On the Way to the Train

 I have made it to Ohio and am at Marianne's for a few hours before I head to the train station which is only about 40 minutes from here.

The North Country Trail is literally across the street from her house. But I thought I was going to go about a mile away and hike a paved section to stay out of the wet woods.

But, nope. That was mostly closed for maintenance, so I went the other direction into the woods. It's March, so I pretty much knew what to expect. And... yup.

I was able to stay up in the woods out of the water and ice. One section was actually nice.

This little creek (no name) was winding attractively through the landscape.

I have to say that 53 degree weather was pretty awesome! I heard sandhill cranes, and Marianne heard frogs. I walked 2.5 miles.

The big joke is that we had a little dis-communication and I sat in her driveway for 30 minutes thinking she wasn't home yet, and she was already in the house! But we got connected.

I will nap and then head for the train station at 1:30. That should give me plenty of time to find everything even in the dark.

NCT miles hiked in 2025: 8.5. Pretty sad, but I'm back to taking walks, and I have plenty of time.

See A Day of Favorites

Searching for a Touch of Spring

 I am in northwest Ohio, and the NCT is just across the road in Oak Openings Metropark. Had to take a little walk.

Just for the oddity of it, here is yet another method of marking turns on the NCT. When the land manager does not allow the standard blazing, creative things happen. The thing I'm talking about is the little arrow on top of a single blaze.

Since I am far south of my latitude, I was hoping I would find some wildflowers. For a while there, it didn't seem as if I would find any. But the skunk cabbage is already getting leaves, so I was hopeful.

Yeah! I did find some Virginia Spring Beauty. Claytonia virginiana

One alien roadside plant, but I'll pretty much take anything that is blooming. This is purple Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum

This is pretty cool- a red admiral was flitting around

We had a nice dinner. Chicken and salad/salsa and tater tots.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 186.6 of which 66.6 is North Country Trail.

North Country Trail, Oak Openings Metropark, Ohio. Reed Rd to Whitehouse-Swanton Road and back, plus road. 2.8 miles

In other news: Marianne helped me make some good decisions about the formatting of my book and then I worked on it for a few hours.

See A Day of Favorites

Quiverheart

 An amazing day. Nikki planned a big event, the kind of thing she puts together in conjunction with her LIVER-ee. She leads hikes and various adventures. She played on my "celebrity" status, and organized a "hike with Joan" event at one of the newest nature preserves in the Arc of Appalachia system. People paid to walk with me. This sort of blows my mind. In fact, it's so new that the map isn't even on the web site yet, but it will be in just a few days.

This first picture is just for attention. Bill, me, Nikki, and Kim Baker. She and her husband Dave donated the land for the preserve, and they are now the caretakers. They maintain the trails, and are working hard to eradicate invasive plants. The Arc of Appalachia guides the decisions for plant preservation, etc.

I spent a lot of time talking to Kim.

Here's the requisite group picture. Kim and Dave did interpretation for us (they are not in the group pic).

The first feature you come to is Quiverheart Falls. I can't tell you much detail about the geology of this area, but there are a whole lot of narrow, steep ravines whose creeks feed into Ohio Brush Creek (where Nikki's livery is). This is one of them. It's 200 feet deep, almost invisible from the road which is up on the Allegheny Plateau. Bundle Run flows down it, and this is the largest falls. I chose a long shot because I think you get a better sense of the scale with the rock wall beside it.

This picture gives some idea of the depth, and this isn't even from the bottom.

Just like all the eroded edges along the Allegheny Plateau, erosion creates clefts in the limestone, and then big blocks calve off. I took this picture because it's so much the same situation as Rock City in New York state, where the trail goes right down one of those cracks.

One feature is this great hanging shelf cave, very typical of southern Ohio and Kentucky.

Along most of the walk, Bundle Run was just a stream in the bottom of the brown (because it's winter) valley. However, below the cave, the rocks are moss-covered. There is also another waterfall that ripples down slightly angled rocks, much like Laughing Whitefish Falls in the UP, but smaller. This may be a feeder creek to the run. The trail map will not be available until the web site goes live in a few days. Supposedly Tuesday, but things happen, right? Anyway, I can't place the trails in the landscape accurately without that. I didn't have enough signal to track it.

This is a really special place. This whole area, the region that hits the edge of the Appalachian Mountains has really diverse biology and habitats. Over the years, I've had the chance to visit several other preserves in the area and hear about their unique features. Even in winter, there were some great plants to see. You know I was zoomed in on those.

One really fun one is walking fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. One of the ways it propogates is the long tips of the leaves will root and thus the fern "walks" across a rock face. I've seen this several places in the south, but was shocked to discover that it also grows in Michigan, even in the UP. The critical feature seems to be not temperature, but substrate such as limestone. The ones I've seen in Kentucky were much larger.

This is an orchid, Puttyroot, Aplectrum hyemale. I've never seen it in bloom. Very, very cool.

I also learned a couple of new-to-me invasives, and found one plant that neither Kim, I, or any of the apps can identify. I'm sure it's nothing totally weird, but I'll have to keep investigating.

After the walk (3.5 really muddy miles- this morning's weather was good but the recent rains made the Ohio clay just a slime pit), we went just around the corner for lunch. Some of us ordered pizza. It was really, really good.

I am going to have to come back in the growing season. They have a number of plants I've never seen, and especially some rare ones. Kim and I hit it off, so I might. And Nikki is here, and the NCT/Buckeye Trail is not far away. You can locate them with a seach for Quiverheart Nature Preserve, and the map will be available soon at Arc of Appalachia

Fantastic day!

Quiverheart Nature Preserve, Peebles, OH, Quiverheart Falls and Whispering Fern Trails. 3.5 hilly miles

See Stop 10

Stop 10- Nikki... and Bill

  This is stop number 10, and states 13 and 14. This will by my last unique state for this trip. I still have to go through Indiana and Michigan, but I also did them while outward bound. MI, IN, IL, IA, OK, MO, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, KY, OH

I'm with Nikki at Moondoggie Liveree. I met her two years ago tomorrow! (when she hosted me and my trailer- and Bill and Denali- on my hike) And look who else showed up. It's Bill! This feels like an amazing reunion.

I had something special in mind for my mid-drive-hike-break. The southern terminus of the Sheltowee Trace trail wasn't out of the way at all. I thought I was going to share some links from when Marie and I hiked a couple other pieces of it when we did our Red River Gorge trip. However, there were no blog posts from that hike. (A real shame, because it was gorgeous) Then I remembered that it was the trip from electronics 7734. My computer fried itself. In fact, that was the computer where I actually lost some of the contents of the hard drive. I think I posted some pics on Facebook from my phone, but then the phone also went belly up. Anyway... That trip had some GREAT hikes, and it was when I discovered this trail.

Sheltowee is the name the Shawnee gave to Daniel Boone. It means Big Turtle. The trail is now 319 miles long and runs through the Big South Fork National River Area, and Daniel Boone National Forest. The turtle on the marker is its logo.

This is a National Recreation Trail. NRTs may or may not be for foot travel. This one is. They do not have the same status as National Scenic or Historic Trails, but they are recognized at a federal level. The primary feature of today's hike was rock walls. Very cool rock walls.

This ran along the banks of the Clear Fork river. I did a loop that was uphill both ways. I'll explain that later. After the day and a half of rain, the river was running high. In some places it was calmer, but in other places the water was turbulent enough to form standing waves over rocks.

All that rain made every small creek run stong, and there were numerous waterfalls that probably don't even happen most of the year.

Here's how the trail was uphill in both directions. The river makes a complete horseshoe bend. I started at the middle of the bend and walked upstream on the west portion. Then the trail climbs the ridge between the two parts of the river. That was about 200 feet higher. Then the trail does go downhill to get to the eastern part of the river. On the way down it follows a little creek.

Once you reach the river again, you are now walking south, but the river is now flowing north because of that bend! So you are walking uphill again to get back to the parking area. Tricky, right? If I had gone the other direction, it would have been mostly downhill. Of course, this is all semantics since it's a loop. The net elevation change is zero, but it feels weird.

I was able to do a loop that included 2.3 miles of the Sheltowee Trace, and then 1.7 return miles on the Burnt Mill Bridge Trail to get back to the car. With the sections Marie and I did in Red River Gorge, I've hiked perhaps 10 miles of the Sheltowee. I might be able to figure it out from my records, but if I ever did hike this whole trail, I'd just do the segments again that we did in 2019 for the continuity. Junctions were well marked, and the trail has been well-constructed, not just thrown across the landscape.

Other highlights include seeing a little garter snake in January.

And, finding American climbing fern, Lygodium palmatum. I MAY have seen this one in the Red River Gorge, but I'll have to check back through the pictures. At any rate, I haven't seen it very often.

I entered Ohio at dusk on the Simon Kenton bridge. Not a great picture, but I thought the lights were cool.

And early this morning, I discovered I was driving a portion of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail!

Just one more detail for the day. Owen did not want to be left out. He is Lin and Joe's cat, but he sort of thinks he's a dog.

The weather was wonderful. Warmest day of the trip yet. I hiked in shirtsleeves and it was 60 degrees. When I was with Nikki two years ago, we experienced what turned out to be the coldest temperatures of the entire NCT hike with one morning at -6 degrees!

Sheltowee Trace and Burnt Mill Loop Trail, Tennessee, 4.0 miles

See Rainy Day Fun

Best Photos of March 2022

Here are the best of the pictures I took from March 2022. I need to step up the speed of going through pictures. I have a program coming up quickly.

From March 2022, I've chosen what I think are the 10 best pictures to share, but there is a reason I don't like March. There's not much color. I always call it the gray and brown month.

I am saying these pictures are "best," not because they necessarily tell the story best, but because I think they are simply the best actual photographs. I've left them full size, so you can click on them and see them larger. That always makes photos look better. Every single one is tweaked a bit to reduce the blah, flat look of low light sky.

These are again, all in Ohio, but they get me almost to the Pennsylvania border.

This one is some of the pointed Ohio hills that eroded from a plateau, with farms.

My one artsy-fartsy shot for March that looks like anything.

Once in a while, there is a good photo that also tells the story of the hike.

Piedmont Lake on an almost sunny day. This isn't a spectacular photo, but as I said, nice lighting was hard to come by in March.

There weren't very many days with a lot of snow, but this was one of them.

Another hiker in the brown woods picture, but the valley in the middle helps.

And another snowy road. Can you tell I'm rather unimpressed with the March offerings?

More farms on hills. I actually love scenes like this, but as far as photos go, I didn't manage to take many nice ones.

Little Beaver Creek in the State Park of the same name.

Probably the best picture of the month has nothing to do with hiking. Bill took Sue and me out to eat at the Spread Eagle Tavern in Hanoverton, which is a hyper-historic canal town. It was a lovely place!

I should be in hyper mode myself. I have tons to do. But I'm having trouble getting motivated.

See Best Pictures of February 2022

Best Pictures of February 2022

I went through the pictures I took from February 2022. I'm beginning to percolate ideas for the new program I need to put together. I also checked on getting permission to use a song I would like. Not happening. The cheapest plan is $1000. There are other options, but I thought I might as well check.

From Febraury 2022, I've chosen what I think are the 10 best pictures to share. I am calling them "best," not because they necessarily tell the story best, but because I think they are simply the best actual photographs. I've left them full size, so you can click on them and see them larger. That always makes photos look better.

They are chronological, so don't try to develop any meaning to the order! The are all Ohio. You may remember that Ohio was l-o-n-g.

This one is the farm of one of our favorite host families, Jeff and Kathy Crisler.

Denali hiking through the winter landscape.

And some winter landscape. There was a lot of it!

The focus isn't perfect on this, but I'm still pretty happy with it. I'm amazed that I caught the moment and that it's fairly good. A red-shouldered hawk.

This was the morning of stunning ice and blue sky. OK, you can see that for yourself. But it was hard for the camera to see the sparkles.

This one is more subtle, but I like the colors and textures, and the shaded halves of the tree trunks. Shawnee State Forest, I think. Near it, anyway.

Honeycombed rock is everywhere in Ohio. It needs the contrast with some sharp angles to make it stand out.

Next, we have water in the mill race at Stockport.

This is the back of a drying mushroom. No clue what one.

This is the Devil's Bathtub at Hocking Hills. Notice the waterfall, bottom left.

I did shopping and a bunch of errands in the morning, then my energy sort of ran out. I still did stuff in the afternoon, but nothing too physical.

See Best Pictues of January 2022