Full Circle

Had a great hike today to Cox Arboretum and Gardens Metropark near Dayton, Ohio. Originally I wanted to hike this trail on Wednesday last week when it was 75 plus degrees, but sadly my transmission went out on my car and by the time I got my car settled, acquired a rental car and drove the distance to the park, it was already getting dark. It was around 50 degrees today for the hike, but instead of hiking alone like I would have on Wednesday, my friend Lorrie joined me so it was worth the wait!  We hiked 2.83 miles in one hour and 10 minutes.

It was a really blustery day today and Lorrie and I both thought that the wind would make the hike somewhat unpleasant, but it didn't really bother us much. This was another beautiful park, one of several that we hiked this year in the Dayton Metroparks park system. I will look forward to hiking some of the other parks that were not in the book next year. There is a beautiful educational building at the entrance to the park with a couple of ponds and some amazing gardens. I was surprised by the number of people at the park considering the gloomy, chilly and windy weather. There was a young couple getting their engagement pictures taken and several families enjoying the park.

When we finally reached the hiking trail it was mostly gravel. There were signs along the route with the park maps and "You are here."  Love it! Hiking for dummies!  We didn't have to think much about which way we were going at all! It makes for a much more relaxed hike! I was surprised by the drastic change in the amount of leaves on the trees in just two weeks time since my last hike. Most were on the ground. Lorrie and I both commented about how it felt like this whole adventure is now coming full circle because the trail is starting to look like it did when I started almost a year ago. Many of the trees were marked with signs that had a phone number you could call on your cell phone or you could use your cell phone's QR reader and get information about each individual tree. How's that for modern technology?

It was an easy hike with very few ups and downs, and the trail was wide enough for Lorrie and I to walk side-by-side. Once we finished the wooded part of the trail we entered a wetland area. As we returned near the park entrance there was a very cool observation tower that we climbed. It had spiral stairs and when we got to the top it was swaying in the wind. It made me a little nervous. We took a few pictures and descended quickly!

As we walked along the ponds and gardens to head back toward the car, we noticed a sign that said "Working Dog in the Area." It explained that Zipp, a border collie, was trained to work in the park doing "goose patrol." We saw Zipp when we first entered the park and wondered who he belonged to...now we know. I wonder what a job like "goose patrol" pays?  I hope they take good care of Zipp for doing such a thankless job!

Nearing the end of 10 months of hiking. I only hiked 6.77 miles in October. That seems like a very pathetic number. I am definitely losing steam! I have 7 hikes left that will need to be done in 3 outings because of their remote locations. It sounds doable, but I am really pushing myself at this point. I am hopeful that I can get some friends rallying behind me and come and join in a fall outdoor adventure to get me through these final trails to my goal.

53 hikes down and 7 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camouflage...Not Always a Safety Measure!

Throughout this entire experience I have been barraged with matters of social studies, language arts, science and mathematics! Because I'm getting down to the nitty gritty, all of these thoughts are flooding my mind. The elementary school teacher in me just can't help myself.

Related to social studies, I've visited historical sites that included Indian mounds, battlefields, pioneer villages and cemeteries. I've used map reading skills and appreciated the roles that different organizations and government agencies (both county and state) have played in the creation and maintenance of the many beautiful places I've visited.

Things I've learned and taught about in the language arts classroom were valuable as well. I did a lot of reading about the places I've visited. I used communication skills, both oral and written.  I recruited my fellow hikers via phone calls, text messages and FaceBook messages. I also solicited information from locals when I was lost. Most of these skills have come into play while writing this blog. For example, I created a graphic organizer before writing this post!

Scientifically speaking, this subject was the greatest part of my graphic organizer. I visited a variety of habitats: forests, wetlands, meadows. All of the plants in these habitats were more than one could imagine. Not only were there all kinds of trees, there was ground cover, vines, flowers, lily pads and stinging nettles!!!! I saw fossils and a life-sized diorama of mastadons and wooly mammoths. The weather has factored into every hike. Will it be sunny or cloudy? Dry or Rainy? Snowy? Windy?  I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the rocks and landforms. Also, the animals! I saw toads, frogs, a snake, birds, deer and LOTS of insects. One insect that we saw on a hike this week to Beaver Creek was a praying mantis that reached an unfortunate demise. Morgan was leading with Joe following closely behind. We were walking through a wetland area and the trail was a boardwalk. Morgan shouted, "A praying mantis!" But, not soon enough. When Joe looked down we couldn't find it. It was under his foot. In this case, the science of camouflage did not work in this little bug's favor. His whole body was brown in order to conceal his appearance, thus he got stepped on. Camouflage...not always a safety measure! So sad.

Every week I was using mathematics to estimate, calculate, and reflect on the journey. I figured how long it would take to travel to each location and the time it would take to complete the hike. This allowed us to determine what time we would leave. I measured the distance of each hike to see how far I traveled and kept a running total. I counted the number of hikes down and the number of hikes left. I studied the elevation changes for the hikes on graphs included in the book. I also studied the graphs for this blog that show statistics for page views and visitor information.  I know there is so much more that I could include in this post about all of the different disciplines that were part of this journey. But the constant integration of all of these subjects over this experience makes me wonder, why do we teach each in such isolation in schools?

One of the hikes this week was to John Bryan State Park. I took over 70 pictures. The fall beauty was overwhelming and I think it has put me in a very reflective state. I have completed 52 hikes and have 8 hikes left. There are some challenges that remain. One of these is the far distances necessary to get to the remaining hikes; they involve doing more than one hike in a day. I am finding it hard to carve out this kind of time. Another challenge is the weather. It is unpredictable in the fall and I'm hopeful that the blessings I've had with good weather will continue. Finally, I have some weekend commitments that will make it difficult to hike. So, even though I have only 8 hikes left, this is all still taking quite a bit of effort. I will take a deep breath and trust that this can be done.

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You Gotta Kiss a lot of Toads

You gotta kiss a lot of toads...17 so far to be exact. How does this apply to my hiking adventures? One of my recent hikes was to Miami Whitewater Forest. In my hiking world, it was a "toad."  This is a beautiful park, but the trail is paved - which is great for the runners and the bicyclists, but not so great for hikers wanting to take in the wilderness. I had a great time on this "hike" because I got to hike with my daughter and my sister (who was visiting from Nevada.) We hiked 6.3 miles in two hours and 10 minutes.

We started the hiking by walking along the lake. We saw people out on paddle boats and others fishing. It wasn't long before we were headed into the park and away from the water. We hit the Shaker Trace Trail and decided to try walking the Outer Loop. We came upon a parking lot for horse trailers and the spot on the trail that can be used by horseback riders, bikers, and walkers alike. We found it funny that it said "Yield to Horses." Wondering who wouldn't know to get out of the way of an animal as large as a horse. Soon we reached a bridge and we noticed that the river was low and the water was hardly moving. This was true each time the path met up with the river. I'm sure when we have the normal amount of rainfall you would likely hear the water moving, but that wasn't the case on this day. We reached a spot where we were walking through open fields and had views of farms and an old cemetery. Morgan was recovering from a stomach bug from a couple of days prior, so we turned around at this point and headed back the way we came. Suddenly it didn't seem like a very good idea for her to be out walking that far in the heat. To break up the monotony of the paved trail, Morgan and Pam posed near the horse signs. We were grateful for the big clouds in the sky because it was a really muggy day, we were very sweaty and knew it would be worse if the sun was beating on the pavement.

Blogging about this hike gave me pause to think about how many of these hikes have been "toads" and how many have been "princes." I went back through the hikes, reading some posts and looking at pictures. I counted 25 princes, 17 toads, and 3 hikes that I couldn't really decide weather they were princes or toads because they were kind of a mixture of each - maybe I could call them "proads" or "trinces?"

Total miles hiked through August:  155.29

45 hikes down and 15 to go!!!!!

Spider Webmaster

Mother of the Groom duties and work travel has really invaded my blogging time lately, however, I have still managed to get in three hikes.  This post is about a hike to Big Bone Lick State Park on Wednesday, August 22, 2012. I was blessed to get to hike with my brother, Mark and his wife, Carolyn, who reside in Flagstaff, Arizona. They were in town to help us celebrate my son Nick’s wedding. Brother Joe also joined in the fun. Mark and Carolyn are seasoned hikers so it was great to share this experience with them. We hiked 4.94 miles in 2 hours and 34 minutes.

Before setting out, we went into the Nature Center and checked out the awesome displays of old dinosaur bones and descriptions of the past. We were amazed to find out the story of how the very large animals; mastadons, wolly mammoths, and grounds sloths, got stuck in the swampy mud and couldn't get themselves out. They would fall victim to other creatures that could navigate their way around the sludge due to their smaller size. Outside of the Nature Center is a life-sized diorama - pretty cool!

It was early in the morning, the combination of the fog and the old forest created an awesome setting. As we started out on the trail we followed the signs to the bison observation area. You can tell by the pictures how foggy it was. The area in which the bison were contained wasn't very close, so it was hard to get a good picture. Carolyn shared that there was a little "love action" going on, but I missed it. We were off to a good start.

We hiked along the fence on a gravel trail towards the Cedar Run Trail which would take us into the woods. Because of the prehistoric significance, as we entered the forest all three of us couldn’t help but comment on the fact that we felt like we were walking among the land of dinosaurs. From time to time we saw deer running through woods. This was the second week in a row where the spider webs were overtaking the trail. I'm not sure if it's the time of year or lack of hikers, but it's always helpful when I have my trekking poles with me so that I can swing them in front of us to break the webs. I didn't bring them along, so Mark had the genius idea of using a long stick. We each took turns being the "Spider Webmaster" for the group. It was quite a busy job and if you look closely in the pictures you will see what looks like a spider condominium community. Along the sides of the trail were lots of groups of spider webs. We reached a clearing with a picnic table and a sign and used the map and Endomondo to figure out where we were before proceeding.

The next part of the trail traveled along the fence marking the outskirts of the park. On the other side of the fence was a cattle farm and we were greeted by lots of cows. After hiking uphill for a bit we reached a nice overlook of the valley below. By now the fog had cleared and it was a pretty scene of the surrounding farmland. We eventually reached a small lake and sat down to take a brief break and refuel with a snack and water. I steered us wrong on the next part of the trail and we had to backtrack to get back on course. I guess it wouldn't really be a hike without some trail confusion! Once we got ourselves back on track, we hit the most confusing part of the trail. We traveled up and down and weaved back and forth and had to keep checking in with the compass and the Endomondo map. This provided us with some much needed confidence because the trail was not clearly marked at all.

Eventually we reached the trail head for the Gobbler's Trace trail and we took that trail to get back to the parking lot. This was a great hike. Good exercise and great company. I would definitely return to hike these trails again. Thanks to Mark, Carolyn and Joe for joining in the adventure!

44 hikes down and 16 to go!!!!!!

Never Let Your Guard Down

On Saturday, August 18, Ryan and I headed to Versailles State Park in Indiana. That's not where we were planning on going to hike, but when we put the two hiking locations we were intending to go to into the GPS, it said that they were 79 miles away, a 2 hour drive..."within 60 miles" my #@*! This is not the first time that we have wondered if Tammy York traveled to these hiking locations by flying through the air or from some unique teleporting capabilities. Regardless, next week we will be celebrating the Mitchger Wedding Palooza, so the weekend was busy with preparations to make. With so much to do, hiking two hikes over two hours away was not in the cards.

The park was really easy to find, but the trail head, not so much. Fortunately, Ryan and I figured out pretty quickly that we were not headed on the right trail, so we got out the compass and oriented ourselves. After the small adjustment, we found the trail head and we were on our way. I was proud that I remembered last week I'd wished I'd gotten the compass out a little more often.  It definitely came in handy several times during this hike.

We were looking forward to the waterfalls that Tammy York describes in her book, but I guess they weren't really flowing - maybe due to the drought? The trail had some great hills from the start and we both agreed that it was an awesome workout throughout.  Ryan and I were surprised by the fall colored leaves littering the trail. We wondered if this was also a result of the drought. It was a strange contrast to the summer greenery around us.

The trail was a loop and a figure 8, so we used the Endomondo map, the park map, and the compass to keep ourselves oriented and make sure that we were staying on track. We did a really great job with this and after we hiked almost 5 miles and were nearing the end, we started chatting a little too much, we let our guard down and suddenly we were lost. There were some detours, backtracking, tracing and retracing of steps. Just when I thought I had no idea which way to go next, we got out the compass and it gave us the confidence we needed to know that we were at least going in the right direction. Where we took our wrong turn, I have no idea. Instead of hiking the 4.77 miles as stated in the book, we hiked 6.1 miles.

Despite the wrong turns and extra steps, this was a great hike and somewhere that I'd return to hike again. The trails were well-kept and the ups and downs made it a great workout. Thanks to Ryan I was not on my own and I was grateful for that. This hike definitely helped contribute to the development of my map reading skills-which still need a lot of development!

43 hikes down and 17 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!