails causes me to give these trails a thumbs down at this time.

29 hikes down and 31 to go!!!! About to hit the half-way point and I am really excited about that!!!!  Two hikes this weekend: Ceasar Creek Gorge and Spring Valley Wildlife Area. Both hikes are easy, so if you've been thinking about stepping out with us, this might be the weekend for you!!! Send me a message and join in.

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!