Buckeye Trail (St Mary point 2 towards 3)

 I needed a hike today, especially as I needed more distance in general as the spring race season is right around the corner. For whatever reason, I headed up and hit Lockington Dam, and this time, the gates were open! (The parking lot, not the dam itself. Those floodgates might have been, I don't know.)

I got my hiking pole out of my trunk, thought I broke the lower segment, fixed it, and followed the blue blazes out of the park. I have to admit, it was one of the clearer hiking areas I've seen in some time, and was a good mix of being off the grid and then suddenly almost in someone's backyard just to be in the middle of nowhere again. And it had some great surprises.

Like this. Halfway between the dam
 and the next road.

I really did enjoy the randomness of this section, even if I did have to do some climbing over trees. 

They were easy enough to climb.

I once heard it said that they leave trees like this to prevent ATVs from being on the trail. I don't know if that is true, but it does make it interesting. I still remember hiking at a state park and finding a tree had fallen onto a bridge in such a way I didn't feel safe climbing over or under it. Thankfully the bridges were clear of trees. 

But how it got here is another matter.

I noticed that the far end of the trail (where the trail would follow the road, and I instead turned around) had a sign about being a trail for the Miami and Erie Canal. (I think that is also listed on a bike path section near Sidney, though that is not part of the Buckeye Trail.) On my return, I almost missed my turn off the path to my car. I saw it, wondered about it being access for something, and forgot that was actually the trail itself, where I had started the hike. So... yeah. It was really clear going forward, but I needed to turn. (Or did I? My watch said to turn...)

I saw this sign where I turned around.
Not where I started.

I got back to the car, updated the hike info on Strava, and decided to head the long way home. From the road I could see out my car window that had I not turned I would have come out on the road, next to another similar sign, as well as one saying that the Miami and Erie Canal Trail was an Eagle Scout project. Good to see, and even if it overlaps an established trail, it seemed nice. Either way, it was nice to get out and hike. Its been far too long. 

Lockington attempt #2

With Spring Break arriving, I had a little more free time, so I made another attempt at figuring out the Buckeye trail near Lockington Dam. The parking lot was still closed off, but luckily, there are two parking lots. The second one was still open, but there is a caveat. It's a mile from the main parking lot, across the top of the dam.

I'll be honest, I am not 100% sure I have made that full walk between the two sides before. I did ride my bike across many years ago though. It was a great day though, so across the dam I went.

There were a few blazes near the far side, including at the picnic area. Still, I couldn't quite figure out the path from there. 

I explored some more, down onto a dirt trail, which required getting over some fallen trees. I am glad that I have the hiking pole as I climbed, even with the camera around my neck it was a great help. After about a mile and a half of hiking, I turned around and headed back to the car. I saw another paved trail to explore, but it didn't appear to be related to the Buckey Trail. 

I finally broke down once I was home and ordered the digital trail maps for the Buckeye Trail. I hardly touched it on the hike, but now I know where that is. With the main parking lot closed though, it might be a few hikes to finish exploring. 

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.