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.