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.