First Big Hike of the Year

Finally, after working my butt off during basketball season here, I have finally got a few days to myself and last Wednesday came as perfect day to hit the trails for a much bigger hike. As seen on this blog I did manage to get some short hikes in but now I really wanted to go double digits so I went back to Perry County for one of my favorite hiking trails, The Two Lakes Loop Trail.

The weather was perfect at the start with temps in the low 50's. To be honest I wasn't quite sure how my body would take this first long one, 12 miles, as it had been 10 weeks since I had been out for a big one, the last one being on New Year's Eve at 11 miles. When I started it was a wee bit of a struggle but about 15 minutes into it I began to find my stride and got into a comfortable pace. The creeks that I have to cross on the 12-mile section were down and it made it easier for the first few miles. The creek that I normally have to take my boots off to cross was down enough I was able to hop on a couple of rocks then take one giant step and only get a slight bit of water on the boots. That alone cut between 10 and 15 minutes off my time. I was going at a pretty good pace and just two hours into the walk I had put away 6 1/2 miles.

I finally reached Indian Lake and came up on my first daffodils of the year. This particular spot had a large area of the bright yellow flowers, about 20 feet in diameter, and they were getting some good light from the sun. There was also a slight breeze and they seemed to just dance in the wind. I'm sure Beethoven or Bach could have easily put a symphony together for them as they moved around. Sometimes I prefer to look at the little things around me instead of the grandioso views you get in some places, although I won't turn down a clear view from a mountain top at any time. Sometimes, though, it's the things you normally aren't looking for that are the most facinating. Most of our time is spent looking up but there are also a lot of things at our feet that are much more interesting. As a sample one day in the woods I just happen to see a small worm crawling on the ground. An ant from a nearby hill came over to check the worm out but he found he couldn't do anything with the worm by himself. He left for just a minute to go back to the hill and when he came back he had a true army with him. They attacked the worm from all sides. As hard as he tried to fight them back there were just too many. Finally the ants had ahold of him at both the front and back. With some very powerful ant muscles the army dragged the ant down into their nest. It definitely goes near the top of interesting things I've seen.

Around noon the southern winds began to bring a little more heat to the day and it was enough to begin to slow me down. I stopped at a place near Celina Lake and downed a good ol' peanut butter and jelly sandwiche and half a bottle of water. I'll admit I might have taken off at too quick of pace at the beginning and it was beginning to talk to me a bit. About two miles from the truck I came up on two gentlemen who were doing a short day hike. While we were talking I heard a very quick approaching roar and intantly knew what it was. Two F-16 fighter jets from the Air National Guard base at Terre Haute were out on a training run. They shot across the ridge tops at only about 400 feet off the ground and had to be doing every bit of 600 mph with full afterburners. Needless to say that gave me a little punch of adrenaline that helped during the next mile and a half. Near the end, however, the body was telling me it would be glad when we got back to the truck. I didn't set any records with this hike at 5 hours, 15 minutes but that still wasn't bad considering it had been ten weeks since I had really exerted myself.

That puts up to 17 1/2 miles for the year and leaves me with 482 1/2 to go to reach my goal of 500. I'm not too worried about getting there. I've got several much bigger hikes planned for later in the spring and this summer. I'll be going back to the Smokies for one hike where I plan to start at the bottom of Cade's Cove and hike to the top of Clingman's Dome. I've got my 70-mile Michigan hike in June and I've also been invited to go hiking in the Rocky Mountains in September. If it all works out I'll be back in the Smokies the second weekend of April. I've also got some miles to make up down at Land Between The Lakes in western Kentucky from where we were cut off last year. I'm thinking about doing 28 down there, starting at the north end and going to the place where we quit last time then back tracking back to the truck. And this year instead of slacking during the summer like I did last year I'm going to be out in the woods a whole lot more. Yep, I'll get to that 500, even if I have to crawl to get to it. My big pack is already set to go. Now all I have to do is just do it.