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.

Into the woods

 I decided to try and figure out where the Buckeye Trail heads north of town, as it has been a mystery to me for a while. I have hiked a certain section a few times, but parking is not an option for the far end of the local section, and the maps are not great online. I started at the parking lot closest to the trail in town, and headed towards the wooded area.

It was a nice day out.

The trail goes along Piqua's reservoir dam which has a pleasant view. There is a rock in the man-made lake, and a few lucky people even live around it.

Must be nice to have your own private dock house thing. 

I followed the "blue" blazes towards where I knew the hiking trail would really get going. I have been there a few times and even led a scout troop down the harder part of the trail a few years ago. Still, it was a fair walk to the off road section.

I don't know if I noticed the
North Country trail sign before.

Once I got to the path, into the trees I went, and I got to enjoy some quiet space. There are actually two benches in this area, which is nice, I guess. Maybe one further down would have been better.

You have to know about it I guess.

The first section there is really straight and easy, aside from some strong spider webs. One side had a wire fence along the north side, but it really didn't have a purpose as there were fields on both sides.

Also level!

The trees broke for a cross path between the two fields, though I thought there were more cross paths growing up. I used to camp every year at a festival held at the historic area the trail cuts through and had camped near that very treeline. I don't remember the trail being there. I started into the next section, which is a lot more technical when something bit my leg. I don't know what, and it might have been a spiny plant for all I ever figured out. I went a bit further, knocking out some large spider webs in front of me before the pain in my leg told me continuing was not the best idea. I abandoned completing that section and turned around for the mile hike back to the car. 

I have actually done that section a few times without issue, and it was probably a one-off thing. Without completing it though, I didn't get the opportunity to figure out just where the trail goes from there. 

It was an uneventful hike other than whatever got my leg. It didn't swell up or have any punctures that I could see, and by the next morning, it was back to normal. I might get a hiking pole before I go back though, if for nothing more than breaking the spider webs ahead of me. 

Feeling annoyed about the lack of completing it, I tried to figure out where the path would be from Lockington Dam. Again, the Buckeye Trail maps online were of no help. (I think the website had an issue though. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt there.) I could order the physical maps online for a few bucks, and might eventually do that, but I just happen to be at the boundary between two regions. That means double the maps! I might end up doing that though, but not for now.

I realized though that the one signpost also said North Country National Scenic Trail and I hit up their website. Now that website has some great maps! Sadly though, I found that furthest I have been on the trail is where it goes on roads for a few miles. On the bright side though, it looks like it is a trail again north of Lockington Dam. At least that gives me a fresh starting point for later. 

On to a different challenge

 I decided to look into camping and the state parks a bit more after the trip to Hocking Hills last week and discovered that the state is not selling a State Park passport. In this 45 page book, there are individual pages for all 75 State Parks. 

I guess the greatest question is, of course, we have 88 counties and 75 State Parks. I wonder which counties got the shaft, and... How many pages was that?

45 pages... but 75 individual pages?

Now, I am genuinely confused as to how many pages this is, but hey. There has to be a simple answer, so I went with the easiest answer, I ordered one. 

$13.75 with tax and shipping.

I know it is a Government website, and while the process was not difficult, I had to use the campsite reservation system to order it. I did take an opportunity to look at some of the local park's campsites, and they are a lot more expensive than when I used to go camping in high school. I also found it funny that the email confirmation used the day/month/year format. This is Ohio, it shouldn't do that. 

I got the book in the mail on Thursday, having ordered it Sunday night. I feel like I should have gotten it sooner, but something is off with the USPS at the moment. 

The book had its own journey.

I won't get political over this. The USPS has had some weird things going on for years. Six years ago they closed the Dayton facility and started routing the mail through Columbus. It still tends to be fast. I just don't get why it went from Columbus to Pittsburgh. I've never been to Pittsburgh, and being a different state and the wrong direction on I-70, I don't think the book should have either. It got back to Cincinnati, which is almost as far away as Columbus, and then to Troy. That's the kicker. I have never had a package with the US Mail routed through Troy before Piqua. It's always Cincy then Piqua. (And letters all are stamped with Columbus.) I just don't get that part...

The package was stamped with $2.80 for shipping, which isn't bad. I paid $3 for shipping and handling, and the bubble envelope has to have been worth more than twenty cents. The book is almost as large as my computer and is really a nice book. It has 88 pages, which ironically is the number of counties in Ohio, a decent map of all the park locations, their office addresses, as well as a color-coded page and sticker for each park. (Though I would rather have the stamps. They are nice stickers though.)

It's a Surface Go though, so not really that big.

Also, a few blank stickers to fill out that last page. 

Alphabetical! Definitely easy to find the park's pages.

The page for Hocking Hills. 

I am not sure how long it will take to hit all of the 75 parks, being that I am nearly at the western edge of Ohio. I will say that I have camped in or visited at least 4 of the State Parks so far. I camped at Lake Loramie State Park a few times in High School as well as with my son's Scout groups. I camped once at Grand Lake St Marys and raced a half-marathon around part of it as well. Harrison Lake is where we camped at for the Mainly Marathons race a few years ago.  (We found out after leaving that they found a dead body there a few days before we arrived.) Finally, I was at Hocking Hills last week for the meteor shower. 

You know its a great adventure when the cops show up

 A friend and I went camping this week in an attempt to catch the meteor shower, and we had two of our kids along. Camping is usually an adventure, though this was the first time in two years I have been camping. I loaded up my hybrid, and after a quick meet at Walmart to split a bag of ice, we began the 2+ hour drive to Hocking Hills.

I was happy with the drive, averaging 50 mpg with the car loaded. But the real err of adventure began as I came out of the roundabout near Logan, Ohio. My cell service went dead. I had the route already in the phone's memory, but I was cut off from civilization. I got to the State Park just a few minutes after my friend, and we soon began to get set up. Having chosen an electric site in case we needed to charge devices, we setup on opposite sides of the parking space, with a canopy put up between the cars. My friend promptly set up a pedestal fan using the electric, while the kids just played on the Nintendo switch my friend's son brought along. (I brought a battery-powered fan, so it's all fair...)

We left the kids and scoped out the John Glenn Astronomy park where we saw signs about needing passes, though we missed seeing that online before the trip. (And no cell service there...) but it was daytime and deserted. 

"10" Ten what?

We headed back into town (and cell service) and grabbed Taco Bell for Taco Tuesday, and returned to camp. With still some time to kill, we hiked down to Rose Lake in the park.

Maybe the view was better further down the trail...

We got back to camp as it got dark, and headed back to John Glenn, where we were turned away for not having a parking pass. We were annoyed since neither of us had seen anything about passes online, and we headed back towards the camp. Well, we turned a bit too early, and ended up in the parking lot for Old Man's Cave. Being empty and dark, we decide to watch from there. Camera out, blanket for the kids to sit on, and we started taking pictures.

I don't think I have ever seen so many stars.

For me, it was the first time I ever really got to see the Milky Way. I've seen pictures, but I always thought they were doctored or something. To actually see it though...  We were there a few minutes when a guy with a telescope showed up, and it was a fun impromptu thing.

After about two hours, the cops showed up. Well, a Park Ranger, but he had red and blue lights and was using them. We had missed a sign about the parking lot being closed at night, so we got kicked out of the parking lot. We got some pictures and saw some meteors, so mission accomplished I guess.

We made another attempt to get into John Glenn, and were successful this time. Comparatively, the view sucked. We hung out a few minutes and went back to camp.

We were up sort of early and began to break camp. We were there primarily for astronomy, and I feel like I missed a lot there. I'll have to head back for a few more days next time, there is a lot more there to see.

Like this thing that crawled onto my shirt.

The small things

 My youngest son tried out for Cross Country this summer, and it didn't go well for him. He lacked the drive really, though a few other things factored in. Still, he decided that he likes trail running, and since I am the trail runner in the family, I'm the one to take him running. (Also, I lost a lot of speed over the last few years, so we are close in pace.)

I've taken him out twice now, and it has never been a dull trip. The first trip out last week had us just missing a car crash from a pickup truck pulling a trailer running a stop sign then smashing into another car. It rattled us a little, and we only got a mile in. He got to see four bunnies, so that made him happy. Seriously, he hates seeing an odd number of rabbits. Four is good, three is bad. Also, five is bad. We did a new section of trail, so I didn't really know a lot about it. Still, it was fun.

So, this time we went back to a different park entrance, and off running we went. However, this time I introduced a new challenge. We were going to cross the river. Now, I have done the river crossing a few times, once in a race, and at least once on a training run. It isn't a huge river, and maybe a foot deep in a few places. My son has never done a river crossing, so new territory. I told him to be careful and promptly fell into the river with my first step. I managed to keep the phone and key fob out of the water, and got up. My leg is scratched, and will probably be bruised in the morning, and my leg just kind of hurts. I asked him if he still wanted to cross, and he gleefully jumped on into the river and we walked across. (This all wound up being witnessed by a family that was playing in the river, including some smaller kids. So, yeah, fun.) 

Once on the other side, we continued down the trail for about a half-mile and turned around. By this point, my son realized that he forgot to put on his anti-chafe before we left, so we walked the mile back to the car. (Without falling in the river again!) He actually found it amusing how his feet seemed to dry quickly, which makes sense because we bought him trail shoes a few weeks back. I was in an older pair that were cheap, but still, trail shoes. He is already looking forward to the next time he can do a water crossing. 

It isn't the grand adventures I'd love to be able to partake in all the time, but it was fun to be out with him running trails. I've hiked or run trails for years, and that seems to be the format my son prefers as well. My wife prefers roads and paved trails, so it works out better for me to be the one to take him. Now if we can just get our speeds up a bit more, we might enter some races. (If they ever start having them again...) 

More local stuff canceled

I guess I knew the Bradford Pumpkin Show was canceled already, but it didn't click until today. In this area, the Pumpkin Show was infamous in the greatest of ways. I only got to go once growing up, and in high school, we were warned about the risk of attending.

Now, I graduated in the late '90s, so things that were against the rules back then were slightly different. School shootings were not a real concern, and aside from the student that had serious asthma triggered by stink bombs, there wasn't a lot of the school administration warned us about. Except for the Pumpkin Show.

Now, we knew that guns and knives were not allowed. It was mentioned once or twice a year, and was treated with the idea of "No Shit Sherlock!" The Pumpkin Show was considered to be a threat ten times worse. What kind of dark debauchery was to be found? Sex? Drugs? Rock and Roll? Nope. (Well, maybe some Rock and Roll.) According to the school, something ten-fold worse. Confetti. Seriously, announcements the week leading up to the festival warned that anyone caught with a bag of Pumpkin Show confetti would be suspended on the spot, without mercy.

I don't know how I came upon my only visit there growing up. My dad took me before he moved to SC, so he was probably there to take pictures for the newspaper or something like that. I wish I could remember more about going, but I did get a foam covered nunchuck, a bag of confetti, and from a game, a doubloon. I remember it was either blue or purple, and that's it. I was told it had something to do with Mardi Gras and the floats, and it fascinated me. I really don't know what happened to it, sadly. I don't know what Krew it was from, or any of that.

It wasn't until my second trip to New Orleans before I got some doubloons. To be fair, the first time I went was in November for a race, but the second time around was in February of this year. Some of the early parades were underway, but the big ones would be the weeks following. Still, I got a doubloon. Sort of.

Well, a wooden nickel...

One of the last days in NOLA on my most recent trip, we happened on a flea market of sorts. That's really the best way for me to explain it, an outdoor tourist flea market. While there, I found a booth selling doubloons out of a bowl, and I bought a few. Maybe it was twenty. I forget. I gave a few away when I got back, cheap souvenir.

Not all of them were PG. This one is.

I don't know if I would bother getting more of the doubloons on another trip though. I am glad to have the ones I got, but aside from the wooden nickel, I didn't see their parades. I don't think I would go back during the busier Mardi Gras weeks, I can't afford it. (If someone else wants to pay, sure...) I do want to go to their aquarium though. (It is next to the Puma store, where I like getting my running shoes.)