Posted in Park visit

Cedar Bog in Late Spring

Cedar Bog is a State Nature Preserve located in Champaign County. We visited the preserve twice during the past several weeks to look at the spring wildflowers. Like many people our favorite bloom from this past weekend was the Showy Lady's Slipper. Other Early June Sights I was excited to catch sight of two species of carnivorous plants while visiting Cedar Bog. They are tiny plants, and they are often hidden by the grassy-looking sedges. The first is Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia). Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park visit

Great Seal State Park in Late Winter

My daughter doesn't like hiking this time of year when there's no snow on the ground and the forests are devoid of greenery. As she puts it, "The forests look like a nuclear wasteland." Although I see her point, there are some advantages to hiking now. If you are considering hiking to some destination where there is no trail (like Trimmer Arch in the Paint Creek Wildlife Area) then going at this time of year means that you will have to contend with the least amount of undergrowth of the year. Similarly Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park visit

51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike, January 2016

We participated in the 51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike on Saturday. This was our seventh time participating in this winter hike that runs from Old Man's Cave to Rose Lake, Cedar Falls, and ends at Ash Cave for a total distance of 6.5 miles. A bus returns participants to the starting point. The weather for the hike, like most of this winter, was warmer than usual. There were some small patches of snow here and there, and small icicles. But the temperature was above freezing and Read more ➜
Posted in Geology, Hiking, Park visit

Fort Hill: Canby’s Mountain Lover Trail and Keyhole Arch

We really enjoy hiking at Fort Hill, but until recently we've never hiked the Canby's Mountain Lover Trail. To access this trail, you have to wade across Baker Fork Creek. We thought that if we went toward the end of October the water might be low enough to wade across while wearing waterproof hiking boots, but we were wrong. The creek is too high for hiking boots. It's also too cold at this time of year to just wade in and get your feet wet. We ended up returning on November 7th, each of us packing Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park visit

Hocking Hills State Park: Old Man’s Cave / Cedar Falls Loop Hike

We are going to describe one of our favorite loop trails in the Hocking Hills State Park. The outbound portion of the the trail follows the Grandma Gatewood Trail, named after the famed Emma Gatewood. The Grandma Gatewood Trail is a segment of the 1,500 mile Buckeye Trail and is marked with blue blazes or blue marker posts. Below is a screenshot of the GPS trace of our hike courtesy of Google's My Tracks app. We started at the red marker near the Upper Falls and traveled counter-clockwise. Read more ➜
Posted in Park visit

Visiting Three Waterfalls in Miami County

Saturday we visited three waterfalls in Miami County. Below we show what the waterfalls look like and describe their locations. Ludlow Falls First up was Ludlow Falls in the village of Ludlow Falls. We parked in a dirt parking lot across from the post office. The 15 ft (4.5m) high falls on Ludlow Creek is located under a highway bridge. A short path leads from the lot to the falls. FYI, the village, creek, and falls are named after Israel Ludlow, a surveyor who helped found Read more ➜
Posted in Park visit

The Hocking Hills at Winter’s End

Like a lot of other people, I'm totally ready to leave winter behind at this point. However Bob convinced me to open myself to winter's beauty once more by hiking in the Hocking Hills this past Friday. It was sunny, but cold (around 20° F, -6.7° C), so we had to bundle up. We visited two attractions in the Hocking Hills State Park: Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. Then we hiked the Gorge Trail in the Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve. To make things easier for ourselves, we reduced our hiking by parking Read more ➜
Posted in Hiking, Park visit

Clear Creek Metro Park Winter Hike – 2015

Last Saturday we participated in the winter hike at Clear Creek Metro Park. This 5,382-acre Metro Park is located on the border of Hocking and Fairfield Counties; it features 14 miles of hiking trails. The day was cold, near freezing with an overcast sky. We arrived early about 9:20 AM for the 10 AM hikes and were greeted by park staff and volunteers who provided maps and routes for a variety of hikes. There were a variety of hikes available ranging from 1 to 7 miles and of varying Read more ➜
Posted in Birds, Hiking, Park visit

Birding at Blacklick Woods on New Year’s Day

On New Year's Day we went on our first hike of the year: a birding hike at Blacklick Woods Metro Park. About twenty people joined a park naturalist, Colleen, for the two-mile hike. If you're beginning birders like us, it's really helpful to join up with a group such as this. On a number of occasions the naturalist or other members of the group pointed out birds that I'm sure I would have missed otherwise. We also learned some of the places that certain species of bird like to frequent, so when we Read more ➜