Day Off- SkyBridge

 Today was a day off... well from long hiking. There wasn't much about it that was restful. More on that momentarily. But we started out on what we thought would be a short, easy trek that Diane could participate in. This is the trail to SkyBridge Arch. It was one of my favorite arches and the loop trail past it is only 0.7 mile.

The trail you see above is actually the top of the arch. Diane made it out to there.

From that point you can see the whole span of the central Red River gorge. This is Revenuer's Rock that we could also see from Hansen's Point when Marie and I were here before.

But Bill and I did the whole loop to go down beside SkyBridge Arch. It's truly spectacular. Yes, the other pictures are up on top of that arch.

Most of the rest of the day was spent playing campground roulette. The primitive campsite I had chosen to go to next turned out to be a little too primitive. Getting down the road to it was so bad that the travel time to use the site (with no amenities) just wasn't worth it. Cell service here is so bad that communications are a real problem. But we now have the next two sites reserved, and perhaps a refund for the snafu when we checked in at the place we are now. We ate one meal out.

Not very restful, but I crossed off several things from the to-do list. The serious rain never materialized, but the weather for the next week looks very good. Tomorrow we walk the trail.

Miles walked in 2026: 411.1

SkyBridge Loop Trail, Red River Gorge, KY. 0.7 mile

See Sheltowee Trace- Day 8- Magical

Sheltowee Trace- Day 1

 Bill and I were hiking at 8:09 this morning. That was awesome. It didn't heat up badly until after 2 pm. Here we are at the Northern Terminus.

OUr very first blaze of this hike! The trail is blazed pretty much adequately. Here it's nail-up blazes like this one and some arrows. The treadway was about half packed earth, and half loose rock. The footing on that can be difficult. Things are really dry. We would have had wet feet most of the day, but none of the stream crossings had any water.

A lovely Frittalary on some Wingstem flowers. Not going to look up what kind- I'm fading fast.

We started with a climb. Then we were up on a ridge for most of the day. The afternoon had a big down, then an up and down, and one final up. Not many views from the ridge though. This is the best I could get.

When we crossed one of the creeks (sorry, I'm not going to look that up either. Maybe I'll do a better job another day) there was this swinging bridge. Kind of fun, kind of weird. It does swing.

Up to the top of the next ridge. Shades of North Dakota- we shared the space with some cows. Of course you know I'll compare this to the NCT. The poison ivy is like Ohio. It hangs off the trees in an attempt to grab you. The loose rock is like New York.

We took the requisite selfie at the beginning. It's so wonderful to have Diane to take care of us. She had food ready pretty much when we got back to camp. She does a lot of the details that chew up time away from hiking. And she says she's having fun being with us.

The part that's pure Kentucky? We got in seed ticks again, like in 2019. This time I knew what had happened right away and proactively worked hard to get the little nasties off. Last time, they made me sick. But I think we acted fast enough and have the situation under control.

The temperature, depending on the thermometer made it to something between 87 and 92. Hot, very hot. I was strugging a bit the last 1.5 miles, but I made it. And the mileage... the trail wasn't exactly on the line in the FarOut app in a couple of places. The official mileage was 13.8. Bill's tracker said 14.2, but I thiink I'll stick with the 13.8.

Miles walked in 2026: 337.6
Miles walked on the Sheltowee Trace this trip: 13.8

Sheltowee Trace, Northern Terminus to Rt 799. 13.8 miles

See Three Amigos Roughing It

Three Amigos Roughing It

 We three are getting very comfortable with working together in camp. (Diane, Bill, me)

Today was all about reorganizing the stuff and getting ready to hike tomorrow. Of course that included some errands in town, so you can see how hard we roughed it. (Not much). We picked up a roasted chicken and a bag of salad with chocolate for dessert.

We have those who would like us to share our dinner.

There are four of them, and they come right up to the table. One looks older and three are young and skinny. We are trying to be really careful about the tents and car doors. Diane got a picture of one of them begging.

The larger visitors aren't very worried about people either. This is right next to our campsite.

Tomorrow we hike. We checked out the trailheads and are all packed up! Hoping to be out at the crack of dawn.

See To Kentucky

Did You Guess Diane?

I would suspect that you had prior information if you guessed Diane because she hasn't been part of my regular circuit until recently although we knew each other as children. We have so many interests in common that we became instant adult friends.

We packed the day just about as full as possible. It began with a puppy fix for me. The white puppy is Nola and the black lab is Tula.

Their owner is a man I also haven't seen since childhood. His name is Gary. He is younger than I am, but I was quite good friends with his older sister. We are no longer children as you can probably tell. (I think the last time I saw him, I was taller than he was.) He treated us to coffee and homemade lemon cookies. Yum!

Next up was a little hike. Diane has been able to up her mileage quite a lot since last summer. She gave me local choices and we walked to a place I've featured on the blog quite often, but I think the last time I did this particular hike was around 1970.

We walked up the Taughannock gorge. It's hard to get a sense of the perspective, but those rock walls are about 500 feet high.

This trail takes you to the base of Taughannock Falls. This is 215-foot free fall drop, considered the highest free drop east of the Rockies.

The walk in to the falls and back was 1.9 miles.

All the pictures I've shown on the blog before today were taken from an overlook that is along one of the edges of the bluff. I took another of those today, but I won't post it. The one I will share is that if you walk a short way along a different trail from that upper overlook you can get much closer to the falls. I think this shot gives you a better sense of the power of the water. It was really noisy from this vantage point. All the sound of the falling water and ice was rising right up the rock walls!

Then we went up to the museum. Diane is Village Historian. I gave them the quilt made by Frances Leary.

And she wanted to show me this. It's an accordion that was donated. I've never seen one like it at all, so I wasn't very helpful. But it was fun. A few of the buttons still play notes.

The day was not done, but I didn't take more pictures except the selfie. We listened to a web seminar about trails, we got chicken wings for dinner from the local Sportsman's Club (honey mustard), and then we looked at some more of my family's genealogy. She has discovered a few more things that I didn't know. She's amazing!

There is no clue for tomorrow, because it's so obvious it needs no clue except maybe this- who is my best friend in the universe? I'll head out first thing in the morning.

Miles walked in 2026: 51

Taughannock Falls SP, New York, gorge trail and part of north rim trail, 2.3 miles.

See Did You Guess Elaine?

Transition to Civilization?

The day began with a civilized and very good (and huge) breakfast at a cafe next to the motel.

Then we had to say goodbye to Marie (always a sad event for me). But we drove to Diane's where were were welcomed and hosted yet again! Yeah, we are on the way home, but in stages.

Diane has pretty flowers on her deck...

... and a cannon in her driveway!

Perhaps this is one of the reasons Diane and I have become friends so fast... she has as varied interests as I do, and she isn't neatly predictable.

OK, it's a reproduction cannon, but it really fires. She and some of her family members have been taking part in civil war reenactments for years. It's in her driveway waiting for the paint to dry after its yearly touchup.

No hiking occurred except a short walk around the block for Bill and me after dinner (yet more delicious food provided by Diane).

See Low to High

Day Nine- to South Lake

Getting ready for another two days of backpacking. Diane fed us french toast and sausages for breakfast (early). We are living pretty high on the hog. Worst part of the morning was that it rained quite a bit during the night, but things looked like they were going to improve for the day.

It took three hours to spot the cars. Only 17 trail miles, but not many roads to connect them. Along the way, we had to do more tree clearing. Some sawing of limbs again (do we get paid by the road commission?), but one place there were chunks of a broken limb in the middle of the road. I hopped out to sling them off the side and discovered a small semi-casualty of the fallen limb.

It seemed to be only dazed, but barely able to fly, if at all yet. I think it's a chickadee. We moved it to the side and hope mama comes to find it.

This kind of landscape looks so much like northern Minnesota. Not a lot of places like this, but interesting.

This wetland seems to be on the way to becoming a bog with mats of sphagnum moss collecting on the surface.

A beautiful pitcher plant in full bloom.

Our main goal was to get past South Lake. This is a favorite spot of mine just because the bridge is so weird. It spans the lake, and it was damaged somehow in the past (ice?) so it's all at crazy angles. But it's sturdy, just slopey.

It was the weekend, and we saw some other hikers. Two were notable in that they seemed to not have a brain between them. They knew where they had started hiking (where we were headed), so I knew what trail they must have followed. (But they didn't know where they were hiking to.)

I asked them if they had crossed South Lake bridge. (It was less than a mile behind them). They had no clue. I ask you, "Is not that bridge memorable if you had just crossed it?" Anyway... we had hoped to stop for the night at West Canada Creek shelter. But the other hikers thought it was occupied.

So we were walking along trying to decide where we wanted to stay when this campsite appeared beside us. We had no problem making the instant decision to make it ours.

We only hiked 8 miles, but they were difficult. Lots of mud and rocks and a big climb. We were happy to eat dinner and crawl in the tents away from the bugs. However the weather was great. We are being smiled upon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 282.3
Miles hiked on NCT 2025: 166.1

New York, Adirondacks, North Country Trail, Indian River TH to just past South Lake, 8 miles

See Being Flexible

Day Seven- Food, Friends, Fire

One of the requirements for a day off is ice cream!

Then Bill and I went hunting for our next free campsite, east of where we had been. We found an adequate one that was quite nice. Next event was the arrival of Diane, here to spot us for the next few days.

Bill and I had set up our tents, and the potty cabana out in the trees. Diane quickly added her tent and we are suddenly a village.

Some actual resting occurred!

Diane wanted to bring food for us for the evenings and breakfasts. Sounded good to us! I forgot to picture the dinner, but it was a yummy bean and veggie one-pot meal, and homemade cookies for dessert.

For the first time in a long while an evening on a hike was relaxed enough that we built a campfire.

The mosquitoes haven't been as terrible as usual for June in the Adirondacks, but they ramped up a little yesterday, and the smoke helped keep them at bay.

With storms predicted or not, and every weather site disagreeing and changing every ten minutes, we will decide which phase of this trip to do next in the morning.

See Racing for the Motel

A Ludington Day

 It was miserably hot today. I had to do some work in the morning, but then we headed for Ludington. It's usually 10 degrees cooler in Ludington in the summer and that was true today. We went for lunch at House of Flavors and split a Great Lakes Cranberry Wrap. Yum.

Then we drove around and looked at a few historic buildings and places. The beach was next. Pure Ludington, although things are winding down for the season since many schools have already started.

The goal was to walk out to the Lighthouse, which we did.

Nothing but blue lake and sky behind us!

Then we went back to House of Flavors for ice cream. I mean, we do know what HOF is for!

After that it was home again to do a few tasks around the house, but it was so hot we ended up watching a few funny videos.

The goal of the evening was to watch the Badger come in. That's a favorite Ludington pass-time, but I haven't done it anytime recently. I'm glad we went. Here she comes. See her?

I'm pretty sure you can find her now. She's being escorted by a Sheriff's boat. Also the Ludington Harbor Patrol was on duty. There have been some problems lately with small boats not staying out of the way, so they may have upped the escort presence.

Just a reminder. This is the only remaining coal-fired passenger ship in the U.S., and it's a registered Historic Landmark. The Badger and its sister ship the Spartan (also docked at Ludington but not seaworthy) are the two largest such ships ever built.

It has to turn around to dock because vehicles and any cargo are loaded off the back. You may remember that part of the docking system broke last summer and they lost about a third of the sailing season. But that's all fixed, with a new "apron" and counterweights. Watching it do that maneuver is quite interesting. Here is it almost backed into place in front of the Spartan.

It was still hot, so we drove around to the other side of Pere Marquette Lake for the view of the ferries from that side and also to visit the memorial to Pere Marquette. This is one of the most likely places for his death, although there are a lot of theories pointing to other locations.

Home again, salads for dinner- it was just too hot to eat, some visiting. Today was as full as it was going to get.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 372.8.

Ludington breakwater to the lighthouse and back 1.0 mile

See Working Our Way Home