Carriage Hill MetroPark

I headed out with the camera for the first time this year, and because I needed to hit Target, it set me to finding a park near the store. I had the option of a few parks but settled on Carriage Hill Metropark. I had never been there before, so I put on my hiking shoes and headed down.

The weather wasn't nearly as nice as they said, although it did refrain from raining. Still, with rain the day before, the trails had sections of mud and some standing water. I figure that having hiking shoes means nothing if I am not willing to walk in the mud and puddles though. I did almost slip a few times, but I stayed upright. 

The trails were mostly empty, I did see a few people near the parking areas, and a few footprints further back in the woods, but it was a nice and quiet few miles in the woods. I still wish I had a longer lens for my a6000, a few birds got away from the camera, but really, the hike itself is what I needed. Now if I could have had some sunlight too... 

Spring will get here, eventually. Probably. And maybe I'll just carry two cameras. That'll show the birds. Probably not. A short hike with two cameras just seems like overkill.

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. 

Tricks and Treats

 

With so many things canceled this year, we were lucky enough to still have Kings Island up and running. Not all of the Cedar Fair parks were so lucky, but a trade-off is that Haunt was canceled for 2020. Thankfully, they did replace it with Tricks and Treats Fall Festival. I suspect some things were repurposed from the postponed Carnival festival, as the Mardi Gras colors were really strong in the costumes. Adding in the food festival though was a great thing.

Two years ago we went to a similar festival at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and had planned to take the kids this summer until everything closed. This wasn't quite as nice, but it was up there. There are a few things I tried I might get again, and being that Chef Major is great at his job, it was all great food. That being said, BGW had theirs set by countries, and that made it more exotic. To compare beyond that is like apples and oranges. It just wouldn't be fair. 

Having season passes, we arrived about an hour before the gates opened, and had to drive past the park and turn around to get into the car line. It was strange seeing the line of cars stretching out that far, but we try to get there early. We were in the park about half an hour before it officially opened, and managed to find the line for Orion to be quite short. Luck was on our side, and we managed to get the front row, and it was a great ride. 

We then headed over to the Beast, and I got my first ride on the Beast for this season. It is sort of amusing that I hadn't been on it this year, last year I actually worked on the ride, and I spent a lot of time in that part of the park. 

Once that was done, we were ready to start with the food festival. (It didn't start until an hour after the park opened.) We got our tasting lanyards (6 items for $30) and went into the Brewhouse to pass the remaining time until the tastings would start. 

I think the Brewhouse is probably one of the most underrated parts of Kings Island. It has some of the best food, and the pricing is not really any different than the rest of the park. As a kid, and even as an adult before I had kids, I avoided it because I thought it would be too expensive. It is now among my favorite food spots at the park, losing out to the Coney BBQ. It has great giant pretzels, which is worth it for that alone, but it has a great secret perk. If there is a line, you can get cups of water from the bar, and they use bigger cups. We have drink plans, but sometimes we want water, and the cups there are easily twice the size of the other food places. That and the bartender is great. I've hung out in there a number of times, hiding out from a storm, enjoying the AC, or catching up with friends.

Finally, the time for the food samples had arrived, and we began our next lap of the park. I can't say what my favorite items were, though I am leaning towards either the Death Dog or the Dragon's Breath Wings. (The El Chupacabra was a solid third place though.) Looking at the pictures, definitely the Death Dog. The jalapenos on it were fresh and crisp. I personally love when they are fresh like that, pickled jalapenos are just too salty for me. 

While doing all of this, my wife took the opportunity to do the Trick or Treat event. I think she was only disappointed that there was only one station with Utz Cheeseballs.

She also had the chance to get on one of the "game shows" the park was holding. She was given a Jelly Belly on camera by a host that I swear looked and sounded like Cedric Yarbrough. Hers was not toasted marshmallow. Nay, it was STINKBUG. She did win a box of horrible flavor jelly beans though. Seriously, ALL of them are the trick flavors. There are none of the good ones. (I actually am partial to the grass ones from a few years ago. I might need to eat more veggies.) 

The holiday theming was really great too. It wasn't the Haunt we were used to, but it was still nice. They had a pumpkin carving area where you could buy well-decorated pumpkins, and they had a few that we really liked. None that we would actually buy, but we haven't done pumpkins for many years. The Bender one was tempting though...

We also played a basketball game in Planet Snoopy. I wanted to get this weird pumpkin creature, which only needed four baskets out of seven to win. 

I got zero.

My wife tried after me, getting two, which was good for a winter koala. I think she will hold that against me for years to come, so there is that...

It was a fun trip though, but I still miss Haunt. 

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. 

Porygon Hunting

With the new school year starting, and with many things still down because of COVID restrictions, getting out and doing much has been a challenge for this month. It made my goal of two posts per week basically impossible, and I didn't have enough of a buffer to keep that up for long. 

A few weeks ago I ordered a new pair of hiking shoes, a pair of Dr. Martens Kamin hiking boots. I am nearing the end of the line for my second pair of DM Ajax 939 hiking boots, and these looked really neat and were only an extra $10. I liked the 939's that I had, though I wasn't a fan of the Ajax style leather's texture. I feel it made the boots look off for a few days after putting fresh Balsam on them. That being said, both of the pairs I had contained neon-colored leather on the shoes' collars that lit up under black light. (It's a weakness of mine.) 

Of course, being Dr. Martens, they need to be broken in, an epic struggle of will power that feels like it will never end, but ends with a shoe that feels great with no idea how there could have been a struggle to get there. I have already worn them out of the house a few times, but today was their first easy hike.

I headed out to a small county park where there is a half-mile boardwalk trail. Not really a test for the shoes per se, but since they are still breaking in, I didn't want to be a mile from the car in rough terrain and unable to walk. I actually made that mistake once with a pair of 1460s that were not broken in yet when I walked seven miles looking for a glove. I hope to have them on the real trails in a few weeks. 

Being that today was Porygon day for Pokemon Go, and the park actually had cell service, I attempted to catch a shiney Porygon. I didn't see any, but I did manage to take the gym. I guess there is some irony in hiking a nature preserve and hunting Pokemon, with signs about not taking items from the park or disturbing wildlife. Still, I got a decent short hike in. I probably should have done a second lap, but I misread the clock. 

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.