I was finally able to get outside and do some riding and some more hiking this weekend. My doctor gave me some Allegra D and it helps enough with my allergies that I can get outside and be active. I still get a little stuffy or sniffly and have a little trouble breathing at times, but it’s a vast improvement.

Saturday, Dave and I hit the trails at Brown County State Park. This was our first mountain bike ride together since his accident around New Year’s. It’s great he’s finally back on the trails, and we had a gorgeous day for riding, in the upper 60s and sunny, with a breeze that felt great. We rode the North Tower Loop 3 times, twice clockwise and once counterclockwise. I wasn’t as sluggish as I expected after two weeks with basically no riding. There were a few muddy spots but overall things are in great shape. We rode for about two hours.

Sunday was a very full day. After getting some breakfast, Sarah and I headed to McCormick’s Creek State Park to take some photos and do a little hiking. I borrowed a Tamron 28-300mm lens from a coworker and wanted to try it out. I’m thinking about buying one, or something similar. It has some macro capability, and having that range of zoom is great. Here are some of my better shots. First, we went by the waterfall.

Falls at McCormick’s Creek

Another shot of the falls

Redbud. These are everywhere.

Ferns and moss

My favorite shot of the whole day

Foam in the creek

Stairs

After spending some time by the falls, we decided to head over by Trail 2, which we hadn’t hiked before. We looked at the map and saw it had a side trail to an old quarry. That sounded interesting, so we went for it. There were wildflowers everywhere by the trailhead, so we spent a while getting some shots of them.

 
Wild Blue Phlox

Virginia Bluebells

Mayapples — these are all over the place, too

Trail 2

The old quarry

Hardy plant

Huge frog

Quarry ruins

Creek

Another creek

 
Trail 2 again


Fiddlehead ferns, partially unraveled

Trillium

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

After our hike, we headed home, got the dog, and headed out for another short hike in the forest in my old neighborhood. We hiked for about 30-45 minutes.

Rob

After that, we went back home and I went for a brief road ride, about 14 miles. It was a full day and at the end of it I felt tired, but great. I’m glad that spring is here, and I’m finally able to properly enjoy it.

Sarah and I went hiking at Leonard Springs Park yesterday. We were planning on doing a longer hike but we were having a lazy day and decided a shorter one would be better. It was a beautiful 70-degree day, sunny with a nice breeze. I believe the trail is about a mile, not very long but pretty good for a city park. We took Rob (the dog) and he really enjoyed it, except for a metal platform/staircase at the beginning.

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.

I’m back today from a brief vacation — I took Monday and Tuesday off. Sarah and I were supposed to go back down to North Carolina this week (it’s her spring break) but after getting engaged and being overwhelmed with things to do and expenses relating to that, we decided to call off our trip. Besides, this way maybe we can find a way to take a honeymoon of some kind. I’m mostly not going to write about our vacation because we didn’t do very much, overall. I didn’t even get to ride very much, just one brief ride around a neighborhood on Saturday and a 24-mile ride on Monday. We did hike yesterday at Yellowwood State Forest, doing the Jackson Creek Trail and part of the Lake Trail. Later, we got a flat tire; fortunately, it held air when I reinflated it.

I was having some networking problems last week and thought it was due to my Comcast cable modem connection. Comcast bought my ISP and things haven’t been working right since then. However, I replaced my router and things started working again. So I guess it was just a coincidence, but it seems a little weird that my router started having problems right when my connection changed to a Comcast one. Coincidence or conspiracy? We’ll never know. Another weird thing happened and the router that I bought kept resetting itself randomly. I had to take it back and get a different one. I seem to be having a string of bad luck.

Then yesterday we received a notice from Comcast saying our rates are going up. It looks like they’ll only increase by a few dollars per month, but I’m not thrilled. Our first week as Comcast customers has not been good.

Saturday afternoon, Sarah and I went hiking with my friend Dave. We brought our dog Rob and Dave brought his two dogs. I wrote about Dave’s mountain biking accident before, and it’s past time for an update. Dave suffered a spinal cord injury and for a while thought he was going to have to have surgery. When he got a second opinion, that doctor said they should wait for him to heal more first. And now it looks like he probably won’t be having surgery. His condition continues to improve, and now he needs to do some hiking and riding on the trainer to get back in shape and continue healing. The main remaining symptoms for Dave are some pain and numbness in his arms.

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.

The weather was gorgeous here all weekend, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-40s. Yesterday, Sarah and I headed down to Jackson-Washington State Forest to do some hiking. We have gone camping there before and wanted to go hiking, but didn’t have time. With some help from my friend Dave, we decided to hike up Mount Baldy, which apparently has been renamed to the more-redundant “Pinnacle Peak.”

This was a difficult hike, but very beautiful.  It started with a long climb up to where an old observation tower used to be. The trails were quite muddy, so traction was poor and we were slipping and sliding much of the time. I felt like we were doing some damage to the trails but it was too late by the time we figured out how muddy everything was. The climbs were pretty steep and difficult, mostly going straight up the side of the hills rather than winding up gradually like many trails do.

Steep climb

Sarah

Sarah and Rob standing where the old observation tower once was

Support from the old observation tower

Another observation tower support

Sarah photographing Rob

There was a pretty good view from the observation tower, as it was on top of a big hill. The view was obscured by trees somewhat but you could still see quite a distance.

The observation tower’s remains look almost like a cemetery from below

After reaching the old observation tower, the trail goes steeply downhill and follows a valley for a little bit before beginning and even bigger climb up to Mount Baldy. It was quite challenging, and the mud got worse. We ran into two other groups hikers during this portion of the hike, the only other people we would see all afternoon. It was great to have the whole place basically to ourselves.

Eventually, we reached the top of Mount Baldy. True to its name, it had a rocky surface with few plants growing on it — as well as a fantastic view.

View from Mount Baldy

Another shot of the view

Before Sarah could catch her breath, I hugged and kissed her for a few minutes, then on bended knee, pulled a ring from my pocket and asked “Sarah … will you marry me?” She had no idea this was coming whatsoever — I could see from the look on her face it took a moment for her to process what was going on and realize what I was asking. She was smiling but crying and hugging me and muttered some things, prompting me to ask, “Is that a yes?” She responded with an emphatic “YES!” My heart very nearly jumped from my chest. I knew this would be a great moment, but it was even better than I had envisioned.

The ring I chose has three round-cut stones, the middle one bigger than the other two. It looks even better on Sarah’s finger than it did by itself. The light was perfect for the occasion, the winter sun low in the sky and casting long, beautiful shadows despite being mid-afternoon, and wrapping everything in a warm glow.

The ring

Us

Does she look happy or what?

The trees below us

We spent a long time on Mount Baldy talking about everything and enjoying the scenery and each other’s company. It was amazing to have this beautiful land all to ourselves. The dog got to feeling a big neglected, but he got over it. Eventually we headed back. It was a long trip down the side of this huge hill, but it didn’t take as long as it did on the way up. In part our exuberance made it go by faster.

Sarah and Rob

Looking into the valley below

Another great smile

The trail

Beautiful light

Back at the observation tower

We thought about hiking some more on a trail that connects to this one at the observation tower, but it was getting a bit late in the day and we were tired enough already. We’ll just have to go back soon to hike more of these trails.

Muddy trail

The road back

Our trip back was excellent. We sure have a lot of new things to discuss now. By the end of the day, my face hurt from smiling so much, my ankles hurt from the hiking, and more importantly, Sarah and I felt closer than ever. A great way to feel after a perfect day.