Backpacker Magazine "Get Out More" Tour 4/29/2008

I attended the presentation by Randy and Sheri Propster at the Benchmark Outfitter in Cincinnati from 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM.

I had to work in Troy, OH today until 4:30 PM, and thought I would have no trouble making it to this event. I was about 60-70 miles away, and had plenty of time. (I thought so at the time). Traffic was stopped dead for over 45 minutes in Dayton on I-75 due to an accident, I had not eaten lunch yet, and started to worry about making it. By the time I had eaten, and driven the distance, I arrived tired, but excited at the Benchmark Outfitter at 6:55 PM. Ok... enough about me and my obstacles to fun.

Sheri and Randy are an interesting couple who have hiked the Appalachian Trail and have hiked the American Discovery Trail. They spend a lot of time backpacking, and have a lot of experience to share.

They covered 11 basic essential categories of things to take backpacking, which is an update to the circa 1930 "ten essential items" list. They showed some interesting gear and had some fun questions to test our knowledge. I won't reveal the questions in case you go to one of these events yourself. There were also lots of great prizes. There were so many that I even won a prize.

I highly recommend that anyone check this out who is a backpacker, or is interested in getting started. I consider myself a novice, but I am always looking for ideas and information from the more experienced. Attending this event could steer a new hiker away from making some expensive gear mistakes, and from making bad decisions on the trail. I would have never started the Buckeye Trail last year with my ill fitting Swiss Army surplus pack if I had been to this event before.

To find out more about one of these events near you, go to backpacker.com/getoutmore.

For more info on the Benchmark Outfitter, go to Benchmark Outfitter

Miami Whitewater Forest: Tallgrass Prairie Trail 4/6/2008

Trailhead

The prairie area

Small creek

A portion of the trail in the woods

Wooden walkway through some of the wetter area of the trail

The Tallgrass Prairie Trail is approximately 2/3 mile in length. It is a short trail, but has a lot of beauty in its short distance. The small prairie area at the half way point is very nice, and has an interesting sign with information on the history of prairie regions in Ohio.

This trail is about as far as it gets from the busy harbor area, and is a small trail that should not be missed.

For more information on Miami Whitewater Forest, checkout the link:

http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/parks/miami.htm

Here is a link to a small Google Map that I made for the Tallgrass Prairie Trail:

Google Map

To subscribe to the RSS feed for the images from this trail:

Image Feed

Miami Whitewater Forest: Badlands Trail 4/6/2008

Badlands Trail

View from the Badlands Trail

This is the point where you can choose the Inner or Outer Badlands Trail Loop

Today the temperature was around 65 degrees F, and sunny. This was the best day of the year so far for being outdoors. Today the trip was to Miami Whitewater Forest, and the first trail walked was the inner loop of the Badlands Trail. I had hoped to walk the Oak Leaf Trail and the adjacent Parcours Trail. I am not sure if it was caused by the recent flooding in the area, but both trails were closed for repairs, and the restroom was closed. There was a porta potty next to the restroom that is at the parking lot by the Oak Leaf Trail. The water fountain outside the restroom was also shut off. Fortunately, I had brought plenty of water, and could use other restroom facilities in the park. Since I could not walk these two trails, I crossed the road to walk the Badlands Trail, which was open. It did look like there were some trees that had fallen across the trail, but they had been cut through.

There are two options with the Badlands Trail. There is an inner loop that is about 0.8 miles in length, and an outer loop that is listed at 1.6 miles. Sinced I was with the kids, I concentrated on the inner loop, so I did not wear them out too much. The trail is listed as a Level 4, which makes it somewhat of a moderate hike.

To find more information and directions to Miami Whitewater Forest, the link to the Hamilton County Park site is:

http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/parks/miami.htm

A nice PDF map of the park and trails is at:

http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/aboutus/mwf_map.pdf

I added a small Google Map, but there is not much detail since this trail is heavily wooded and difficult to make out from the aerial views. It might help pinpoint the location and shows a little about what the area looks like. This should compliment the PDF map above.

Google Map for Badlands Trail

Winton Woods West Trail 4/5/2008

Distance marker at the start of the West Trail

View of the Winton Woods Boathouse neat the start of the West Trail


Trail passes near the lake

Small pond near the trail

The West Trail is a paved trail in Winton Woods that is a short "out and back" style of trail. It is 0.9 miles one way, which makes for a nice 1.8 mile out and back walk.

Today was a beautiful day that was near 60 degrees, and plenty of sun. The West Trail is to the west side of Winton Road, and is less travelled than the trail that circles the lake on the east side of Winton Road, and has some nice views of the western side of Winton Lake. It is a convenient place to drive to for a little exercise, when I don't have time to drive further. There are somewhere between 5 and 6 miles of paved and unpaved trails in the park, so there is a little bit of everything. Here is a link to a map of the trail. (You will need to have the Adobe reader to be able to view this PDF file):

http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/aboutus/ww_map.pdf

A link with more information about the park from the Hamilton County Park District is here:

http://www.hamiltoncountyparks.org/parks/winton.htm

The address to Winton Woods is 10245 Winton Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45231

The following is a small Google Map I created for this trail:

Google Map of West Trail

Caldwell Preserve Cincinnati 3/30/2008

A view of one of the streams from a bridge

One of several bridges and a view of some of the "stairs" leading up a hill

I hiked in the Caldwell Preserve, which is a great small park that is one of the Cincinnati city parks. I hiked with the Tri State hiking club, and I hiked about an hour and a half with the group, until I had to head for home at 2:30 PM.

The original land donated to the park in 1915 was donated by J. Nelson Caldwell, who claimed that the land had been first transferred to a member of the Caldwell family in 1796. The land was transferred from John Cleves Symmes, who had received a patent for the land from George Washington. There is some more background information on the history of this area on the City of Cincinnati park page listed further down.

The park has some great overlooks, and a few short steep climbs. We hiked a mix of the trails to make a loop that was somewhere around 2-3 miles in length.

The web page for more information on this park is:

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cityparks/pages/-3440-/

You can find a link to a map of the various trails from this site.

The park is really a nice one for its small size. If you are looking for a short 3.5 mile hike with some nice ups and downs, this is a good one to check out. There were plenty of bridges, so it was never necessary to make any wet stream crossings, like in Mt. Airy Forest. The restroom by the parking lot was locked, and there were no trail maps available at the Nature Center at the bin outside. I am not sure what the regular hours are for this being staffed. Fortunately, someone knew the trails pretty well, and since is is a small park with loop trails, it would not have been easy to get lost. To be on the safe side, go to the web page and print out a map ahead of time like I should have done.

Sharon Woods: Gorge Trail 3/17/2008

Today, I took a short walk during my lunch hour at Sharon Woods. The gorge trail is a great shorter trail that is unpaved. I wore my Rocky boots, but it wasn't very muddy. There is a lot of gravel mixed in to the trail, and it appears to drain pretty well.

The trail is listed at about 0.8 miles each way. It is an out and back trail, not the typical loop trail you might find in a park. For the short distance, there is plenty to see. Since I was short on time, I walked the 1.6 miles in about 30 minutes, but managed to snap a few pictures along the way.

Triple Creek Park 3/16/2008

Today was a nice overcast day for taking a short walk. I went with my two oldest daughters to Triple Creek Park, which is in Colerain Township in Hamilton County. There is a nice little parcours trail loop that is only about 0.8 miles in length, which is perfect for younger children.

I needed to get out for a short walk in the woods, and Triple Creek Park is close. I could have used a few more laps around the trail, but it was nice for a quick fix of fresh air.

I hope to update this blog with some interesting longer trips in the near future. I am trying to work out some plans for some weekend hiking/backpacking trips. I was scheduled to go to Salt Fork State Park for a backpacking trip last weekend, but the snow storm prevented me from making the 3 hour drive there.