It was a beautiful day for a hike. The temperature was in the 40s, the sun was shining, and there was no wind. The trail in McFarland Woods in Mt. Airy Forest (Cincinnati, OH) had a lot of ice on the path. It was funny, since the ice seemed to cover the trail and not much else. It made for some slick hiking, but my Rocky boots really had good grip. I carried a small fanny pack with 1L of water in two bottles, some energy bars (that I did not need) and a few other items.
I might switch to a small daypack, since I always have a hard time putting the water bottles back into the fanny pack water bottle holders. It is an Outdoor Research fanny pack from Walmart. It was cheap and does the job, but it is too much effort returning the water bottles after a drink. With a light daypack, I could use my Camelback on the warmer days when I do not need to worry about the tube freezing.
I went on this hike with the Tri State Hiking Club, and about 40 to 50 people showed up for the hike. It took some getting used to the ice at first, but I gained more confidence and slipped only once. We followed much of a trail that was marked as the "E" trail. We did not follow it completely, since we were trying to stick to about a 4 mile loop. It had a few ups and downs, but was in no way as strenuous as the Fort Hill Hike in Highland County last month.
We completed about a 4 mile loop in an hour and 45 minutes. We held up a few times to wait for some of the slower hikers. This was fine, since it was a beautiful day and it was nice meeting some members of the club I had not had a chance to talk with before.
I did not take the time to download a map like I usually do. When I hike in a new area I have not been to before, I like to get an idea of the trail length, terrain, etc. A good source for maps of the area is at the City of Cincinnati website at:
If the link does not appear, copy and paste the following to your web browser:
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityparks/pages/-3066-/
If you click on the maps link at the city's website after clicking the link above, you will see another page with a link called "Trail Map #1". This is the best map I have found yet of the area. If anyone else has a link to a better one, please feel free to share it with me and anyone else who might read this blog.
Here is a link that should take you directly to a view of the map:
If the link does not appear, copy and paste the following to your web browser:
http://dynamic.cinci-parks.org/images/park_media/326.jpg?55
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