This past weekend we took a handful of our young adults from the church backpacking on The Knobstone Trail in southern Indiana. It was a blast, and for many, it was their first experience backpacking. There were 6 of us [me being the only girl], and of the 6 of us, only 4 made it to the end. We had one guy, Nick, who's foot swelled up, and he pulled off at mile 25. The other guy, Rich, we got separated from around mile 6. It was a crazy few days, but luckily, we were all at the end of the trail so we didn't have to go home without someone, or call someone's parents and tell them we lost their son :). Overall, I think everyone had a blast and even learned some things about themselves. Backpacking will do that to you, and if you're not careful, you just might catch 'the bug' and periodically get drawn back out into the woods or mountains for undefined periods of time. Beware - it's contagious! :)
At Deam Lake Trailhead...packing up and getting ready to shuttle the cars and make water cashes. One of our only pictures of Rich, the guy in the army gear with his arms crossed [read on to find out why].
The beginning of the trail, viewed from the parking lot. Step one toward mile 45.
This is what most of our breaks looked like; Mike, on the right, demonstrates how we all felt :).
At a water cash. We hid water off of road crossings near the trail b/c most of the streams had dried up and it was 80+ degrees outside.
Hiking along the trail.
Hiking some more. We had this constant fear of poison ivy. We usually hike this trail in April, so it's all still dead. This time it was extremely overgrown. Don't touch anything with three leaves!
The view up one of the rediculously steep knobs. Who built this trail anyway? Ever heard of switchbacks?
6 comments:
Crazy cool! I love it. Sounds like a really fun hike. I like the pictures and the stories - there's always a story involved with a hike! :)
How many days did this take you? Do you guys hike like that often? I love it - so exciting.
Kelli~
Mark and I have hiked the knobstone a few different times...mostly in college. We started thurs. night and finished on sunday arond noon. It can be done probably in 3 days if you want ...we probably hiked an equivalent of three days [two full days and two half days].
"do you hike like that often?" - you might have to expand on that question some...not sure what you are really asking :).
I think I meant "Do you take hikes often" that are lengthy or weekend like.
:)
Sorry for the confusion. I just wondered how often you hike,and if you have capacity for weekend hikes often. Sounds fun!
Ahhhhhh... you get a special award for hiking the Knobber in summer!
Some of life's grandest memories have been on that trail ;-)
I had to laugh at your comments about poison ivy...I had a nasty run-in with it this summer (if you can call wading through a chest-high row of bushes that was thoroughly infested with p.i. a "run-in") and now think it is of the Devil himself. I think that the parts of hell that are not on fire are covered with poison ivy. :)
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