It’s Gonna Be Fun—Part One

by guest blogger Bonnie Spencer

 

Part 2, Part 3

April 13, 2018

Before we even started our spring 10-percenter hike on the Buckeye Trail, our schedule changed. We had planned to begin the third week of March, but the 10-day forecast showed rain and snow. CW decided it would be best to move our start to April. As the new 10-day forecast came around, it showed rain and possible snow. Oh well. CW said not to worry. “It’s gonna be fun,” he told me.

We will be getting into serious hill country. CW has told me repeatedly that with the challenging terrain, we won’t be able to move as fast and cover as many miles as on our other hikes. I’m all about knocking off miles, but I’m reluctantly beginning to accept reality. CW assured me, “It’s gonna be fun.”

Since our last hike, I have read two books by people who have hiked the Buckeye Trail. Both books paint a realistic picture of the BT and confirm CW’s assessment of the sections we will be hiking this time. Additionally, they tell of downed trees, narrow paths, tall grass, and lack of blazing in some wooded areas. I shared this with CW. He told me that the last time he hiked through there, it wasn’t that bad. “It’s gonna be fun,” he said.

I do have some new gear and gadgets since our last hike. We got walkie-talkies to communicate when we’re in separate cars. Now we won’t lose each other or have to pull over to discuss what to do next. CW got me a dashboard mount for the GPS so I won’t have to hold it while driving. I got a small voice recorder at his suggestion. I’ll try using it instead of writing notes. In the hiking aisle of Walmart, I happened upon a nice fanny pack that is roomier than the one I was using. I had to get it since everything was squished in my other one and now I have a voice recorder to add. CW gave me a new wooden walking stick he found at Rural King. It is sturdy, but extremely light weight. It even has a compass in the top. I can use it on roads when we think there may be danger of dogs. And I bought my first pair of trekking poles to use on wooded trails.

I’m ready for all the miles in the car, the hilly terrain, and even any overzealous dogs. This might not be too bad. In fact, it could even be fun!

Day 1 (Monday): Smyrna to Red Hill Farm (10.9 trail miles)

It snowed last night. We left home at 8:00 a.m. and drove through a silvery spring wonderland. The roads were clear and the snow only partially covered the landscape. Everything took on soft shades of white and gray. The sun hid behind the clouds for a while, then pulled off its mask and cast shadows. In my rear view mirror, I watched slush slide down the back window.

At 10:16 we reached Cambridge, our home base for the week. Since it was so early, we killed time by getting CW some gloves at Dollar General and eating lunch at Wendy’s. We went to our motel at 11:30 hoping to check in early, but we wouldn’t be able to get a room until 1:30. We couldn’t hang around that long so we put everything we could under the privacy screens in both cars and took off for the day’s hike.

Today we are finishing the 10.9 miles we had to leave undone in the Bowerston section last fall. We only had 20 miles to drive to place the first car, but we had some difficulty finding the exact spot at Red Hill Farm where we would end. An Amish man, Roy, pulled his buggy over and helped us find it. We got our car placed and drove to our beginning spot, with a quick detour to Freeport, our last chance for a real bathroom.

We didn’t start hiking until 1:30. It was gray and in the 40s all day. Although we were chilly starting out, we quickly warmed up. The day was perfectly comfortable for hiking.

After less than a half mile on busy US 22/SR 800 with trucks zooming past, the BT followed quiet country roads for the rest of the day. The first was Covered Bridge Road, which we walked for three miles. We saw no cars and only a few houses spaced far apart.

Two goats and two sheep in a pen caught my eye. Then four beautiful large white dogs up on the hill behind them, also in an enclosure, saw us and announced our presence. One of the sheep joined in. In contrast, on the other side of the house and close to the road, was a chained-up, senior-looking dog near a Beware of Dog sign. Surprisingly, it didn’t make a sound. I’m not sure it could hear us—or even see us. After we passed, it slowly rose up and sniffed the air as if to say, “Is someone there?” I felt sorry for him.

Farther down the road was an entire field of sheep and goats. Several had babies tagging along. Two kids ran up to the fence and showed off for us. There were also chickens running everywhere and, of course, some barking dogs—a requirement for every farmhouse.

Skull Fork Covered Bridge sits right beside the road. It is used only by pedestrians now and seems to be the centerpiece of a very small park. Two picnic tables sit inside it. The Buckeye Trail goes through the bridge, not on the road. Even if the BT map didn’t show that, I would have had to take the bridge.

The hills weren’t so noticeable until the last mile of Covered Bridge Road. Then they began slowing us down. On one particularly steep ascent, we saw an abandoned church nestled back among the trees. Numerous No Trespassing signs kept us from getting a close-up view, but we took a break on the road to catch our breath.

Two hours after we began hiking, we saw our first car since those on US 22. We love the slow country roads. On Crab Orchard Road, I saw two deer bound across a hundred yards ahead of us. Soon a third followed.

Another place, we saw a rafter of about 20 wild turkeys ahead on the road. They took off into a field when we came into view. By the time we reached that spot in the road, they were nowhere to be seen.

Rounding a bend, I saw a trio of deer coming my way. I’m sure they weren’t the ones I saw earlier several miles back. These turned as soon as they saw me and I watched their white tails bounce down the road and into the woods on the right. A little farther on, three white flags bounced across the road going left. Were they beckoning us to play?

We reached our car at 6:15. I may be sore tomorrow from some of today’s hills, but I was excited to finish the Bowerston section. We enjoyed the dry weather all day because tomorrow it is supposed to rain.

When we drove back to get the other car, we detoured to Freeport again. This morning when I was waiting to use the restroom at the gas station, I saw the case of ice cream bars strategically placed right by the entrance. It seemed like a good idea for today. (If you’ve read my other blogs, you know I have to have ice cream every day I hike.) I enjoyed a Chocolate Éclair ice cream bar.

This was a good day: great weather, beautiful scenery, cute animals, and we finished a section of the BT. Hey, I had fun today! We’ll see if it continues tomorrow in the Belle Valley section.

 

Day 2 (Tuesday): Red Hill Farm to south of Winterset (13.4 trail miles)

When we went to breakfast, the desk attendant said there was a 90 percent or better chance of rain all day. Fortunately that wasn’t accurate, but there was enough to change some of our plans.

Thinking we might need a rest from the rain during the day, we decided to hike two separate legs. The first leg would be on roads and take us to a game break within Salt Fork Wildlife Area (SFWA). The game break is a wide grassy area managed by the Division of Wildlife that allows access into their property. The BT enters the woods here and continues through a field before following a ridge trail. When we reached that spot to leave a car, CW decided it might not be a good idea to hike through there today. It had been pouring rain all morning, and High Water signs were up; he thought we may end up walking through a swamp.

After looking at the BT map, we devised an alternate route. We continued on R55 past the game break and turned onto R57 that generally parallels the BT. Happy to find a spacious parking area where it ended at Salt Fork Lake, we left a car there. But we would have to do some mile checking.

Our improvised route was 1.4 miles short of matching the length of the BT through the woods, so we would add that mileage onto our second leg this afternoon. Instead of starting at the point where the woods trail emerges onto Parker Road, we would drive 1.4 miles farther up Parker to begin hiking. That way I won’t feel as though I’m cheating on my BT miles by skipping something.

With all of that worked out, we finally got to Red Hill Farm and began hiking at 10:15 a.m. The rain prevents me from taking many pictures. My camera gets fogged up. Besides getting cloudy photos, I’m afraid I’ll permanently damage it. Also, it’s just about impossible to take notes. Even though my brother gave CW and me fantastic pens that write in the rain and CW gave me a small waterproof notebook, this seemed like a good day to break in my new voice recorder. It isn’t waterproof, but I found I could get it out of my fanny pack and poke it up through the neck of my poncho right to my mouth. Except for my eyes nearly crossing when I looked at the screen every time I turned it on, it seemed to work great.

The BT goes through Red Hill Farm Wildlife Conservation Area on dirt roads for over a mile. It passes between two huge stones that jut into the air, by several ponds, and by a farmhouse and barns. We saw cows in a field, each with at least one small calf. They all trotted away as we approached. Farther on, we passed more cows. At first they ran away, but curiosity finally got the best of them. They returned to the fence to stare at us.

Today was another day of quiet back roads and very little traffic. We continually adjusted our layers and were comfortable temperature-wise most of the day. It had started out chilly, but rose to the 60s. Even the wind felt good because our ponchos tend to trap a lot of heat.

All the rain created waterfalls along the roadside, providing easy listening music. But it also brought the not-so-pleasant smell of worms. They covered the roads. I tried not to step on them, but I’m sure I smashed a few. At times the rain slacked off or even stopped and we could enjoy the beautiful scenery, much of it being farmland and rolling hills.

We finally reached SFWA. The road that passes the game break began with huge potholes filled with muddy water. Hard on cars but easy to walk around. After that, the road begins to ascend, and continues to do so for about a mile. Sometimes it is really steep, other times it is gradual but persistent. The rain kept coming down and the road kept going up. We were so wet and so tired.

We passed the game break and began our nearly two miles of improvised BT. A mile from our car, we came to a bend in the road CW had been concerned about this morning. With standing pools on both sides, he knew the rain might send water across the road. And it had. Water was streaming across at a brisk pace, maybe 4” deep. There was nothing to do but walk through it. We scooted to our car as quickly as we could so we could get out before the water got too deep to drive through.

To pick up our other car at Red Hill Farm, we started down Parker, which we had used earlier to get to the main road, US 22. We went about a mile before we came to more high water. A stake rising from the water showed the depth to be at least 8”. The next road over was also impassable. We kept driving till we found a way to US 22 and to our car.

It was now after 3:00 p.m. We took a break and hobbled into Winterset Kitchen. We had seen the restaurant earlier today while shuttling on US 22. We enjoyed turkey meals (hopefully no relatives of those we’d seen this morning) and a rest.

We reshuttled the cars and began hiking our last 3.5 miles at 4:30. It was no longer raining. In fact, the sun was trying with all its might to come out. Except for 0.4 of a mile on US 22, we walked more quiet roads that continued through another section of SFWA.

Our last road was about a mile and a half long and put an exclamation mark on the day’s hike with its beauty. The trees were still bare except for the papery white leaves of the beech trees. The ground cover was a thick cushion of leaves from last fall. Along the roadside were occasional patches of light, almost neon, green. They were day lilies just emerging, no more than 5” high. Interspersed among them were groupings of bright yellow daffodils.

We finished at 5:50 p.m. On the way to our motel, we stopped at Mr. G’s, a small convenience market. CW had been there before and was acquainted with Bigfoot who resides in the store. He thought we might find some ice cream there. All they had were bars, but that worked for me. I got an M&M ice cream cookie sandwich, which CW almost gave away to Bigfoot.

Heading toward home, we saw lightning and CW got a tornado warning alarm on his phone. We stopped at a gas station across from our motel to fill up both cars. While we were there, rain began pouring down and the lightning became fiercer. Back at the motel, the staff informed all the occupants where to go in the building if shelter was needed. We watched the weather channel for a while, but it sounded as though we got downgraded to a severe thunderstorm. We listened to the rain and wind most of the night, grateful that the storms had waited for us to finish hiking.

Finding alternate routes to walking through mush, being serenaded by lyrical waterfalls, getting to walk across streaming water on the road, and breaking in my voice recorder all helped to make this another fun day. I’m starting to think maybe CW’s prediction was right.

 

Day 3 (Wednesday): south of Winterset to Senecaville (16.0 trail miles)

Today was supposed to be mostly cloudy, only in the low 40s, very windy . . . and dry. After yesterday, we were so looking forward to the dry part. I forgot to do anything about my boots last night so they were quite wet this morning. CW partially dried them over the heater in our room at the last minute. On our way to breakfast, I opened the side entrance we pass by and checked the temperature. Yes, very cold . . . but dry. After breakfast, we glanced through that same side entrance door to see a steady rain hitting the swimming pool cover. Really? We added rain layers to our cold layers. When we walked out to our cars, we were hit with a mixture of rain and sleet.

We had a 16-mile day planned with no opportunities for bathrooms that we knew of since we’d pretty much be on country roads that didn’t go through towns. Like yesterday, we decided to do two legs today. We would do the second leg, the southernmost miles, first.

We drove to our finishing spot at Seneca Lake Marina in Senecaville, passing some road closures on the way. After checking inside to make sure it was OK, we left a car. We wanted to drive the trail north about halfway and look for a parking spot, leave the car, and walk back to the marina. We went only about five miles before we came to a county worker opening up a High Water sign on Salem Road. Ahead of us, the Buckeye Trail was under water. We saw a place to park that looked like the edge of a small pull-off. The man said it was actually Dynamite Road, but it would probably be OK to leave a car there. With no road to be seen, the trucks that travel it to reach a dynamite factory wouldn’t be using it for a while.

While we were getting bundled up to hike back, two more vehicles came by. One man considered driving through the water on Salem, but decided not to. Then he offered to drive us back to the marina. Guess he hadn’t gotten the gist of what we were doing. The other man just came to see the flood. He offered us directions to get to the other side of the road closing later.

Part of the way back, we walked into a strong and bitter wind that hurled sleet at us. It sounded cool hitting my rain jacket hood but it didn’t feel so great on my face. Then a change of direction and some protection by trees gave us some relief. Sleet turned to snow. The sun popped out a little. Then more snow. This was all in the two hours it took to get back to the marina.

After retrieving the car on Dynamite Road, we returned to the marina and ate our lunch in a warm car. We went inside and talked for a while with the lady who had allowed us to park there, obtaining permission for tomorrow, as well. The marina isn’t busy right now. I guess winter weather in spring isn’t good for the boating business.

We wanted to shoot straight up SR 285 all the way to where we ended yesterday, but due to flooding we had to detour. We did watch two pickup trucks slowly drive through the water, but we weren’t about to add that kind of adventure to our itinerary. We turned east at that point and ended up just above the flood on Salem Road. We decided to park a car there, drive the trail up to our northernmost point, and hike back down.

The lot we parked in yesterday off SR 285 and part of the road itself were a good-sized pond today. We found a place to leave the car a tenth of a mile away. It was 1:45 p.m. by then and we had 11.3 miles to cover. With the hills ahead, we thought it might take five or six hours, so we moved quickly on the flat and descending stretches.

From a distance, a hill looks so much worse than it really is. What looks like a roller coaster incline is usually a series of rises and dips, and the final ascent is much tamer than it leads you to think. I’m not saying they’re easy; they still need to be taken slowly, one small step at a time.

We surprised ourselves when we finished this leg at 5:55 p.m. It took a little over four hours. All that time I had been thinking of the ice cream in my future—the good stuff tonight. We went to Cold Stone Creamery where I got a scoop of Chocolate Cake Batter with raspberries mixed in. Truly scrumptious!

Today was such a mixed bag of weather. Although the rain finished by the time we began hiking, there were snow flurries and sleet on and off all day. Blue patches of sky came and went. Sometimes the sun shined brightly as snow swirled about us. The wind could be bitter cold. We were supposed to have gusts up to 40 mph. We felt some of those up on the ridges. Other times, the breezes actually felt good to me because I was so warm from hiking. The weather really didn’t bother us too much. If we were uncomfortable, we knew it would change soon. I’d take this crazy weather any day over hot sunny 70s.

Flooded road on the Buckeye Trail, flooded parking lots, mostly dry boots, and delicious ice cream. Today was another fun adventure.

 

Day 4 (Thursday): Senecaville to between Pleasant City and Belle Valley (11.0 trail miles)

During our shuttling of cars this morning, we saw several High Water signs still up and even a road closure sign. However, the waters had all receded almost entirely off the roads. Our destination for the day was a country crossroads. The spot we found to park in the grass at the side of the road was 0.4 of a mile from the intersection, which shortened our planned hike to 11.0 miles. Neither of us minded a bit after the long day yesterday.

We drove back up to the marina and began hiking at 9:20 a.m. It was quite chilly, but we warmed up. Most of the day was pleasant. The sun was out all day. The wind was more gentle than yesterday, only occasionally inflicting us with its leftover winter chill. We didn’t have one drop—or flake—of precipitation.

We crossed over Senecaville Dam. The dam was constructed from 1935 to 1937 by the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, to alleviate floods in the Ohio River Basin, and it creates Senecaville Lake. From the dam, we could look down on the Senecaville State Fish Hatchery, one of six managed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. In 2017, these hatcheries stocked public waters with more than 66 million sport fish.

Not far beyond the dam, we entered woods that are managed by Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. I was excited to try out my new trekking poles. I wasn’t so excited about the woods. This stretch was 0.7 of a mile. A prominent blue blaze showed where to enter, but we saw no footpath or other blazes, except for a faded one that seemed to have us in the wrong spot according to CW’s digital map. After several minutes of trying to make our way over to where the map showed the trail to be, we gave up. We made our own trail straight to the road that we would have eventually come out on anyway.

A half mile farther, we found where the trail emerged. At that point, the BT crossed the road and entered more woods. We were leery of three more miles of trees to get lost in, but we needn’t have been. The trails were obvious and very well blazed.

The paths varied, which kept the hike interesting. They were often covered with crackling dry leaves or spongy wet ones. A few lengthy stretches were muddy from all the recent rain. Trees had been bulldozed in some places. The paths undulated and meandered. My poles—and legs—got a workout. We loved these trails.

Near the end, the BT followed a wide path of dirt and grass with branches forming an archway. Ahead of us, some young deer chased each other out of the trees, then back in. If I’d had more energy, I would have been tempted to join in the chase.

This path led to a large, open grassy point that overlooked Buffalo Hills Resort. In the middle of it, there stood a shelter with no picnic tables. We sat on the concrete floor and ate our lunch. Then we descended from the ridge to walk through the resort. A man in a truck stopped to express his excitement that we were hiking the BT through there. We thought he might be the manager.

I had been hoping to find a restroom in the resort, so I was happy to see the General Store. However, it was dark and the lot was empty. We were sure it was closed. I tried the door anyway, and we were both shocked when it opened. No one was there and it was in quite disarray. Perhaps they were getting ready for the summer season. CW stood guard outside while I used the restroom.

I packed my poles into my backpack since the rest of our day was on roads. Nearly two miles were on Buzzard’s Roost Road. The walking was difficult because the road was covered with large, sharply edged stones. We came upon a cluster of red-winged blackbirds. Two were out where we could see them, which enabled us to identify them. We could only hear the others clamoring from a secret place in the trees. It sounded like either a rock concert or a meeting of parliament.

Farther on, a herd of cattle entertained us. As a group, they ran toward the fence, stopped, and stared at us. They started toward us again, then circled away in unison, and came back closer than before and stared. They did this a couple more times, each time coming nearer. Their dance looked well rehearsed.

We finished just after 4:00 p.m. For being draggy today, we had made pretty good time. It was an enjoyable day because of the pleasant weather and the slower pace.

After getting the other car and returning to the motel, we noticed The Forum across the street. The parking lot was packed, so we figured the food must be good. It was! We both had huge, delicious gyros.

I was so full that I didn’t really have room for ice cream. (Can you believe it?!) But I couldn’t break my tradition. We went back to Cold Stone Creamery and I got one of their signature creations: Coffee Lovers Only (coffee ice cream, roasted almonds, Heath bar, and caramel). I don’t love coffee, but I would have loved this if I hadn’t been so full. CW didn’t get any ice cream, so I forced as much of it on him as I could.

 

Day 5 (Friday): between Pleasant City and Belle Valley to west of Belle Valley (10.9 trail miles)

CW made arrangements yesterday for us to park a car at Tony’s barn, close to where we would finish today. He knew from other hikers that Tony often allows BT hikers to park there.

When we arrived, Tony was there doing the morning feeding. Some sheep were running loose and surrounded our cars. I love sheep, so this started my day with a big smile. We were also entertained with goats in a pen, three roaming cats, and many pigeons. He has homing pigeons, but I also saw a couple of the kind with feathers on their feet.

We stayed about 25 minutes talking with Tony. A half dozen mischievous-looking sheep continued to move as one around the area. From the reactions of CW and Tony, I knew something was going on right behind me. The sheep were quiet and sneaky. I didn’t feel a thing, but one of the woolies (perhaps dared by the others?) had eaten a plastic cord lock off my rain jacket. This is the same jacket that was new on our last hike and got all torn up from sticker bushes. Now I had a good laugh to go with my smile.

We drove to our beginning spot, which was on the grass berm along a back road. Yesterday when we walked to that spot from the other direction, we had passed a No Parking sign posted by the property owner. It wasn’t right where we parked, but we didn’t know if we were on the same property. Wanting to be safe, CW parked a little farther down the road today. Then we began three miles of hilly roads.

We passed a monument marking the spot where one of the pieces of the USS Shenandoah landed when the airship was torn apart by violent winds on September 3, 1925. Built for the U.S. Navy as a scouting vessel and flying laboratory, it was being shown off to the public on a six-day flight to 40 cities and five state fairs when it encountered the thunderstorm. Fourteen crew members lost their lives. Following the crash, the military’s emphasis shifted to airplanes.

The BT went off-road on a little-used footpath. It was spacious, making it easy to maneuver around squishy grass, patches of mud, sticker branches along the sides, and weeds growing tall in the middle of the trail. After less than a mile, we were briefly back on roads. I stopped for a minute just to listen to water frolicking over stones beside the road on its way to a drainage pipe. I wondered why it’s such a pleasant sound to me. It’s so light and carefree and happy. For the first time, I put a name to it: Joy.

Soon we entered Wolf Run State Park. Nearly three miles of leaf-covered trails took us along the western shore of Wolf Run Lake. Sometimes we walked on narrow ledges. Since the leaves were dry in most places, we weren’t in danger of sliding off. The trail crosses several streams that feed into the lake. We traversed most of them easily. For one, however, we had to go farther upstream, making our own path through the woods to find a place where rocks and gravel provided a dry crossing.

Then we came to a whopper. There was half a bridge on the far side. Between it and us, there was water—lots of water. And today even the far end of the bridge was under water. CW walked right across to the bridge while I watched with my mouth hanging open. It had to be at least a foot deep. Off to my right was some mostly dry ground covered with thick brush, much of it multi-flora rose (aka mean and unrelenting sticker bushes). I know I’ll probably have to ford deep water sometime on the BT, but it wasn’t going to be today.

CW waited patiently for me as I slowly made my way through the brambles. My hiking sticks were helpful in chopping through dry twigs and moving sticker branches aside. I still got nailed a few times, but ten minutes later I had successfully circled around the water. The dry ground did not match up with the end of the bridge, so I climbed on rather clumsily.

I considered getting to the bridge with dry feet to be a major accomplishment. Now for the bridge itself. I walked as far as the dry boards allowed. Then I contemplated the situation. The water appeared to be about 4” deep when CW walked through. We still had a lot of miles to hike, and I didn’t want to do it in wet boots. The bridge had two horizontal rails. Hmmm. Would I rather get wet or look like an idiot?

I climbed up on the bottom rail and held onto the top rail while grasping my sticks in one hand. Slowly I inched my way to the end of the bridge. I had to step in the water briefly to hop over to the narrow path where I grabbed onto a tree, but it wasn’t long enough to soak through my boots. I am so glad I am hiking with CW. No one else would have waited around for me.

The woods were so enjoyable. The trails were interesting and well blazed. The scenery was pretty. The only reason we were happy to finish that segment of the BT was because we had more miles ahead, on the trail and on the road. We still had to drive home today.

We finally reached the south end of the lake and crossed the dam, then followed a road down into the village of Belle Valley. From there, the Wilderness Loop of the BT begins. The trail east starts the Road Fork section. Today we continued west in the Belle Valley section.

After walking under I-77, we had three more miles of some tough hills. One road led directly to our car. However, the planners of the BT took us off of it onto a side road that ascended to a ridge and then descended back to the original road, skipping a relatively flat stretch. Either they are cruel mappers or they saw an opportunity to put hikers on some less-traveled, thus safer, roads. I’m sure it’s the latter.

We reached our car by 4:30. The sheep were all behind bars. I was careful not to get too close. I tried to find out which one ate my jacket. They talked, but I never learned the language of sheep, so the case remains unsolved.

As we returned to get the other car and neared our road, we noticed a policeman following us. Could he have caught up with us for breaking into the General Store at Buffalo Hills Resort yesterday? We made our turn and so did he. We pulled behind our other car, and he pulled in behind us—and turned on his flashing lights. As soon as he walked up to our car, CW explained that we were hiking the Buckeye Trail. He’d never heard of it, so CW showed him a map. The officer said someone had called in that a car had been sitting there for a while and he was checking it out. He was very pleasant and didn’t have a problem with where we parked. And now he knows about the Buckeye Trail.

We drove back south to Caldwell (we went back and forth so much, I felt like a yo-yo) and got permission to leave a car at the motel where we have a room reserved for our next trip. Next door was a restaurant owned by the managers of the motel, so we ate a hearty supper there before driving north again for home.

While passing through Cambridge, our car went right for Cold Stone. We planned to share a small bowl of ice cream tonight, but the worker made a mistake and gave us a medium. Can’t say that we were disappointed. It was another signature creation: Peanut Butter Cup Perfection (chocolate ice cream, peanut butter, Reese’s peanut butter cup, and fudge). It was much better than yesterday’s, maybe because I wasn’t as full.

We traveled home in rain and snow. I thought about the day. My jacket was eaten by a sheep, I got to bushwhack and spider-crawl my way across a river, we had the opportunity to educate a policeman about the BT, and we were served extra Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. My conclusion was this: It had definitely been another fun day. In fact, make that a fun week.

We completed 62.2 miles of the Buckeye Trail this week, finishing Bowerston and most of Belle Valley. We will save the remaining seven or so miles in Belle Valley for our fall hike. During our next trip, we will take on Road Fork in the Wilderness Loop. Come back in a couple of weeks to see if the fun continues in Part Two.