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.

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.