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. 

Clifty Falls

We arrived at the Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana about 12:30 AM on Saturday, for the three-day weekend. It was a dark drive, and one of the first real long drives of sorts in the new car. We got everything unloaded from the car into the hotel and were asleep rather quickly. It was really dark, we were tired, and all I knew what there was a giant pillar of smoke behind the hotel. (I looked it up, it was probably steam, the building being the powerplant for the area.)

A downside of getting there so late was that we didn't make it out for snacks on the way there. That is actually one of our big things for traveling, we get snacks and such once we know if there is a minifridge or not. We haven't gotten brave enough to try using Amazon grocery delivery yet, but hey. Our last two trips to Carmel had us a few blocks from Meijer. It was an easy drive there with the food, and across from a few restaurants. Both of our trips to New Orleans had us shopping at Rouses near the hotels. Ironically, Meijer in Carmel was closer than Rouses, but we didn't use a car in NOLA. Carrying a half case of water half of a mile to a hotel was not the best of plans...

We managed to eat at the buffet the first morning there, which I wasn't very happy with. The meat was cold, but I ate a lot. Enough that I hardly had room for dinner, for what that was worth. We did hit Walmart though, which would get us snacks and breakfast for the rest of the week. We got some exploring done, but not as much as we would like. A short hike on Saturday got us some great views of the town and the powerplant. I forgot my hiking sticks, which would have been great for the terrain.

To be fair, most trails that are near me are a lot flatter than Clifty Falls has. It had some great flat areas, but there were a lot more steep areas than I expected. I had planned a second hike originally, but I ended up skipping that when the snow started. I'm not sure if I had the right gear for that, and I wanted to use my camera. I don't know if that was the best decision, but I made it. 

On our last day there, while it wasn't showing, I struggled to decide between hiking and trying to trail run. I know there was a flat trail (according to the park) near the hotel, but I had some doubts, and with being trails and some fresh snow, I instead hiked back to the south entrance which was a long walk down a rather steep hill. Actually, the hike down wasn't bad. The walk back up the hill was the hard part. 

I don't know if I would want to stay at the inn again, at least not in winter. I didn't actually get around to seeing the waterfall the park is named for, but I also missed out on the railroad tunnel, which is closed until later in spring due to hibernating bats. I might need to make another trip out this way again, but I still have a lot of Ohio parks to catch up on. 

Davey Woods SNP

 

Getting back out to hike somewhere new is a rare thing anymore. It always feels like I am short on time, which doesn't help. Still, I managed to pull off a new location for a hike about half an hour from my house, and it was a nice change of scenery. My wife and I headed to Davey Woods, a State nature preserve not all that far from home. I bookmarked it last year to go to, but didn't ever make it. 

I found that the park was quite nearly the middle of nowhere, though I know there are a few State Parks nearby. Parking was just a small grass field, and a gate that was just there to keep cars out. 

I think this was the first time I have been to a State preserve, instead of a County based one. It was also the first time I have ever seen a warning about Feral Swine in Ohio. I remember a girl in college that I used to talk to, and she used to work with a blind person to hunt wild boar in South Carolina. I heard a few stories from her, and also some family members of mine that had moved down there. Honestly though, I had no idea wild bacon was a problem in Ohio. (I looked it up, and it seems like a problem on the far side of the state, but... they are edible. Thank you ODNR for that information.)

Walking past the wild pig sign, I have to admit, I still have the wild pig / wild boar joke from Robin Hood Men in Tights stuck in my head. Seriously, I don't think I saw any signs of pigs, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was just a pig-free day? 

There are only two trails at the preserve, and we were able to hit both of them easily. I think the trail was a bit more technical than we are used to, but not difficult. It wasn't nearly as bad as the trail at Kiser Lake last summer.

One thing that did stand out on this trail was a small cemetery. With what looked like three graves, and not really near anything else, it was a strange sight to see. 

Now, to be fair, they died about 150 years ago. I ran the numbers, and it was after the revolution, and we need to recognize that the local forest are often young growth.  There might have been trees before, maybe most were cleared out for lumber, and this is just reclamation. I am curious what it looked like there a century ago. I suppose I could just start carrying a tape measure in my hiking gear and measure a few trees to estimate their age. Maybe they are older than I thought, maybe not. (Part of me thinks it is too much hassle, but writing that into a program might be useful in a classroom. I think curiosity will win out.) 

Either way, I am glad to have gotten another hiking location out of the way, even if it wasn't going towards filling out my State Park guidebook.  I don't know if I would go back and hit this location again, purely due to it being out of the way, and not being all that long. At least it was a change of pace.

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. 

Testing out the new toys

 

I have been hiding out, waiting for hunting season to end, and finally got out with some new toys I picked up over the last few months. Winter is rough on me, but spring can be more fun, when it isn't raining.

I needed to put the new stuff through their paces, and get a solid hold on how they work. First out, I went over to Ludlow Falls, where I have taken pictures a few times before. Well, once, at least. I think it was long enough ago that it was on my Sony 828, although it might have been the Fuji S2. I can't find that archive at the moment, so it doesn't really matter. I arrived at the falls and parked behind a sheriff. I checked to make sure my parking job was ok, and he said he doubted it but didn't really care. He told me not to jump in the water and drove off. 

I'd like to think I am smarter than that. Largely because I can hardly swim, so yeah, I'm not cliff diving into a literal death trap. 

I headed to the upper observation area, and put on an ND1000 filter, and aimed for the waterfall. I have previously used ND filters to slow water down before, but I haven't done so in a long time. Even then it would have been with an ND 2 and 4 stacked. I am a little shaky on the math of it, but I think this new filter is about 3 times slower than the stack I had used before. 

But it worked great! Of course, the main observation area is nice, but... I wanted closer. By closer, I mean to the water, I was already as close to the falls as I could get. So I made my way down an old path to the streambed, and hiked back towards the falls, using my tripod for stability as I went. It was a little slippery, but I got as close to the falls and the middle of the channel as I could while staying dry. 

They may not be the most impressive falls in the land, but worth the hike. Still, I wasn't done testing out the new gear. I hiked back up to my car, and headed to another park I had only been to once before, and I think that was without a camera. 

The Blankenship Riverside Sanctuary is a small little park on the side of the road just outside Covington, Ohio. The most prominent feature seen as you drive by is the old closed-off bridge. Of course, driving by hides so much as well. Hiking the trail towards the fishing and canoe area (What kind of sanctuary allows fishing?) I noticed the bridge to the bridge.

From the road, and the parking lot as well, this looks like a driveway to the closed down bridge. The stonework on it was nice, and unless you hike down to see it, you wouldn't even know it was there.

 To me, it was far more impressive than the old steel bridge. 

I wasn't there though to play with the ND filter, I was instead putting my "new to me" zoom lens from KEH. It gives me much better zoom ability, but it is a heavy lens. I like the extra power it gives me, and it is a little easier to manual focus when I need to, but I like the lighter kit lens I started with for most things. This was really my third time taking the lens out, I used it once for some nice deer shots when I made sure it worked before my wife's birthday run, which I used it for as well. This was the first time I took it out using it to see what I could really do. Not testing it, not getting event pictures, but testing myself. 

I have plans to correct a wrong in a few weeks. Last year I went to Hocking Hills for astrophotography, I plan to go back and actually get pictures on the trails. I hear it is too good of a park to have missed it in the daytime. Then I will see what I can do, and both lenses are going to be pushed as far as I can take them.

Busy few months

 It has been a busy few months, moving towards full time at work and the long daily drives that come from that. I haven't been out an about as much, as that really kicked in as I recovered from the injury I sustained at the Locks in October. 

That isn't to say that I haven't done anything, just nothing eventful per se. I  actually came in 3rd of 4 in my age group at a local 5k, and I did come up with a plan for hiking until hunting season is over. I might test that out this weekend, it is too soon to tell. 

I do need to find some extra time to explore next to where I work as well. A few weeks back, when I needed to get some fresh air due to health issues, I was going to do a quick walk to the park next to where I was working. In doing so, I found a trail! 

What is really strange about this was that when I looked up the park, that trail wasn't the trail on the park map. So... There should be at least an adventure worth taking on. Maybe that will be the next day off for me since I am not about to go hiking very far in my work clothes. Sure, I did go about 0.2 miles down that trail, but that isn't the same thing as 3 miles. 

I'll be glad when hunting season is over, I miss the State Parks. Still, I think I have found some safe places to hike until then, but only if I can get out the door. 

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. 

Breaking in the boots, pt 2

I made another attempt to break in my new boots today, and it started out well. My wife needed half an hour of walking still for a Strava challenge, and since I needed a shorter hike to work on breaking in the boots, we hit the Buckeye Trail again. 

I took my pocket camera this time, a Sony DSC-W800 that I got right at the start of the pandemic for the portability, in that it fits in my pocket. Handy for a quick walk I guess, though I had an older version that fit well into my running belt. For hiking though, I am not sure that I am a fan. I might just need to adjust to it, and maybe I am spoiled by my APS-C sensor cameras. It does seem easier to edit from the Raw files compared to starting with JPG, and the grain on the larger cameras is much nicer. 

From the parking lot, we only went about half an hour onto the trail, minus time to the trailhead. It isn't that I am complaining, I'm still breaking in the shoes. We turned around where a tree fell across the path, which worked out well. I was halfway between the trailhead and my car when the pain started. 

Pain is normal, sometimes. The new boots still had a negligible amount of distance on them, and this really added to them. Dr. Martens really can take a bit to break in, but they are feeling better already. I mean, yeah, another few blocks and I would have been bleeding from my Achilles, but that's the price to pay. I should be able to wear them without issue by Halloween, as long as that doesn't get canceled too. 

It was all misadventure

Charleston Falls is the most popular of Miami County's parks, and ironically, the only one with trails that are mapped in my Fenix. I had the day off, so after dropping my youngest off at school with his band stuff for the year, I headed over.

I took my camera equipment along because I wanted to attempt a long exposure shot of the waterfall, and I do like taking pictures. The parking lot was a little over half full, which surprised me for a weekday morning. That being said, it was far from crowded.

The first thing I noticed as I entered the woods was that it looked like someone had thinned out the trees. A lot. There were many trees cut or knocked down, and it just felt wrong. Maybe there was a reason for it, or maybe it was my imagination. I honestly am not sure.

I continued down the trail to the overlook for the falls. Or it would have been, had the falls been flowing. Sadly, no, I would not be photographing the falls today. So, plan B, the Observation Deck. I took the path down past what would have been the falls and hiked onward. I had thought about going to the observation deck from the beginning, but it wasn't my reason for being at the park. My last time going to the deck was cut short because of bees, and I wasn't sure where on the map it was. I continued on until I got to a junction in the trail that had a map. That map told me I just walked past the tower and somehow didn't notice. 

I admit, I may have been looking at my phone a little while trying to figure out if there was an easy way to attach geospatial data to the photographs, but I didn't think I paid that little attention to my surroundings. I turned around and doubled back to find.... nothing. Maybe not quite nothing, there was a suspicious patch of gravel. I thought to myself that maybe I read that map wrong. I mean, yeah, I have a degree in Geography, but maybe I just misread it. I turned down another path that intersected near where the observation deck was supposed to be and continued on into much thicker woods. No observation deck. I knew I had climbed it a few years earlier, so it had to be somewhere. I didn't find it though. Thinking that it just wasn't worth it, I went back towards my car. 

Near the trailhead I found a park employee doing maintenance. I asked about the observation deck and was informed that it had been torn down without the maps being updated. So... I guess that gravel was the location of the previous deck. 

I can't say that it was a waste of a trip though. I did get a little over two miles of hiking in, with a decent mix terrain. Had I known that the falls were dried up, I would have left the tripod in the car, and probably would have taken my hiking stick as well. There were a few places it would have been helpful to have had. I guess I will just have to make another trip out there, especially while I wait for hunting season to end around the other regional trails. It does look nice when it ices over after all. 

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. 

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.