Not the Hike I Planned

The Buckeye Trail got me good today. I had a late start due to waiting for a new mattress to get delivered, and I decided I would head up to Lockington Dam and try to look at the Buckeye Trail in that area. However, the parking lot was closed for construction. A sign said I could park by the street, but I didn't feel comfortable doing that this time. I decided to go elsewhere.

I ended up in Lockington itself and came across the locks in the middle of town. They had the blue blazes on them, which I thought was odd since my rudimentary information about the trail didn't match up with that. I parked and began to wander around it, and I decided to hike as far as I could. It wasn't the dam, but hey. I probably should have stayed on the more east side, but I didn't feel like backtracking, so I climbed down a somewhat more technical section. This involved a short drop, which looked really easy. I was wrong. My right foot came down hard, the heel hitting stone instead of the dirt I thought was there, It hurt almost as much as when I almost lost my foot to an office chair back in 2019. I am stubborn though, so I continued the hike. 

I made it practically to the end of the historic area when I turned around. I came across a couple from down near Dayton that were checking out the locks, and I re-hiked much of it talking to them. It wasn't a long hike, but we did make it to the creek and the end of the maintained canal bed. (The part the donkeys or horses or whatever ended there, maybe on purpose, maybe from the 1913 flood.)

We were almost back to the parking lot when the guy from the couple asked if the lens cap on the ground was mine. Now, I like to believe I am very careful with my lens caps. I tend to keep them safe when I take them off, and this was a weird place to drop one. Still, I looked, and sure enough, it was a Sony 40.5mm lens cap. I picked it up, and it had a fine layer of red dust on it, just like my hiking boots. I thought it was weird, but as I held it in one hand, I reached back and grabbed my lens cap out of my back pocket. Yes, it was still where I left it, and an identical lens cap was in my hand. Nobody else we saw on the trail had a camera, so it had to have been there for a while. I guess now I have a spare lens cap. I can't say that in my twenty-five years of using SLR's or better that I have ever had an extra lens cap. I think I only bought one cap on its own in my life, and that was when I bought a used lens that lacked said cap. 

I headed home, actually following the blue blazes along the road in my car as much as I could, and got my shoes off. My foot still hurts, especially if I try to bend it certain ways or to walk on it, but I am optimistic. Work won't bother it, so it should heal quickly. I think I am going to have to buy the real maps of the trail though, but that will have to wait. 

Tricks and Treats

 

With so many things canceled this year, we were lucky enough to still have Kings Island up and running. Not all of the Cedar Fair parks were so lucky, but a trade-off is that Haunt was canceled for 2020. Thankfully, they did replace it with Tricks and Treats Fall Festival. I suspect some things were repurposed from the postponed Carnival festival, as the Mardi Gras colors were really strong in the costumes. Adding in the food festival though was a great thing.

Two years ago we went to a similar festival at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and had planned to take the kids this summer until everything closed. This wasn't quite as nice, but it was up there. There are a few things I tried I might get again, and being that Chef Major is great at his job, it was all great food. That being said, BGW had theirs set by countries, and that made it more exotic. To compare beyond that is like apples and oranges. It just wouldn't be fair. 

Having season passes, we arrived about an hour before the gates opened, and had to drive past the park and turn around to get into the car line. It was strange seeing the line of cars stretching out that far, but we try to get there early. We were in the park about half an hour before it officially opened, and managed to find the line for Orion to be quite short. Luck was on our side, and we managed to get the front row, and it was a great ride. 

We then headed over to the Beast, and I got my first ride on the Beast for this season. It is sort of amusing that I hadn't been on it this year, last year I actually worked on the ride, and I spent a lot of time in that part of the park. 

Once that was done, we were ready to start with the food festival. (It didn't start until an hour after the park opened.) We got our tasting lanyards (6 items for $30) and went into the Brewhouse to pass the remaining time until the tastings would start. 

I think the Brewhouse is probably one of the most underrated parts of Kings Island. It has some of the best food, and the pricing is not really any different than the rest of the park. As a kid, and even as an adult before I had kids, I avoided it because I thought it would be too expensive. It is now among my favorite food spots at the park, losing out to the Coney BBQ. It has great giant pretzels, which is worth it for that alone, but it has a great secret perk. If there is a line, you can get cups of water from the bar, and they use bigger cups. We have drink plans, but sometimes we want water, and the cups there are easily twice the size of the other food places. That and the bartender is great. I've hung out in there a number of times, hiding out from a storm, enjoying the AC, or catching up with friends.

Finally, the time for the food samples had arrived, and we began our next lap of the park. I can't say what my favorite items were, though I am leaning towards either the Death Dog or the Dragon's Breath Wings. (The El Chupacabra was a solid third place though.) Looking at the pictures, definitely the Death Dog. The jalapenos on it were fresh and crisp. I personally love when they are fresh like that, pickled jalapenos are just too salty for me. 

While doing all of this, my wife took the opportunity to do the Trick or Treat event. I think she was only disappointed that there was only one station with Utz Cheeseballs.

She also had the chance to get on one of the "game shows" the park was holding. She was given a Jelly Belly on camera by a host that I swear looked and sounded like Cedric Yarbrough. Hers was not toasted marshmallow. Nay, it was STINKBUG. She did win a box of horrible flavor jelly beans though. Seriously, ALL of them are the trick flavors. There are none of the good ones. (I actually am partial to the grass ones from a few years ago. I might need to eat more veggies.) 

The holiday theming was really great too. It wasn't the Haunt we were used to, but it was still nice. They had a pumpkin carving area where you could buy well-decorated pumpkins, and they had a few that we really liked. None that we would actually buy, but we haven't done pumpkins for many years. The Bender one was tempting though...

We also played a basketball game in Planet Snoopy. I wanted to get this weird pumpkin creature, which only needed four baskets out of seven to win. 

I got zero.

My wife tried after me, getting two, which was good for a winter koala. I think she will hold that against me for years to come, so there is that...

It was a fun trip though, but I still miss Haunt. 

Breaking in the boots, pt 2

I made another attempt to break in my new boots today, and it started out well. My wife needed half an hour of walking still for a Strava challenge, and since I needed a shorter hike to work on breaking in the boots, we hit the Buckeye Trail again. 

I took my pocket camera this time, a Sony DSC-W800 that I got right at the start of the pandemic for the portability, in that it fits in my pocket. Handy for a quick walk I guess, though I had an older version that fit well into my running belt. For hiking though, I am not sure that I am a fan. I might just need to adjust to it, and maybe I am spoiled by my APS-C sensor cameras. It does seem easier to edit from the Raw files compared to starting with JPG, and the grain on the larger cameras is much nicer. 

From the parking lot, we only went about half an hour onto the trail, minus time to the trailhead. It isn't that I am complaining, I'm still breaking in the shoes. We turned around where a tree fell across the path, which worked out well. I was halfway between the trailhead and my car when the pain started. 

Pain is normal, sometimes. The new boots still had a negligible amount of distance on them, and this really added to them. Dr. Martens really can take a bit to break in, but they are feeling better already. I mean, yeah, another few blocks and I would have been bleeding from my Achilles, but that's the price to pay. I should be able to wear them without issue by Halloween, as long as that doesn't get canceled too. 

Porygon Hunting

With the new school year starting, and with many things still down because of COVID restrictions, getting out and doing much has been a challenge for this month. It made my goal of two posts per week basically impossible, and I didn't have enough of a buffer to keep that up for long. 

A few weeks ago I ordered a new pair of hiking shoes, a pair of Dr. Martens Kamin hiking boots. I am nearing the end of the line for my second pair of DM Ajax 939 hiking boots, and these looked really neat and were only an extra $10. I liked the 939's that I had, though I wasn't a fan of the Ajax style leather's texture. I feel it made the boots look off for a few days after putting fresh Balsam on them. That being said, both of the pairs I had contained neon-colored leather on the shoes' collars that lit up under black light. (It's a weakness of mine.) 

Of course, being Dr. Martens, they need to be broken in, an epic struggle of will power that feels like it will never end, but ends with a shoe that feels great with no idea how there could have been a struggle to get there. I have already worn them out of the house a few times, but today was their first easy hike.

I headed out to a small county park where there is a half-mile boardwalk trail. Not really a test for the shoes per se, but since they are still breaking in, I didn't want to be a mile from the car in rough terrain and unable to walk. I actually made that mistake once with a pair of 1460s that were not broken in yet when I walked seven miles looking for a glove. I hope to have them on the real trails in a few weeks. 

Being that today was Porygon day for Pokemon Go, and the park actually had cell service, I attempted to catch a shiney Porygon. I didn't see any, but I did manage to take the gym. I guess there is some irony in hiking a nature preserve and hunting Pokemon, with signs about not taking items from the park or disturbing wildlife. Still, I got a decent short hike in. I probably should have done a second lap, but I misread the clock. 

It was all misadventure

Charleston Falls is the most popular of Miami County's parks, and ironically, the only one with trails that are mapped in my Fenix. I had the day off, so after dropping my youngest off at school with his band stuff for the year, I headed over.

I took my camera equipment along because I wanted to attempt a long exposure shot of the waterfall, and I do like taking pictures. The parking lot was a little over half full, which surprised me for a weekday morning. That being said, it was far from crowded.

The first thing I noticed as I entered the woods was that it looked like someone had thinned out the trees. A lot. There were many trees cut or knocked down, and it just felt wrong. Maybe there was a reason for it, or maybe it was my imagination. I honestly am not sure.

I continued down the trail to the overlook for the falls. Or it would have been, had the falls been flowing. Sadly, no, I would not be photographing the falls today. So, plan B, the Observation Deck. I took the path down past what would have been the falls and hiked onward. I had thought about going to the observation deck from the beginning, but it wasn't my reason for being at the park. My last time going to the deck was cut short because of bees, and I wasn't sure where on the map it was. I continued on until I got to a junction in the trail that had a map. That map told me I just walked past the tower and somehow didn't notice. 

I admit, I may have been looking at my phone a little while trying to figure out if there was an easy way to attach geospatial data to the photographs, but I didn't think I paid that little attention to my surroundings. I turned around and doubled back to find.... nothing. Maybe not quite nothing, there was a suspicious patch of gravel. I thought to myself that maybe I read that map wrong. I mean, yeah, I have a degree in Geography, but maybe I just misread it. I turned down another path that intersected near where the observation deck was supposed to be and continued on into much thicker woods. No observation deck. I knew I had climbed it a few years earlier, so it had to be somewhere. I didn't find it though. Thinking that it just wasn't worth it, I went back towards my car. 

Near the trailhead I found a park employee doing maintenance. I asked about the observation deck and was informed that it had been torn down without the maps being updated. So... I guess that gravel was the location of the previous deck. 

I can't say that it was a waste of a trip though. I did get a little over two miles of hiking in, with a decent mix terrain. Had I known that the falls were dried up, I would have left the tripod in the car, and probably would have taken my hiking stick as well. There were a few places it would have been helpful to have had. I guess I will just have to make another trip out there, especially while I wait for hunting season to end around the other regional trails. It does look nice when it ices over after all. 

Sycamore State Park (3/75)

 It was foggy when I got up, which was rather nice, so I decided to go after Sycamore State Park. I was debating between this and another park when I realized that it was the first day of Squirrel season, and Deer season is just a short few weeks away. I figured that it would be best to his this park before the deer hunters arrived.

I was a bit surprised when my oldest son decided he would come along. I warned him there would be hiking, and I didn't know what to expect. Still, I grabbed my older camera for him, and off we went.

Like many trails, the start looks nice...

I admit, after the trails at Kiser Lake, I was apprehensive, and my oldest isn't the most known for hiking. I followed the GPS to where the park address was, and it looked like a house with a State Park sign. I continued down the road and made a few turns to come to a trailhead with a few parking spots. 

I grabbed my new hiking stick and the cameras, and we began onto the trail. And came face to face with stairs.

And they were decent!

The stairs were not bad, and the trail opened up again into one of the nicest hiking trails I have been on. (And I'm not just saying that after the mess at Kiser Lake.) It reminded me of some of where I used to hike in Michigan.

We got a bit farther before I noticed the first sign of trouble. There was a spent shotgun shell on the path.

I mentioned it but didn't think too much about it as we continued on. The trail we were on (The North Heron Run trail) skirted a ravine, and there was a smaller trail along with it that we decided to ignore for the time. The ravine helped give some interesting sights, though not really of the ravine itself.

The path continued a little farther when we found a random bench overlooking the ravine. I was really intrigued by the paint job on the back of it. It was a Space Invader!

I walked up to it to see what view it had and got distracted by the seat only having one plank, so it wasn't really a working bench. My son asked me as we continued on the trail why there was a seat without a view, and I pointed out the local bike path has a few. Maybe it looks nicer in winter?

The forest broke into a field where a few horse trails intersected, and the view was nice. The grey skies were a bit of a letdown, I bet it would look amazing with bright blue skies.

We had barely started into the next part of the woods when we saw another person coming towards us. We had stumbled upon one of the squirrel hunters. We talked for a few minutes, and he said the section we were heading to was the best for hunting and recommended a different trail where hunting wasn't allowed. We turned around and headed back to the car.

I think this was one of my favorite State Parks so far. I need to really figure out when hunting season is over, and then I can get back and really explore the park. The trails were great, and the only person we came across was friendly. I find it hard to believe I hadn't heard a lot about the park. It is rather interesting how it was laid out, and should make for a great hiking experience next year.

This does also suggest that I need to be more aware of the hunting season with the parks though. For hiking, I may need to focus on parks that don't allow hunting until spring. Thankfully, there are plenty of places still on the list.

We headed back home after leaving the trailhead and ended up at McDonald's for lunch. It was surreal because it was across the street from a strip mall my family used to love growing up. It was devastated. The entire thing was boarded up, few hints of what used to be there. I honestly can not say if it was just urban collapse that took down the mall near there, or if it was part of the tornado damage from 2019. It was still sad to see. I hadn't been to that area since Best Buy was still there, and I think that was to pick up a Twilight movie for my wife because of the Blu-ray being exclusive to Best Buy. (Now that makes me feel old.)

I actually didn't use my GPS to get home and took back roads all the way home from there. With school starting back in the next few days, it was a nice, if mild, way to end my summer. 

Little Miami State Park (2/75)

I had one of the rare free weekdays available to hit another State Park and decided on Little Miami State Park. I have a fair bit of trouble accepting this as a state park, purely based on it is a 50-mile bike path. I have nothing against bikes, as I currently have five of them. My house is inches away from a spur of the local bike path. My family uses the bike path on a near-daily basis. Our bike path isn't a State Park though, and this just seems mean spirited. I'd love to say how great it is and such, but... it's a bike path. It's not even as long as the local one, which is connected by other routes in Dayton. 

50% bigger. 100% less State Park.

As paths go, I was only on it for a few miles. Maybe it is better further along it in either direction. I admit route 25 has some boring areas. I just still can't wrap my head around it, almost 24 hours later.

It wasn't a bad trip though, by any means. My youngest came along, and "ran" a mile as I took photos. His PR is around 13 min/mile, but he was walking it, having only gotten a tenth of a mile farther than me as I took pictures. We walked a bit farther, looking at trees that seemed to be hiding some great views. Maybe the views will be better this winter, I can't say. We could see Kings Island though.

Some things are taller than trees.

I don't know if the highlight of the trip for my son was seeing Kings Island, one of his favorite places in the world, or if it was the wildlife. He is a bit finicky about seeing wildlife, or at least he is when it comes to rabbits. Bunnies are only ok with him as long as he sees them in even numbers. Two is good, four is great, but five bunnies will annoy him. Thankfully, we didn't see any rabbits. W did see a few deer though. It seems the "even" rule doesn't apply to deer, even though we are unsure if we saw three of them or just two.

The fawn's spots are fading. 

We finished up the walk, and I added the sticker to the book. (The office with stamps was nowhere near us.) 

2 down, 73 to go.

On the way home, we stopped at Field and Stream to look for a hiking pole. I would rather have a single one since I am usually using my camera, but if a set catches my eye... They only had one kind in stock. Two really, since they had it in carbon fiber and aluminum. I wasn't a fan of either one and had expected a much better selection. I have a lead on where to look next, but that will be another day. We got lunch and headed home.

Kiser Lake - park 1/75

 I grabbed my camera and Park Passport and headed off to Kiser Lake, the closest of the 75 Ohio State Parks. Ironically enough, I have never been there before, even though it is a few miles closer than Lake Loramie. I was underwhelmed, which isn't really fair to the park. 

Nice view though.

Now, to be fair, every park has its niche. I like trails and camping. If I still fished or had a horse I'd enjoy the park more. Actually, I do miss fishing a little, but I just can't seem to get back into it.

I meandered along the road from the park office (which was closed for the weekend) and found the start of the North Bay Trail just beyond some fenced off restrooms.

At least the restrooms near the office were open. 

And now for the fun part!

The entrance to the trail seemed to be promising and only slightly hidden. There was a large sign saying no ATVs or horses permitted on the trail, so there was that. A short way in was a neat wooden bridge, a sight I would see a few times, which was interesting. Sure, the path was a little overgrown, but it was pleasant enough.

How quaint!

However, things escalated rapidly from there.

Mud, lake, certain near doom!

I suddenly came to a part where the path was washed out to a point, and I debated turning around. However, I am a stubborn person, so I turned sideways and walked along the cliff of not quite doom. A few moments later I pushed through some brush taller than me and began to wonder if they had forgotten the trail maintenance this year, and maybe a year or two before that. I debated again turning around, but that cliff...

I pressed onwards, debating taking surface streets from the marina at the far end of the trail. Suddenly, a sign of hope!

I mean, yeah, that trail can't be good for horses.

Suddenly the path opened up, it looked maintained, and I got that wonderful false sense of security!

"No horse" signs, yellow blazes, a false sense of security! 

I speed up, and I continued on. Nice groomed trails!

...or not.

Suddenly the groomed trails were gone, and an obstacle course began. Still, downed trees like this were nothing compared to that ledge. I enjoyed scaling the tree, but it was followed by a random poke to my leg.

Beats ticks though.

Now it was just plain uncomfortable, with nature's velcro stuck to my leg. I actually folded up the fabric which helped, for like three steps. I added the burrs to my reason not to turn around. Oh, look, another tree!

Still sort of fun.

Trees aside, and the burrs, it was still a pleasant enough section of path. I was enjoying myself still, and that's half fun. Or at least it was.

Are you kidding me‽‽

I debated climbing it, and I just am not in that good of shape. I couldn't bring myself to crawl under it either. I really wonder how that tree could even be removed in the first place, but that tree was the last straw for me. I turned around and began to devise my exit strategy. I climbed back over and through the other trees until I got back to that wonderful sign about horses not being allowed on the hiking trail, and declared myself to be a horse. Screw it, I was too tired to do that cliff a second time.  (And the sign didn't say no humans on the horse trail!)

It actually was a lot easier on the return section, even dodging mud and "not mud" and I wove my way back towards the trailhead. I turned off where a sign pointed to the restrooms, and I soon popped up at the closed restrooms, a few hundred yards or so north of the trailhead. It was a short walk back to my car, and the end of my hike. 

The horse trail was a lot easier, but not really shorter. Map via Veloviewer and Google.

Being that the park office was closed, I went ahead and used a sticker from the book to mark the page for this park. Maybe I'll get there when they are open for the ink stamp one day, but I don't care to try that trail again anytime soon.

I hate selfies.

I hardly write by hand anymore... I need to practice.