Eira Tansey

Posts for the ‘outside’ Category

Sheltowee Trace: Section 2 – Charit Lodge parking lot to 6 miles past Peters Mountain Road

Dates: February 19-21, 2016
Weather: Clear and perfect weather on Saturday, rain beginning Sunday morning that went on and off most of the day
Section: Charit Lodge parking lot to just across Divide Road (overnight) to 6 miles past Peters Mountain Road
Miles: Saturday – 20.39 miles, Sunday – 15.27 miles (scroll to bottom to download GPX tracks for your GPS device or app. The miles displayed in the wordpress plugin are different than what the Gaia app says. You can also visit my Sheltowee Trace folder on GaiaGPS)

The February section of the 2016 Sheltowee Challenge definitely lived up to the “challenge” part of its name! It was one of those experiences where one moment you’re grateful for the beauty around you, and 10 minutes later you’re cursing the difficulty of the terrain. Team One was originally scheduled to go out the weekend of February 13-14, but frigid temperatures and snow meant rescheduling us over the following two weekends. I decided to join regularly-scheduled Team Two the following week, as did several other members of Team One. Sadly my friend Susanna had a conflict, and she was much missed by the fellow Team One members. This meant that close to 50 hikers hit the trail the weekend of February 20-21!

Swinging bridge

Charit Lodge

Don't miss the turn!

John Muir blaze

Sheltowee blaze

Trail sign

Luckily, the weather was as close to perfect as you could get on Saturday — which was good, because Saturday was the longest I’ve ever hiked in one day: a hair over 20 miles, at least according to my GPS app (I use Gaia GPS for iPhone). We started near Charit Lodge, and the scenery all of Saturday was beautiful! We gained a lot of elevation, but the views were amazing. I think this was at the top of No Business Overlook, but don’t quote me on that.

Beautiful panorama

Me: Exhausted!

Valley

One thing I was really anxious about with Saturday’s long mileage was getting to the campsite before sunset. By the end of the day, I was hiking mostly on my own and leapfrogging other hikers, and I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t caught out there on my own after dark and possibly losing the trail. I kept thinking I was ALMOST there and then of course there was another turn around the bend! By the time I came up to Divide Road (which I knew was there because I could see cars at the top of the hill and knew the campsite was on the other side), I nearly dissolved into tears of relief. Everyone was so exhausted that by the time we were all in camp, I think everyone except for a few people went to bed by 9.

Our fair weather took a turn Sunday morning. Just as I was cooking some oatmeal and coffee under my hammock tarp (I sure do love using a hammock!), I heard a rumble that sounded suspiciously like thunder. Shortly after, the skies opened up, and it rained steadily on and off the rest of the day. One thing I learned from this weekend: when it rains constantly and you’re hiking hard, you’re going to get soaked somehow. Even if you put on rain gear, you’ll inevitably work up a soggy sweat inside your rain coat and pants.

One thing I now appreciate is how winter hiking is incredibly challenging even when it’s mild and there isn’t snow. This is because the trail is incredibly faint in a lot of places, especially when covered with wet leaves. If you were to zoom in closely on my tracks, especially for the beginning of the second day, you’d notice a lot of zigzagging in a few spots. Because of the rain, I didn’t take many pictures but here’s a typical scene — the Sheltowee is full of views like this, with majestic trees growing right out of the rock!

Tree growing out of rocks

By far the hardest part of this trail for me was once it entered Rock Creek (as in, the trail was literally IN THE CREEK). I did this section mostly on my own, and 95% of the time I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing (I finally figured out by the time I dead-ended at the waterfall and had to crawl up next to the ladder in dire need of repair that there was no other way forward!). I had done the whole “take the boots off for the first creek crossing and then take forever to put them back on” only to realize I should’ve just kept on my Tevas (which I use for water shoes and for camp shoes) for the next hour or so. Such is life — and while I’m sure I generated beaucoup grit or something during that section, I was also cussing up a storm going through that creek.

The last 6 miles was gravel road walking past the Peter’s Mountain Road campsite, up to where the ST turned back into the woods. Not a super thrilling end, but sort of a good mental break from the hike through the creek. The drive back was super misty, and eerily beautiful!

Mist on the drive home (Yamacraw Bridge)

Every time you go into the woods, you learn a bit more about what worked well and what you can improve on in the future.

What worked well for me:

  • My new alcohol stove is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!
  • My new sleeping bag was possibly the coziest thing ever. I sleep very cold, so even though the temperature rating was way lower than I needed, I didn’t regret having it.
  • I tried out hiking sock liners under my regular hiking socks — the jury is out until a non-rainy day on blister prevention, but I remain intrigued and they certainly didn’t hurt.
  • I was way better prepared about timing my breaks by stuffing snacks in my hip pockets well in advance.

What I need to improve:

  • I really need to get my act together and change out the default suspension system on my Hennessy hammock. It takes way too long to set up and take down.
  • Even though I got a kitchen scale to weight my various gear, I suspect I’m still carrying too much weight.
  • I’m seriously considering ditching my compass — I know this might be controversial, but it’s the only thing in my gear I’ve never actually used, and it’s not like I’m in seriously remote backcountry. Between a really great set of paper maps with lots of clearly identified landmarks and my GPS app on my phone with an external battery charger, I don’t think I’m at serious risk of getting lost more than a couple hours, especially as I’m very careful to pay attention to blazes and my general location at all times. What do y’all think?

Saturday track:

Total distance: 21.01 mi
Download file: charit-lodge-to-divide-road.gpx

Sunday track:

Total distance: 15.98 mi
Download file: divide-road-to-6-miles-past-peters-mountain.gpx

Sheltowee Trace: Section 1 – Burnt Mill Bridge to Charit Lodge parking lot

Dates: January 9-10, 2016
Weather: Clear and cool on Saturday, rain/snow overnight Saturday into Sunday, below freezing most of Sunday
Section: Burnt Mill Bridge to Leatherwood Ford (overnight) to Charit Lodge parking lot
Miles: Saturday – 14.6 miles, Sunday – 14.2 miles (scroll to bottom to download GPX tracks for your GPS device or app. The miles displayed in the wordpress plugin are different than what the Gaia app says. You can also visit my Sheltowee Trace folder on GaiaGPS)

The Sheltowee Trace is a 319 mile that stretches between Tennessee and Kentucky, with the southern end located in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, passing through the Daniel Boone National Forest, and ending north of Morehead, Kentucky. Every year, the Sheltowee Trace Association (STA) sponsors an annual section hiking challenge that covers the entire trail. Once a month, you hike an average of 28-29 miles (more or less depending on the month, weather, etc) over a Saturday and Sunday. By starting in January and ending in November, you will hike all 319 miles of the Sheltowee Trace.

My friend Claire and her boyfriend did the challenge last year, and over the last year I really enjoyed seeing her monthly uploads of pictures. I did not grow up backpacking, and have only gotten into it over the last year and a half. I’ve been on a few trips through meetup.com, but these have been hit or miss — sometimes they’re quite fun, sometimes not. And more often than not, the trips are cancelled at the last minute. I really wanted the opportunity to get out backpacking on a regular basis, with a group that goes rain or shine. I also like how the Challenge allows participants to hike at their own rate during the day, but camps together as a group at night. There are “sweepers” who hike at the back to make sure no one’s left behind. In early December, I drove down to Livingston, Kentucky (headquarters of the STA) to see Claire and Chris receive their completion certificates at a celebration potluck. I had a great time and was super pumped to start my own challenge the next month.

My friend Susanna joined me for the first section, and she will hopefully be on at least one more before she starts her thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. On the Friday afternoon before the hike, we drove down to Big South Fork, where those getting in early were invited to camp at the Bandy Creek campgrounds. While waiting to set up our gear, some of us early arrivals were highly amused by the “impound shed” — I think this is where the campground hosts impound your gear if you’re a jerk about leaving food out (it’s black bear country) or don’t pay your campsite fees. That night we enjoyed getting to know our fellow hikers, and the weather was quite mild.

Impound Shed at the Bandy Creek campground

The next morning we got up bright and early and drove in the foggy dark to the parking lot near Charit Lodge. We left our cars in the lot, and then boarded a couple of shuttles down to Burnt Mill Bridge. We were on the trail by shortly after 9, and had decent weather all day on the trail. The climb was difficult in some parts because of the constant up-down-up-down.

Susanna and I near the beginning

Blazes

Rock formation

One part of the course was a bit of an obstacle course — we had a rope ladder, and then squeezing through a tight tunnel. There are numerous rockhouses in Big South Fork, and some of them are quite big.

Rope ladder

Waterfall

Rock house

Through the tunnel

After the tunnel

This rockhouse had dozens of cairns inside.

Cairns everywhere

Susanna and waterfall

The final highlight of Saturday’s hike was crossing the O&W bridge. The wooden ties are quite weathered — it’s a bit nerve-wracking to walk over them, I can’t imagine driving over it!

O&W Bridge

Susanna crossing the O&W bridge

As we began to set up camp near Leatherwood Ford, it began to rain. The precipitation turned into some weird rainy-snowy mixture by the time we began packing up early Sunday morning. I had to shake off some frozen rain from my tarp. However, I was mostly snug and cozy in my hammock overnight, except for one or two raindrops that came through (under?) the tarp. While the door kit I brought didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped (the wind kicked apart the velcro and snapped the fabric edges around), my other accessories kept me toasty (thanks to my mom and mother-in-law for the wool balaclava and the insulated booties).

Note to future campers: At Leatherwood Ford there is a nice big gazebo across from the restrooms. Our group gathered there to cook meals. Susanna showed me how to do some yoga before we turned in, which I think really helped me feel much better Sunday morning (at least until I tripped and banged my knee on a raised step on the way to the bathroom!) But bottom line: do some yoga or at least light stretches before going to bed. It really does help!

By the time Susanna and I hit the trail Sunday morning, the rain/snow had moved off, and luckily it didn’t seem like anything stuck to the ground. The pedestrian bridge across the river at Leatherwood Ford is washed out, so we walked up and crossed over 297. There is a staircase to the right you take down to rejoin the trail.

There were a lot of footbridges on this stretch, and because of the damp weather and the dropping temperatures, we had to be extremely careful not to slip and fall while crossing them.

Frozen footbridge

There is a pretty steep climb a few miles after crossing 297 that takes you up to a lookout called Angel Falls Overlook. This gives you one of the iconic views of the Cumberland River. You definitely have to earn your way there — besides the elevation, there’s a cord bolted to the rock you can hold on to for footing, and a short ladder to go up. Both of these sound terrifying and scary, but I’m a huge wimp and even I could handle them (this guy’s trip report has some pictures). While the weather wasn’t the best, we did managed to get a few pictures of us looking like the brave outdoorsy women we are.

More cairns

Heading up to Angel Falls overlook

Eira at Angel Falls overlook

Susanna at Angel Falls overlook

Susanna at Angel Falls overlook

Susanna on the trail

Waterfall

We kept going until we took a lunch break at the visitor’s center near Bandy Creek. The temperatures were continuing to drop, and I discovered that my gloves situation really needs some improvement. When we got back on the trail after Bandy Creek, the trail was quite muddy since that stretch is also a horse trail. There are not many Sheltowee blazes along this stretch — so few in fact I began to wonder as we passed Blevins Cemetery if we had accidentally taken the wrong trail after not seeing any for around 20 minutes (normally you see a blaze at least every 2-5 minutes). I stopped to pull over and check the maps, and just as I was trying to reassure myself that yes, we were still on the right path, Susanna checked ahead and found a turtle blaze. Phew!

The last bit of Sunday’s stretch really challenged us. We descended a long hill of very loose gravel (I am so grateful to whomever invented trekking poles), and then crossed a shockingly cold creek that required water shoes. Ever go into water so cold it’s like inducing a charley horse in your legs? It was like that. I volunteered myself first (several of us crossed together with the sweepers).

Muddy stream crossing a few miles before Charit

After a few more creek crossings (which we rock hopped to avoid taking off our shoes again), we hustled the last couple miles back to the cars so we could warm up and high-tail it to the closest McDonald’s!

This was a really great section of the Sheltowee — challenging, but definitely enough to leave me wanting more. I’m crossing my fingers the weather will improve in February when we return to the trail. Thanks to STA director Steve Barbour, sweepers Kurt and Cindy (and their trusty German Shepherd Max!), the shuttle drivers from Wilderness Taxi, and our new buddies for a great weekend.

Saturday track:

Total distance: 15.08 mi
Download file: burnt-mill-to-leatherwood-ford-big-south-fork.gpx

Sunday track:

Total distance: 14.54 mi
Download file: leatherwood-ford-to-charit-lodge-parking-area.gpx

Final week of 2015 hiking

I’m fortunate to work at a university that closes between Christmas and New Year’s, so I had the final week of 2015 off work. In a few days, I will be starting a monthly section-hiking challenge of the Sheltowee Trace, which runs through Tennessee and Kentucky. This section hike will occur once a month from January through November, and each weekend a group will hike roughly 30 miles over the course of a Saturday and Sunday. By November, I will have hiked all 319 miles of the trail.

In order to get ready for the section hike, I thought it would behoove me to get my mind and body ready by hiking every weekday of my winter break. I love hiking and backpacking, but normally I only get to dayhike a few times a month, and backpack once every several months. Getting out to hike every day was a real joy, even when the weather was less than ideal. I have been dealing with a lot of challenging issues across the various parts of my life, and my mind tends to get caught in loops of obsessive worrying. I find that hiking and getting outside keeps me balanced, and even if it doesn’t cure worry, it does remove me from it for the time that I’m focusing on not losing the trail, on making sure I’m fed and watered, and ensuring I’m making enough progress while it’s still light enough to get back to my car.
All told, I hiked 45 miles across several Southwest Ohio parks. I often day-hike at East Fork, but all the others were new to me. Here was the breakdown:

Monday, Cincinnati Nature Center — 5.47
Tuesday, Caesar Creek State Park — 6.3
Wednesday, East Fork State Park — 8.48
Thursday, Germantown Metro Park — 10.87
Friday, East Fork State Park — 14.85
(**For what it’s worth, the mileage above was what I got from the tracks on my phone’s app — after uploading the GPX tracks, it seems I get a slightly higher mileage)

In addition to the tracks, I want to share a few impressions from each hike:

Cincinnati Nature Center — This is a privately owned nature center east of Cincinnati, and I visited the Rowe Woods location on my visit. I think I may have visited it once many years ago as a child, but I hadn’t been for some time. There were abundant deer there, and at one point I crossed the trail with two does off to the left, and a young buck and a fawn to the right. I would have loved to take a picture but the does were giving me the stink eye, so I thought I better hustle. Unfortunately, this trail was blocked by high water at a creek crossing, water that seemed too high to cross safely without water shoes.

Flooded Creek

I really enjoyed the pink flower-blazed trail, which winds around a small field down a hill. Overall, the trails are incredibly well-maintained at the Nature Center. The staff at the visitor center were very nice, and the center even had a small Charley Harper exhibit up. I enjoyed my visit so much I might seriously consider buying a membership.

Total distance: 5.79 mi
Download file: rowe-woods-to-cincinnati-nature-center-lake-dam-union-oh.gpx

Caesar Creek State Park — I really wanted to like Caesar Creek, and I think on another day I would have — but unfortunately it wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped. Some of this was my fault — I made the mistake of coming on the last day of rifle hunting deer season. But too many weird incidents kept piling up (what I think was a deer carcass to the side of the trail, walking into a clearing where cigarette smoke drifted in but no sign of anyone, hearing squeaky metal noises and then a minute later rounding a corner to see some new clothes thrown up on a branch, and seeing a hunting blind *way* too close per regulations to the trail) that made me feel pretty uncomfortable returning the way I had hiked out. For the first time ever, I decided to road-walk back to my car.

No Hunting

I don’t normally get too weirded out by one or two odd things in the woods, but all of them put together had me feeling uneasy. I look forward to going back to Caesar Creek when there’s less hunting, as the forest was very cool. On the bright side, there was a small section past the rental lodge that was not a hunting zone — this had some amazing shagbark hickory and was a very pleasant hike that passed through an interesting creek bed.

Total distance: 6.48 mi
Download file: caesar-creek-lake-to-caesar-creek-dike-f-dam-wayne-oh.gpx

Germantown Metro Park — I have always heard great things about Dayton’s parks, and I think it’s so cool that a local park system has its own backpacking trail (http://www.metroparks.org/GetOutside/twinValleyBackpackTrail.aspx).

High-quality blazes

I set out to put in at least 10 miles at Germantown Metro Park, and did the Orange loop, which was just under 8 miles. A part of the trail near the blue and yellow sections is located in a flood plain, and given the recent high water, the trail was very muddy and hard to follow at times. The only way I could tell where I was going was following the mucky footsteps of previous hikers. I was very glad I had my trekking poles with me — the surface was so slick I sort of felt like I was drunk hiking through the mud. I had a brief chat with another hiker going the other direction, who told me he was a regular, and that he had seen corn cobs several feet up in the trees because of how high the water gets (!) Take note that there is a way to bypass the flood plain altogether, signs are posted at the trail markers as you approach the descent.

One thing I really appreciated about this trail was that a bench had been placed thoughtfully at the top of every hill for one to catch their breath. I saw tons of animal tracks — unfortunately at one point close to a property line, I saw a tree stand literally on the other side of the boundary. If I’m not mistaken, this close proximity was almost certainly a violation of the Ohio regulation of being 400 feet from a trail (http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/1501%3A41-15 ).
Total distance: 7.7 mi
Download file: germantown-metropark-orange-loop-75.gpx

To get in more mileage, upon my return I made a small trip to visit the individual and group campsites off the blue trail. The individual campsites are interesting, there are 3 that are off a main path, and they share an outhouse and a communal cooking area. Unfortunately, the sites are pretty small and don’t appear to have good tree cover for hammocks.Hangers may have more luck at the nearby group camp site — this area had many more trees that appeared suitable for camping.
Total distance: 3.01 mi
Download file: germantown-metropark-blue-loop-and-campsites.gpx

East Fork State Park — I visited here twice, once on Wednesday and again on Friday. East Fork is one of my favorite parks in the area, and my go-to park when I want to hike more than 3-4 miles. On Wednesday I went a bit longer than my usual mileage, but not by much since I wanted to try out my new Esbit stove and had to haul ass to get back to my car before sunset.
I returned on Friday (New Year’s Day) with my friend Susanna, and we hiked all the way out to Campsite 2 on the red-blazed backpacker’s trail, which was just under 16 miles. This was the furthest I’ve ever hiked at East Fork, and it was a really fun trail. I was surprised to see several unmapped campsites with well-built fire rings before Campsite 2 — the park staff instruct people to only stay at Campsites 1 and 2 on the backpacking trail, but the stone fire-rings seem to indicate that people don’t really observe this very much. I do know East Fork is popular for stealth camping. My favorite little spot we happened upon was a small hemlock grove (I think? picture below) shortly before Campsite 2.

Unofficial campsite

Total distance: 15.15 mi
Download file: east-fork-state-park-to-campsite-2-1485-miles.gpx

Edge of Appalachia (Ohio)

General Location: Edge of Appalachia Preserve, Buzzardroost Rock, Adams County, Ohio

Day: June 6, 2015

Highlights: Nicely maintained trail in Adams County, Ohio

Mileage: GaiaGPS says about 4.6 miles

I drove out to Adams County one day to hike the Buzzard Roost Rock Trail, a short trail that is part of the Edge of Appalachia Nature Preserve.

Edge of Appalachia

Map at trail head

Edge of Appalachia

After a while the trail opens up into a field. Not pictured are many of the nice wildflowers!

Edge of AppalachiaAs the trail goes up, there are wires on the side to keep you from getting too close to steep drop-offs Edge of Appalachia

Three trees in one

Edge of Appalachia

Edge of Appalachia

Edge of Appalachia

Edge of Appalachia

Views from the lookout point of the trail

Edge of Appalachia

Sign at the lookout point
Edge of Appalachia

A great spot to eat lunch before heading back down the trail.

Notes on the track: I did the track below out and back (this is actually a little longer than I intended since I had to backtrack to the parking lot after I started to grab something from my car). According to the trailhead map above, there is a loop, but I could not find it.

Total distance: 2.62 mi
Download file: track-6615-110648am.gpx

East Fork State Park (Ohio)

General Location: East Fork State Park, Southwest Ohio

Day: April 4, 2015

Weather: 50s-60s, clear

Highlights: Way more deer than I normally see on hikes, my first creek crossing

Mileage: GaiaGPS says 7.63, the map at the bottom of the post says 7.72 miles

I am beginning to increase my hiking mileage in order to work my way up to some more challenging trips and hikes. Today’s adventure took me out to East Fork State Park in Clermont county. Unfortunately the park office was closed so I had to figure out where the trail head was, and then studied the maps for a while to figure out where the red-blazed backpacker trail is located. The total length of the backpacker’s trail is around 8 miles (from trailhead to end), and I walked almost half before turning around to trace my steps.

Trail Head map

There are two trails that go off from the trail head, the red-blazed backpacker trail is the unremarkable non-signed muddy one on the right.

Backpacker Trail Head from Parking Lot

After a little while, you’ll begin seeing blazes. The trail is remarkably well-blazed (possibly even over-blazed). The red indicates the backpacker trail, blue for the Buckeye Trail, and yellow for the mountain bike trail (which follows it for a couple miles).
Blazes

Trail split

First Trail Split

View of creek. The water was running pretty fast because of the spring melt and recent rain.

Creek

In general the first couple miles of the backpacker’s trail consist of many switchbacks, and are pretty deeply rutted in some spots due to mountain bikes. Be sure to wear shoes you can get muddy, and wet. I don’t have a lot of experience with creek crossings, so crossing this felt a bit like water chess (what move can I make to make the next 3 moves?). It seemed deeper when facing it than it does in the picture!

Creek Crossing

Moving up from the creek I stumbled across this stump with a green fox on it. Mysterious!

Fox Rock

Shortly after that I stumbled upon the first of 3 groups of deer I saw during my hike. If you look close you can see one on the left, and a deer butt on the right.

Deer

From here the mountain bike trail splits off from the backpack trail.

Mountain Bike/Hike Split

After a little while the backpack trail then crosses a road…

Road Crossing #1

…and there are several footbridges. This is one of the nicer ones.

Foot Bridge

Another road crossing

Road Crossing #2

Other side of Point C Trail Marker. You can see the Buckeye Trail and the North Country Trail designations.

Marker for Point C

View of the reservoir on the return trip

View of Reservoir

Lots of wildflowers growing along the trail. My plant identification skills are very weak — something I hope to change over the course of future hikes. Do you think this is rue anemone?

Wild Flowers

Total distance: 7.72 mi
Download file: track-4415-110754am.gpx