Starting the hike.

Enjoying ourselves already

A fuzzy vine on a tree

Almost immediately, the trail began climbing, and did so for quite a while. Once we reached the top of that hill, we saw a sign saying the trail is closed for logging. Couldn’t they have put the sign at the bottom of the hill?

Naturally, the part of the trail we planned to hike was closed

However, it appeared based on the sign that they had just closed the trail days before, and it said you could go through if nobody was working. We continued on. All they had done so far was mark a few trees.

It’s really sad how much logging has increased in the state forests. Our current governor has increased logging 400% since taking office. Sad. No, I didn’t vote for him.

The trail followed a ridge briefly but then resumed the constant ups and downs. You’d literally reach the top of a hill and immediately go down the other side, only to climb another hill after that. We crested one hill to see our dog waiting for us.

Rob, waiting at the top of a hill

Steep trail

Rob and I exchange greetings

More steep trail

Sarah

Hiking down

We came around a bend and suddenly Rob ran off the trail and into some brush. We heard some scuffling and wondered what was going on. I tried to get him back, worried that he’d run down the very steep side of the ravine. A couple moments later, out came Rob, with … something … in his mouth. Something big and furry.

It didn’t take long before I realized it was a possum. Rob seemed so proud of himself for finding it and I think wanted to show us. Somehow, we got him to set it down somewhere other than on our feet.

Rob’s mostly-dead possum

It wasn’t moving. Well, at least not much. We could see it was still breathing. At this point I decided the humane thing to do would be to end its suffering. Sarah put Rob’s leash on and took him down the trail. I found a suitably long and thick stick and finished it off.

About an hour later, Sarah said to me “Hey, don’t possums play dead?” At this point, I realized what I had done. I killed a possum that in all likelihood would have recovered. I felt a little dumb, and kind of bad for doing that, but it really did seem like the humane course of action at the time. Apparently I’m not the first person to do this though as Wikipedia’s Opossum entry says, “Many injured opossums have been killed by well-meaning people who find a catatonic animal and assume the worst.”

We were quite surprised at Rob’s actions. He’s normally a very laid-back, lazy dog. We see rabbits all the time on our walks at home and never seems to pay much attention. But he sure went after that possum aggressively. We couldn’t find any bite or scratch marks on Rob … I guess that possum never had a chance.

After that encounter, we were a little shaken up but still enjoyed the rest of our hike. Unfortunately the hike we chose to do didn’t have any overlooks, even though it went to one of the highest points in the area. Next time we’ll make a point of hitting an overlook. This time, we were too tired, and it was too hot, to add in the extra miles to get to an overlook. Still, it was a beautiful hike and you could see some hills in the distance between trees. Not really something you could catch with a camera. You can sort of tell in the photo below.

Going downhill back toward the trailhead

Almost back

We really enjoyed our hike. This state forest is very special to us, as it’s where we got engaged. It was great to hike there again and see some different trails. And the possum encounter is not something we’ll be forgetting any time soon.

We had mixed results. I didn’t plan well enough, and we both had poor to nonexistent cell phone reception, so we had a little trouble connecting in Brownstown, IN. Also, what I intended to be a way for me to get some riding in while allowing us to spend a lot of time together became a little more complicated and bike-centric than I intended. Sarah was very patient and we had a great time together, but in the end it felt a little selfish. If we do something like this again, I’ll need to plan things out a lot better. It was also really hot, which effectively meant that by the time we got anywhere, it was too hot to want to do very much.

I plan to write about this trip in three parts:

1. Riding from Bloomington to Brownstown and Jackson-Washington State Forest
2. Hiking at Jackson-Washington State Forest
3. Riding from Jackson-Washington State Forest to Clark State Forest and Henryville

This metal platform is not very dog-friendly

Rock face over a cave entrance

There are a few different falls there, quite full from all the rain we’ve had, and the water made quite a noise as it cascaded down the hillsides.

Falls

More falls

Sarah, taking a photo

Slick with moss

More falls

Bridge

Wetlands

Sign of spring

Weird bark

More wetlands

We almost got stuck there, as the parking lot filled up and people had parked on either side of the entrance by the time we left. We were just barely able to squeeze between the cars and get out.

We went hiking with Dave a couple of weeks ago and he had trouble with even small hills, but now he’s climbing very well and in fact was moving at quite a clip on Saturday. He even did well bushwhacking through a difficult section with a lot of brush (more on that in a minute). He’s still got a ways to go before he can get back on the bike, but he’s getting there and looks better every time I see him. His progress is very encouraging.

Anyway, we had talked about hiking and Dave suggested the Shaw Lake hike in Yellowwood State Forest. Shaw Lake was drained back in 2002 because the dam was deemed unsafe, but the trail is still more or less there. We arrived to find a lot of logging has been going on there. Mitch Daniels, our current governor, has increased logging in our state forests by 300%, and it’s been quite evident on some of our hikes this year. Apparently, there’s a public input session in a couple of weeks about the logging in the state forests. I hope we can do something about it.

The trail was more like a logging road, really, and it was fairly easy. Dave said he’d been cross country skiing there in the past, and I can see how it’d be great for that. There’s a long, gradual downhill slope that curves only gently.

Heavy logging

Once at the bottom, we found a clearcut meadow, and there were some of the only aspen trees in Indiana, which unfortunately were dead and falling over.

Clearcut area

After a few minutes, we reached the spot where the lake once was. It was really cool to see it and imagine how it would’ve looked full of water, and then to walk in the former lake bed.

Shaw Lake was once here

This creek is all that remains of Shaw Lake

We headed up the opposite side of the ravine and found more logging had blocked the trail. We managed to get through all the brush, but it was pretty challenging.

The only upside, I guess, is the logging gives you a good view, if you can look past the carnage.

All in all, it was a fun hike, but it was discouraging to see how much logging is happening in our state forests, which I thought were intended to preserve the forests, not cut them down and sell them.

It was a dreary, slightly foggy day in the upper 20s, snowing a bit on and off. Really the kind of day that makes you want to sit at home and not do much of anything, but it really was beautiful once we got moving. Sarah and I have found that we much prefer winter hiking to intense summer heat. Granted, it hasn’t been extremely cold on our hikes thus far, but in colder weather, we can always add layers. In the summer, the heat can be brutal, and there’s little you can do about it. We don’t have to carry as much water during the winter, either.

Pines along the Pate Hollow Trail

The trail starts right behind the Paynetown DNR office and is pretty close to the highway at first, but before long you are away from it and it’s surprising how quiet it is, given its proximity to the highway. The trail starts on a ridge and gradually descend into a valley. You barely even notice you’re going downhill. The trail crosses a creek a couple of times and then begins a gradual climb that doesn’t feel too difficult, but before long you realize you are way above the valley, and in fact higher than you were at the trailhead.

Rob, running

The trail was well-marked, with maps with yellow arrows indicating your current location, at each intersection. Since we were doing only part of the trail, an old dirt road served as a shortcut.

The old road

The trail followed the ridge tops for a while longer, climbing higher before descending into another ravine and climbing back up the other side.

Rob peers across the ravine

Creek

Rob and Sarah

Hills in the distance

This was a really cool trail, and we want to go back and hike the whole thing. The western half of it goes near Lake Monroe, so it should be even more scenic.

I haven’t done as much cycling as I’d hoped during my time off, but Sarah and I have done some hiking instead. We got away from hiking for a while, and I think we both forgot how much we enjoy it. We’re lucky that it’s been mostly in the 40s lately, great hiking weather. On Saturday, we hiked the Rock Shelter Trail, which we have hiked before (read about it here). We took our dog Rob with us, who really needed the exercise.

We were dismayed to find a lot of logging going on in Morgan-Monroe State Forest, particularly by this trail. A huge semi was taking up most of the parking lot when we arrived, and we kept hearing logging trucks through part of the hike. Other than that and occasional blast from a hunter’s rifle, it was a very quiet and peaceful hike. And aside from the trucks, we didn’t see a single other person on the trail. Rob loved it, but didn’t pace himself. Of course, there was no way for him to know how long the hike would be. He was running around a lot and especially liked the parts down by the creek. Toward the end of our 3-mile hike, he was getting pretty tired.

Us

Rob

Looking through my water bottle

Trees on a hill

Sarah and Rob hiking

Rob

Creek bed

Me, in the rock shelter

Moss

Mushroom

Pond

Sarah

Logging

I did some work on my old mountain bike (a mid-90s GT Timberline — the green bike in the photo). I’m going to repurpose it as a foul weather/backup commuter, around town, and general trekking bike, to explore dirt and gravel roads. It needs more work, but I think that if I fix a few things and add fenders and a rack, it’ll be great for these purposes. I already put some slicks (road tires) on it that I had on hand, and it works pretty well on the road and on gravel.

The high point of the week in cycling terms was on Tuesday, when Sarah was in a bad mood and I tried to cheer her up with a bike ride (it worked). She wrote a great blog entry about it. We rode across Lake Lemon and back on South Shore drive. Sarah hasn’t cycled very much in a number of years, and I know she feels intimidated sometimes riding with me. But I enjoy riding slowly and enjoying the scenery (by “scenery,” I mean her — the lake was nice, too). It’s also great just to see her on a bike.

We rode about four miles, and Sarah did a great job. None of the hills on this road are huge, but she did great on the hills that are there. I’m proud of her for giving it a shot even though she didn’t feel like it, and I’m glad she had a good time.

I am excited about this weekend. We’re going to Versailles State Park, a couple of hours away, to camp. We’ll also do some hiking, biking, and canoeing while we’re there. It’ll be great to get away, just the two of us (well, the dog is coming, too), for a whole weekend. That hasn’t been possible since Sarah has had class on Saturdays, but the class doesn’t meet tomorrow. It’ll also give us a chance to break in our new hiking boots and streamline the camping process for our trip to North Carolina in August. I’m sure we’ll also take about a thousand photos.

I have been to Versailles once, Thanksgiving weekend last year, when I went mountain biking there with my mountain biking buddy Dave. Here’s what I wrote about it then. We were only there long enough to ride the trails, which are fantastic. I plan on mountain biking again this time, but most of our time will be spent doing stuff together. We’ll also be near Clifty Falls State Park, so if we get bored (not likely) we can always head over there to check that out.

I hadn’t been in that state forest for years, and I never spent much time there before. I think Stepp Cemetery is the only part of it I had been to. I definitely want to go back and do some hiking and possibly camping there. It’s more rugged and not as groomed as the state parks, so it feels more remote and I think we could connect with nature better there.

We debated what to do next, hiking was an option, but I really wanted to go for a bike ride. We ended up heading to Brown County State Park — I rode the North Tower Loop and the Aynes loop, and Sarah sat in the North Tower and read. I was worried she might get bored, but she really enjoys reading there, and needed to do some reading for class anyway. As she puts it (I’m paraphrasing here): “If you have to read, why not do it in a log cabin with a beautiful view?”

My ride was incredible. I was just flying, all these road miles pay off in ways that aren’t always obvious. But since I hadn’t ridden on the trails in almost a month, I felt a huge difference. I was climbing better than ever, and my average speed for the ride was about 7.8 … very fast for me for trail riding. The trail conditions were great, too, parts were so dry they were dusty. I am digging the new tires I’m running on my mountain bike, a Kenda Blue Groove on the front and a Nevegal on the rear. They grip very well, and I have more confidence in turns and whatnot. I might switch out the Nevegal for something a little less aggressive in the rear at some point, but for now I’m very satisfied. I had to hurry a bit toward the end of the ride, because the sun was setting and I didn’t have lights with me.

Sunday was another great day; I rode at Brown County again, this time with Dave. I had been planning a road ride one day this weekend, but my trail ride on Saturday felt so good that I wanted to do another one. Plus, I hadn’t ridden with Dave for a while. We had a great ride, although I was feeling Saturday’s ride more than I would’ve expected. Mountain biking really does take a lot more out of you. We kept a pretty good pace, although it was slower than Saturday’s. We took our time and took several breaks. It’s good to be out there and not be in a hurry.

On our way back to the parking lot, we saw a kid with a flat tire and tried to help him fix it. I had a pump, and we tried to see if we could just inflate the tire, but it definitely had a puncture. There wasn’t much we could do. The kid said his dad was around but went to ride some more.

When we got back to the parking lot, I saw a couple unloading some bikes, one with a child seat on the back of it. They asked if the “moderate” trail was a good one to take a baby on, and I immediately told them no. Dave agreed with me, but proceeded to tell them the part of the trail that is the flattest and smoothest. When he finished, I reiterated, “But I wouldn’t do it with a baby.” They didn’t listen. At least the baby had a helmet, but the parents weren’t wearing any, and their bikes were really insufficient for trail riding.

It always astounds me when I see people doing stuff like this. I’m glad they want to ride their bikes, and want to ride on trails, but I see a lot of people with inadequate bikes, not wearing helmets, simply being reckless. I’m not one of those guys who thinks everyone needs a $1000 bike (hell, I don’t have one myself), but still, the bikes you get at Wal-mart are not safe for mountain biking. And it’s one thing to take risks if you’re an adult, but putting children at risk is something else entirely. In this case, we’re talking about a baby on a mountain bike trail. These trails have rocks, roots, sticks, logs, and other hazards on them. We’re not talking rails-to-trails smoothness here. Even the “easy” trails are physically demanding and technically challenging. They’re no place for a baby.

Finally, we took Rob for a hike in the woods yesterday afternoon. I only took Sarah’s old point & shoot digital camera, so the shots aren’t great. Rob was a lot more into it this time around, and did more running and sniffing and checking things out. I tried to play fetch with him with a stick, but it couldn’t hold his interest. He really wanted to drink out of the pond, but it’s pretty nasty, and we stopped him.

Rob thinking about drinking from the pond

Rob loved running in the creek bed. I threw some sticks to get him to run, and while he didn’t fetch them, he did take them as a cue to run in that direction. He slipped a couple of times, but just loved splashing and getting wet and muddy.

Running in the creek bed

The woods are really looking like spring, with lots of budding trees, green ground cover, some flowers and other things.

Fiddlehead ferns

Mayapples

Small yellow flowers that lined part of the trail

Again, we had a great hike. This was in “my woods” in the neighborhood where I grew up. Some parts of the trails are in pretty good shape, but others really need some TLC. I used to go mountain biking back there fairly frequently, I should do so again, even though there are only a couple of miles of suitable trails.

Particularly rugged part of the trail with big protruding roots and erosion

I wish I knew how to fix the above section of trail. I suspect some of the roots aren’t doing any good anyway and could be cut out, and then maybe things would smooth out. But I don’t know the proper way to do it, and I don’t have any way of getting permission to work on these trails, as far as I know. Rumor has it they’re private property owned by John “Cougar” Mellencamp.

Sarah and I both have a renewed interest in hiking after all that, and we’re hoping to do more of it soon. We are thinking about possibly hiking with the Bloomington Hikers.

I encountered an asshole in a van. I was approaching an intersection with a stop sign, and the guy in the van clearly wanted to pass me, but there wasn’t much space before the stop sign. I got into the middle of the lane to prepare to make a left turn, and stuck out my left hand to signal. My hand almost grazed the window of the van, which was now passing me in the other (wrong) lane! Then, the guy cut me off, because there wasn’t room for him to move over before reaching a car stopped at the stop sign. I resisted the temptation to flip him off, instead waving a fist at him and cursing him under my breath.

Some geese flew over me, they were flying low and at a bit of a slower pace than I was going. They honked at me as I rode by (I’m sure they were really honking at each other, but it seemed like a greeting, so that’s what I’m going to assume). I saw some other very large birds, as I have on most of my recent rides, some circling in the sky. Sometimes, they seem to take an interest in me when I stop; I hope they don’t have anything sinister in mind. It’s too bad I can’t bring Marty on some of these rides; I’m sure that he’d get to see some cool stuff, and I could learn a lot. At the very least, Marty’s bird photos have piqued my interest in at least being more aware of the kinds of birds around me.

This morning’s commute wasn’t that great; I was running a bit late, and it was a little too warm to wear a jacket, but too cool not to — so I was sweating more than usual by the time I got to work. One thing I had forgotten about IU students is how they’ll walk into the street without looking in either direction. They just keep staring straight ahead, completely oblivious or not caring that there are cars, bikes, and other pedestrians that could run into them. What makes matters worse is that most of them have iPods or other mp3 players, so there’s no way to get their attention.

All of this made my commute this morning very interesting. I had to dodge pedestrians, and sometimes try to anticipate how fast they were moving and speed up or slow down to make sure I could go far enough in front of or behind them. It felt almost like playing a game of Frogger.

After I got home today, I suggested to Sarah that we take Rob (the dog) for a hike in the woods in my old neighborhood — so we did. This was the first time we had taken Rob for a real hike, and he was very well-behaved. Actually, he was too well-behaved. After a while, we let him off the leash, and he just walked behind us most of the time. This dog needs to learn how to do certain dog things, like running. He’s great at other dog things, such as napping, but running is one area where he needs work. He did run a few times, but not as much as I had hoped he would. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great dog, and we had a great time. But I think we need to get him more exercise.

When we got to the pond, we noticed some dead salamanders in the shallow water toward the edge of the pond. There may have been more in the deeper water as well, I’m not sure about that — but we saw at least 10-20 dead salamanders. I was pretty puzzled by this, and found a couple of articles about a virus that sometimes kills salamanders. Neither of them mentions Indiana, or even the midwest, though, so I’m not sure what to think about that.

I brought my point & shoot film camera and took a few photos of Rob in the woods. I put the camera in my pocket for a while, and later, when I tried to take it out, I accidentally opened the film door, exposing/ruining all the film! I am pretty pissed, and I need to find a way to prevent that from happening in the future. I lost all the photos I took on my rides this week, and the ones I had just taken in the woods.

We weren’t necessarily planning to get a dog, but after looking at all of the dogs and spending some time with Rob, a laid back brownish orange mutt, we decided to take him home. Sarah mostly picked him out, I wasn’t that impressed with him while he was in his cage, but she said we should get him out.  Once we started hanging out with him, he turned out to be really cool.

Our new dog, Rob

They tell us that Rob is a labrador retriever/hound mix. Who knows if that’s really true, but he’s a great find. Very affectionate, friendly, and so far very well-behaved. He’s 2 1/2 years old and housebroken and knows “sit.” Really the only mischievous thing he’s done so far was to gather a bunch of our shoes together on the couch with him while we were gone. He didn’t chew on them at all. Tomorrow will be the true test, as he’ll be home alone from about 8:30-5:30.

Rob has incredibly deep brown eyes

On Saturday, Dave and I tried to ride on the trails at Brown County, but the 3-4 inches or so of snow was too much — we couldn’t get enough traction. We started riding, and our bikes were fishtailing all over the place. We didn’t get far at all before turning back — we just didn’t have much control. There were a couple of tire tracks there already, and if the snow had been more packed, we would’ve been able to ride. But it just wasn’t working.

Instead, we rode on the roads in the park. This was better than nothing, but it was really cold and the air was cutting right through us. Also, Brown County is extremely hilly, to the point where we were pretty much climbing all the way to Hesitation Point, and going downhill almost the whole way back. It made for a lot of climbing and a very short, very cold ride back. Still, I’m glad we rode.

Today was warmer, so I decided to do a proper road ride. This was the first real ride on my road bike, which I’ve been dying to ride. It was pretty great. I set out at around 2:00 this afternoon, at which time it was 34 degrees. I took State Road 45 to Mount Gilead Rd., and rode that until it looped back around to 45, taking the highway home. I went 13.7 miles at an average speed of 14.5 mph — pretty good for me at this fitness level.

The new bike has a really smooth ride, and it’s so much more lightweight and efficient than my mountain bike — I can really feel the power being transferred directly to the road. I’m not 100% sure if the stem length/angle are right. I had them put a fixed stem on instead of the adjustable one that was on there — in hindsight, maybe I should’ve stuck with the adjustable one long enough to make sure everything was right.

The shifting is buttery-smooth for the most part, there were a few hiccups, but nothing major. It’s a lot slicker than the drivetrain on my mountain bike. I had some trouble at times with the shifters since I had thick gloves on and it was hard to push the smaller lever.

I want to plan out some other road routes in the near future. That’s one thing I can do while the weather is crappy that’ll get my psyched to ride more, and then when I get a good opportunity, I can pick a route and ride it. Some routes I want to do are to/past Lake Monroe (Paynetown and across the Causeway), out Smith Road to Snoddy Road and to another part of the lake there, to Brown County State Park from my apartment (that one will have a lot of killer hills), out SR 135, and countless others. It’ll be fun to plan some routes.