Reptiles, Living History, Kayak, Rock, Arch

 September 21, 2019. On this day we did a couple of touristy things, but two of them pretty much happened by accident. Perhaps you can tell from the title that we packed the day full.

The first one was purposeful. We went to a museum that had reptiles of Kentucky. It was pretty interesting, but most of the critters weren't labeled. You know how I feel about that. These might be a red-eared sliders.

Then we happened to stumble on a living history day. This was really interesting. It was at a reconstructed log house at Gladie. There were all kinds of displays of historic crafts, and lots of Native American crafts as well. Kids got to start a fire without matches, try their hands at grinding corn by hand, etc.

Here are some woven mats.

This is the interior of the Gladie Cabin. The event was huge, and free to the public. We could have stayed much longer, but...

We had stumbled on this opportunity the day before, and even though it was pricey, we decided that would be our big splurge. This is a kayak tour through an old limestone mine, all underground.

The day was fading, but that was perfect to visit Chimney Top Rock because the late light was hitting it nicely. This was only a short walk from the car.

And... we still had time to squeeze in one more arch, another very short walk. This one is Princess Arch.

You can never say that we don't know how to pack a day!

This will end my series on Kentucky for now. We hiked one more day on interesting trails, but nothing as spectacular, and visited a couple of places on the way home.

I think tomorrow I'll share the end of season garden goodies, and then I'll be on my way on Wednesday!

In news at home: I am within sight of completing the two big paperwork/computer projects! Errands, laundry, mowed (just one more piece to go tomorrow), some dealing with plants because it will certainly frost once or twice before I get home, some packing (that's also almost done but is awaiting a few odds and ends). I also got to spend about an hour with Cathy. Her girls are all there and are acting as gatekeepers because all kinds of people want to come by and help do something. Doug was much loved in the community. But Bekah let me know that Cathy would like to see me before I left. She's doing as well as can be expected.

See Auxier Ridge Trail

Auxier Ridge Trail

  September 20, 2019. We decided to take on a longer, hillier hike. We did the Auxier Ridge Trail- about six miles along a rdige, then down into the central valley and then back up again. There are two interesting, named rocks you see from the trail. This is Haystack.

And this one is called Courthouse Rock.

This is another hike from which you get awesome views of the Red River Gorge.

After you climb back up the other side, you visit Double Arch. See the narrow slit above the main arch? This view is actually from the first ridge, because once you are under the arch, you can't see the slit.

The climbs down and up are so steep there are a lot of stairs to accomplish the elevation changes.

Here we are with the view from Double Arch behind us.

We felt pretty good about this challenging hike.

In other news today: Things are getting real about needing to be ready to leave. I worked on my projects, I mowed half the yard, I got almost all my gear checked in. I crossed another big item off my list, but all I really did is put it away because I've lost a computer file I needed to do it right. It must have been one of the things I truly lost in the great computer crash that happened on the trip I'm showing you today. I'll have to rebuild it, and that isn't happening in the next two days.

See Natural Bridge and Rocks

Spirit of the Woods Hike- September 2026

 I missed the August hike because I was at a vendor event. Today, we had about 35 hikers! Huge group, but they get spread out pretty quickly due to different hiking speeds.

Except for a hike at the Trail Fest, this was my last chance to get in a good workout. Four of us quickly moved to the front of the pack. Roxy (L) is a regular, Barb (C), and Amber (R) were first timers with our group. We had some good talks about trail stuff.

This was at 96th St, which is our chapter's southern boundary. But I wanted to go farther before turning around. I think others did too, but I went on alone, because I knew I was probably going the longest distance of anyone.

I went until I hit where an old logging RR crosses the trail before I turned around. I had told the hike leader not to worry about waiting for me to return since I was going farther, but the guy (one of our Dans) who was sweep (the person who stays at the end and makes sure we don't lose anyone) did stay and I met up with him on the way back. That was actually very nice, because we hadn't had a good talk for quite a while. We have quite a bit in common.

I like this little grouping of mushrooms. No clue what they are.

Our chapter has added a couple of structural items on this section this year. One is the other trail register. I've talked about it, and showed pictures the day we installed the northern one. This just proves we have the other one. It's beside the Ed Chappel boardwalk and deck which was built 2009-2011.

Also added in 2026 are two of these little bridges with turnpike approaches over seasonally wet (and sometimes with running water) areas. You can look at these and just know that Pete built them. They are perfect.

There will be one more work project in this area this year, to put on the rest of the traction strips. Today was a good test of those because there was some heavy rain in the night and the wood was slimy. We put one strip in the center of every other 2x6 decking board. It is possible to slip with this spacing, especially if you have small feet. But if you are careful to get either the ball or heel of your shoe on a strip they are great. The Forest Service is again providing these for us. They are expensive, but they will last much better than any other option. I'll miss that work day, and the October hike.

I've done a few things to get ready since getting home, but I figured with a long hike, I'd be pretty tired.

Miles walked in 2026: 312
NCT miles walked in 2026: 122.7

North Country Trail from Jenks Rd TH to RR grade south of 96th St and back. Lake and Newaygo Counties, MI. NCT 4 miles each way, extra to get to car because parking was really full! 0.8 mile. Total 8.8 miles.

See Spirit of the Woods Hike - July 2026

Natural Bridge and Rocks

 September 19, 2019. We didn't walk as far this day, only about 3 miles. But we wanted to see the most famous arch in the area, called Natural Bridge (not to be confused with Natural Arch). This is the view from the top of the arch, er... bridge.

And here is the top of the arch. Looks like a bare trail, right? Well, it is- it's just that after you get out past the ends where trees can grow, it's only as wide as the stone.

This is another arch you could walk on top of or below. Here is one end from below.

Aand looking the other direction

This was another fantasyland day. The staircases were just magical.

Our other goal for the day was to see Balanced Rock. The branches obscure it a bit, but I think you can see the shape.

Here's another interesting geological thing we saw throughout the park. This is called Liesegang banding. It's not totally understood, but it is almost always found in sedementary rock. I thought it was really cool.

In other news: I don't think I covered yesterday but they are the same. I concentrated on the two biggest projects and made good progress. If only there weren't a lot of other things on the list too. Also went shopping and got a bunch of food for the trip.

Not a quality item: If you made it this far and are local, you know it is "our" Doug who drowned on Wednesday. My friend Cathy's husband. The name has now been publicly released. Impossibly sad, but we know he has gone to his heavenly home. It's just hard to understand the timing and mechanism of his transition.

See Arch, Point, Tunnel, Bridge

Arch, Point, Tunnel, Bridge

 September 18, 2019. I'm skipping the 17th for now. We took a day and went to the Kentucky State Botanical Garden. That was awesome, but I'll save that for another time.

Our first destination for the day was Gray's Arch. This is one of the biggest ones at about 80 feet high. Very impressive. But it was hard to get pictures because it's surrounded with trees.

Our biggest goal of the day was to find a trail that goes to Hanson's Point. It's not on the official maps, but everyone said we shouldn't miss it, and that it wasn't hard to find. So we went hunting, and it was well worth it.

This trail goes out on a peninsula of land that sticks out into the central valley. The peninsula gets narrower and narrower as you approach the end. Near the end of the point it's bare rock.

The views from there were the most far-reaching we'd seen. The valley is the Red River Gorge.

This is a fun item. I zoomed the picture in, but there is a tower of rock out there that isn't eroded away. It's called "Revenuer's Rock" because supposedly moonshiners operated out there during prohibition. No one could get to them undetected.

Then we drove through the Nada (say NAY-duh) Tunnel. This was hand cut in 1910 as a railroad tunnel for logging. Now it's a single-lane road tunnel. Yes, it's the small dark rectangle at the bottom of that pile of red rocks. It's 900 feet long.

We had just one more stop to make for the day. We wanted to walk the suspension bridge for the Sheltowee Trace across the Red River. I'm glad we got to walk it then, because it was destroyed in floods last year. There's a walkaround if the water is too deep to cross. Guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

We walked about 8 miles that day.

In other news: I hunkered down and worked on my projects. Time is running out, and I had to add another one that I had forgotten about to the list. Yikes!

See Seven More Arches