10.7.06
65°F
2.5 hours
3.5 miles
serenity!
tourists, squirrels.

On a clear, cool day in Southern Ohio I discovered how gorgeous Mother Nature can be. Somewhat between Dayton and Columbus, the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve abuts the John Bryan State Park, both sharing the Little Miami River, gorge, and abundant hiking trails.

Part of my logic in driving 2-1/2 hours had to do with fall colors. Here in Ohio we are on the verge of peak, with some places seeing more colors than others. Although there were a handful of brilliant yellow trees, fewer reds, it's still a bit early.

Hiking forested trails along dolomite and limestone gorge made for a nice, varied hike. Some rough terrain, some flat, some tourists (oh well...), and enough elevation change to give a nice burn to the legs. At times I had the trails to myself, but on occasion had to put up with groups of children, clusters of bored teenagers, along with other nature lovers. Weekdays hiking the gorge would undoubtedly be blissful.

Although I didn't explore the nooks and crannies of the cliffs (usual "stay on the trail" signs were plentiful), they made for a dramatic backdrop along some of the trails.

There's nothing quite so soothing as a cool day's hike where the sound of water is plentiful to mingle with the birds and scurrying squirrels.

3.26.06
42°F
1 hour
1.2 miles
lost mitten
spring birds

Living temporarily in Findlay, Ohio, presents my hiking id with a dilemma:  where to hike within less than an hour's drive. The choices are slim, unfortunately, but I'm determined to check them all out.

Today I took off on a cloudy, post-winter day to see what the small, but promising, Oakwoods Nature Preserve had to offer. Locate a quick 10 minutes from Findlay, I'd hoped at least it offered non-man-made trails (translation: no paving!). In that area I wasn't disappointed.

The Preserve is a tiny 76 acres, but combines wetlands, woods, and prairie for an interesting (and quick) trek through those habitats. I did see a woodchuck briefly, and I'm sure when the foliage returns there'll be more critters to spot. But today I mostly had to be content with active birds. I spotted several brilliant cardinals and the fattest Robin I've ever seen (pigeon sized). But despite the small size, they (park service) seem to be doing a good job to eco-manage these habitats. It will be interesting to return in a few months to see the difference foliage makes.

Today's hike was a good, albeit short, cobweb cleaner for my head. Although not visually appealing (I don't think I've seen so much brown and gray all at once), the temperature was conducive for hiking and gratefully, no wind! The bareness of everything made me think about hiking post-winter before spring has a chance to make her grand entrance. In fact, I only found a couple of places where green ground cover was beginning to appear, and a couple of places where some nice green lichen covered a few logs. Other than that, one could enjoy the range of colors, so long as that included any tone between brown and gray!

The other starkness about a pre-spring forest, particularly one like this with no evergreens at all, is that the forest appears dead. While I noticed an above average amount of rotted and fallen trees (no doubt the same amount that's always there, just less obvious with a green canopy above), it was easy to wonder whether the forest would come back. Think about the early settlers, used to the evergreen-ness of the northeast, who lived through their first winter and had to wonder if all the vegetation in the forest had died! Had to be a strange event, seeing all those leafless trees looking identical to the dead branches and fallen trunks.

And speaking of trunks, did you know that a rare, prehistoric bird skeleton exists in this small preserve in Northwest Ohio? Neither did I. Actually, on all my hikes I like to look for tree oddities, and the two pictured here are pretty good spoils of that game. The bent trunk at right is very unusual in it's preciseness of right angles, and of course, the fallen trunk below does look like a dinosaur fossil that should be mounted in a museum somewhere. At least these two sights broke the brown-grey monotony a little bit. If I can't find critters to watch, then the natural art of Mother Nature is the next best thing. Usually I'm content with the odd fungi or two, but it's nice to have some interesting tree shapes to look at occassionally.

I'll return to Oakwoods later in the spring and update on the changes. Hopefully I'll then be hiking through a veritable green explosion of life, with a scattering of wild flowers to tint the scene.

3.19.06
chilly (40°F)
1 hour
1.5 miles
deer skeleton
none

On a brisk, but sunny, pre-spring day I met my match in the form of a shallow creek's slippery slope.

Today's hike was not much more than a good excuse to stretch the legs and start working towards getting ready for some serious Spring hiking. Lori and I decided to hike the horse trails out at Litzenburg Memorial Woods, about 15 minutes west of Findlay, Ohio. I'd walked the wooded short-trails behind the historical house, but hadn't walked the extended horse trails across the highway. I tried last fall, but since deer season had just begun, the posted hunting season signs convinced me I should wait until a safer time.

Hiking around Findlay is dismal, to be kind. Just not much to choose from and nothing of much distance unless you count the 4-1/2 mile gravel access road that rings the town's reservoir. What's left are a couple of short wooded hikes that merely whet the appetite but do little to get my Winter legs into shape. But, you hike where you can when you have the time, so on this particular Sunday we found ourselves tromping the soft muddy bridal paths hoping to make an interesting walk out of what seemed to be a somewhat boring route. So much for premonition.

As you can see on the map at the right, the West-side path include fording a small creek. Normally, that's not an issue, but we've had some rain and snow the past few weeks and everything was a bit muddy. We walked down a bit from the obvious crossing, the water being a bit deep to wade through, and even past the fallen tree where others had likely crossed. It seemed too narrow and we were a bit concerned about slipping off, so on we went another 10 yards or so to a point where the creek seemed to narrow and the banks' slopes not so great.

As I got near the water's edge, to my dismay I learned to late how slick the mud was and suddenly all I saw was sky! And damn, that water was COLD! As soon as I hit the water I hunched up to get my butt out of that cold water and Lori thought I'd hurt my back. In leaning over to help me get up, she then slipped and down she came, although somehow she managed to miss the water and only get a little muddy. Me? I wasn't so lucky. I'm still cleaning the leather jacket I was wearing two days later! (Picture provided by Lori of HoardedOrdinaries.com.)

We managed to continue the hike and although cold and damp, I had enough clothes on my upper body to compensate for the cold lower body, and we finished the hike in the sun. Back at the car I had to do some careful placement of my leather coat on the car seat (clean side down while I sat on the muddy back...but then, my jeans were muddy anyway!).

As usual, all worked out okay. I did, to my delight, discover that my new hikers (Asolos) are waterproof and never experienced any dampness in my socks. As any hiker knows, you can survive a lot of such dunkings so long as your socks stay dry.

Next time I go out to Litzenburg it'll be Spring and I'll be able to walk the hilly woods behind the old barn. Again, not a long hike but a pretty "away from it all" sort of saunter. And when I find some longer weekends to work with, I'll be off to explore Southern Ohio hikes such as Hocking Hills. When I do, I'll update HikeThru with new thoughts and hopefully, tasty pictures.