Yesterday was the first day of fall, and that summer feeling is fading from the air. School is well under way, and Kenny is now submerged in geometry and Spanish. The temperatures are starting to cool, especially at night, and leaves are starting to turn color in some places.
It always seems to me that the first touch of fall makes people double down on their attempts to get outdoors and have fun. They can see the cold and snow on the horizon and hurry to get in as much outdoor time as possible before the weather chases them inside to wait for spring. Even though I try to carry on having fun outdoors through the winter, I feel the same urge to take advantage of the nice weather before it goes.
So there's been quite a bit of bike riding, some camping, some hiking, and even a little bit of kayaking over the last month. The weather has been very dry, so the trails are in great shape - but of course that leaves the creeks so low that boating is mostly out of the question.
The weather was great for the Conneaut, Ohio D-Day re-enactment on August 22. Kenny and I headed up in the morning to check out the encampments before the main event. It was amazing to see all the people in uniforms from the middle of the last century - American, British, French and German troops each had their own area. The re-enactors buy their own gear and weapons, and come to this event all at their own cost, from all across the eastern U.S.
We watched a re-enactment of a battle over a bridge near the beaches on D-Day, then got a spot for the main battle. Though they lacked a big armor presence, the landing craft, artillery and aircraft made for an amazing, and very touching, recreation. This was our first trip to the event, and I'm sure it will be something we'll be going to every year from now on.
I took quite a bit of video of the battle of the bridge, but it gets so blurry when downloaded to Blogspot that it's not worth putting on the blog.
Since we missed out on a real vacation this summer we tried to get as much time off as possible for the Labor Day holiday. Kenny and I headed over to Allegheny National Forest near Cooks Forest State Park on Thursday afternoon, hoping to beat the holiday crowd and get one of the nice dispersed campsites along the Clarion River. We got over to the river around 8:00, just about half an hour after a surprise rainstorm brought a couple of inches of rain and high winds to the area.
We managed to get a good site near Robin Island, just before the road was blocked by a downed tree. It was getting dark as we set up our tents, but we've been camping so many times before that we could probably set them up in total darkness.
Diana had to work on Friday morning, but headed over just after lunch. The rain brought the river level up from barely runnable to a good low level, so Kenny got in his first solo river kayak trip while we were waiting for here to arrive.
Kenny on the Clarion River.
Diana did manage to find her way to our site, and with the extra gear she brought we finished setting up our campsite. We had three tents (one for Kenny, one for us, and one for the gear), a big tarp over the eating area and a tarped off shower spot in the back of the campsite. Kenny even had his hammock set up by his tent for serious relaxing.
Diana took Kenny for some go kart racing and lunch while I took a short kayak ride down the river, with a bike shuttle. It was amazing how many people were out paddling - I'd never seen so many non-rental boats on the river in one day before. The high point of the trip was the surf wave at Heath Station, just upstream from Belltown. There is an old gas pipeline across the bottom of the river, about a foot in diameter. When the water level is right it makes a really nice, wide surf wave that's just perfect for kayaks. I spent half an hour surfing, and then later Ken and I came back for another little surf session after lunch. If we hadn't got the rain the night before the level would have definitely been too low, but it was absolutely perfect for us.
We stayed till Monday, so that made for 5 days out for Ken and I. There was more boating, some bicycling, hiking, and plenty of relaxing. We all went up to Leeper to eat at the Sawmill one evening. All in all it was a pretty great mini-vacation and I'm glad that we got a chance to get out in the good weather.
Diana and I at Beartown Rocks.
Beartown Rocks trail.
View over Clarion River Valley from Beartown Rocks overlook.
Clarion River near our campsite.
The next weekend I had hoped that there would be enough rain to make the streams come up so that I could kayak. Turns out there wasn't enough rain for that, but it was enough rain to make the mountain bike trails soft. That left me wondering what to do, so I decided to try out a new paved trail, over at Goddard State Park in Pennsylvania.
Goddard State Park, Pennsylvania
It turned out to be a great place to ride. They have a 12.25 mile loop around the lake, with about a mile of it on park roads, and the rest on paved trails. These trails aren't flat and straight, like the rail trails around here. Instead they have plenty of short hills, and lots of curves. It was so much fun riding that I came back Sunday to ride again. This place is definitely moving into heavy rotation on my list of fun places to ride!
Lots of hills!
There have also been plenty of bike rides in the last month, both on pavement and on dirt. I got several rides, including a couple of night rides, on the mountain bike trails at West Branch State Park. And I got plenty of miles on the Western Reserve Greenway Trail and Little Beaver Creek Greenway.
Evening approached on Little Beaver Creek Greenway.
Sunset at the same spot the next week.
The descent into the Gorge at West Branch State Park.
A fellow trail user on Western Reserve Greenway.
Leaves starting to change color on the Western Reserve Greenway.
There should still be plenty of time to get in another camping trip or two, and hopefully we'll get some rain soon so that the creeks run. And there is always the opportunity to get out and ride, even if the weather turns. Autumn is always a special time of year, and I'm looking forward to getting out and enjoying it.
Ken on baritone sax at the Apple Cider Festival parade.
It's no secret that I like to get outside and do things - hiking, camping, biking, kayaking etc. These are the things that I enjoy - they revitalize me after spending so much time doing the things that MUST be done. Getting out in the sun and trees - or the rain and swamp and mosquitoes - or the snow and wind and dark - lets me forget about all the business and nitpicking of my everyday world. To me so much of that everyday stuff just falls into a category labeled 'FORGETTABLE MINUTIA' - things that you can just as well forget the moment the task is accomplished. On the other hand, heading outdoors to have fun falls into the category 'ADVENTURE'.
Maybe it's not adventure the way that you think of it - not the Technicolor, fight for survival, travel to distant climes type. But to me it's a whole process of knowing what to do, getting things ready, getting yourself there, and having unsupervised, unscripted fun. And it is always an ADVENTURE.
Most of the time things go pretty smoothly, more or less the way that I had planned. And that's because I've been there and done that before. I know what works and what has failed in the past. I realize that things don't always go smoothly and allow for emergencies and other unplanned events, and I'm not going to pout if I get a boo-boo. I'm not pushing for maximum adrenaline when I head out. My goal is usually just to have some fun and get some exercise while in the Great Outdoors.
Over the years I've noticed that the ability to plan and have an ADVENTURE isn't necessarily something that everyone can do. It takes experience and plenty of mistakes to know how to do things the right way.
For starters it takes knowledge (or research) about where to go to do what you have in mind. Where is it okay to back country camp? What trails are going to be good to ride? What level is that creek going to be? Are there bears (or snakes or sasquatch) in the area?
And you have to be able to figure out what gear and equipment you'll need, and know how to use it. You need to be able to figure out the logistics of the trip as well. How far to emergency services? Is there phone reception just in case? How will you get from downstream back to upstream? Is there enough car space (and gear, and food etc) for everyone on the trip?
Most of all you have to be willing and ready to just DO IT. Lots of folks want to go out and do stuff - they daydream about camping, long bike trips, relaxing canoe rides - but the inertia of familiar and comfortable surroundings is too much, so they end up staying home and holding down the couch. To bring out one more cliche - you've gotta WANT to do it.
This last weekend there was an interesting forecast - the region was supposed to get between 2 and 4 inches of rain over two days. That ruled out a mountain bike adventure, because the trails were already wet and muddy, and two more days of rain would only make that worse. But if there's going to be rain then the creeks may rise... As the rain began to fall I was online, watching the range and intensity of precipitation. By 10:00 Saturday I knew that the rain was falling hard on the area that I wanted to travel to - northern Clarion county in Pennsylvania. I wanted to get a kayak ride on one of my favorite easy whitewater runs, Deer Creek.
I made this map over 10 years ago to help me find what creek is going to run when it rains.
It took me less than an hour to load my car with my kayak, bike, gear and supplies for a day on the water. Before noon I was on I-80 heading east into a steady rain. Before too long I was on the other side of the Allegheny River and getting off onto Canoe Ripple Road at exit 53.
I headed a bit further east, stopping along the way to look at Canoe Creek. It's a smaller watershed than Deer Creek, so it fills up faster and can act as a sort of gauge for other area creeks. When I stopped on the bridge and checked it out the water was high enough to paddle - something of a rarity for a creek this small. But it's quite a bit more difficult than Deer Creek, so I kept moving to the next watershed.
Canoe Creek, class III at a runnable level.
It only took five minutes to get over Huckleberry Ridge and to the road across the mouth of Deer Creek. Moment of truth - would there be enough water?
Deer Creek at medium high water at the take out bridge.
If you look at the creek from the take out bridge and can see all the rocks on the stretch just upstream from the bridge, then the level is low. Today you could barely even tell the rocks were there, so the creek was good to go. Time to get this adventure moving.
I drove up to the put in and locked up the boat and my gear, then dropped off my bike at the top of the hill halfway through the shuttle, and returned to the take out. The first part of the shuttle involves a mile plus walk up the 300 foot tall ridge, made even more fun by the steady rain. At the top I got my bike out of the woods and did the rest of the shuttle - nearly two miles of downhill gravel road through a hemlock forest. At the creek I got my boat ready and locked up the bike. Looking at the 'gauge' I realized that the creek had come up 6" while I was doing the shuttle. That meant it could come up another 6" while I was on the creek. This was more water than I wanted, and it made me nervous as heck. But I figured to take the most conservative lines and get through the ride in one piece.
The boat locked up by the creek at the put in.
I was right - the water was higher than I'd ever seen it before. I set a good pace and skirted the biggest of the waves, always keeping an eye out for trees in the water. After an hour and a half I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the take out bridge come into view downstream. A good run with no incidents, although it wasn't nearly as much fun due to the high water level. But that's how it goes sometimes - not exactly perfect. It took a little while to gather my gear and load up, and then it was a drive back west to Ohio.
And that was a good adventure. Not the best, but good. Sunday morning Diana and I got up fairly early, and sat around drinking tea. I told her about the trip, and said that it was likely that the water level would have come down enough to be at the perfect level this morning.
One thing I have to acknowledge is the role that my wife plays in all this. Diana is almost always willing to let me get out and play, and makes plenty allowances for my adventure prone personality. So when I wistfully mentioned that the water was likely perfect, she gave me the okay to head back over that way if I wanted to. Of course I DID want to, but I hadn't actually thought it would be possible. But you don't have to tell me twice, so I gathered up all my gear, reloaded the car, and headed back east.
This time when I looked at Canoe Creek the water level was down quite a bit. Despite 3" of rain this tiny watershed was already running out of water. I hoped this would be a good sign for Deer Creek. When I pulled up to the take out bridge and looked at the rock I was using as a gauge I couldn't believe that it was entirely under water. That meant it was way too high. Disappointed, I decided to go up to the put in and take a photo or two for future reference.
That iron plate is my 'gauge' at the put in. This is a good level.
I use an old iron plate from the old bridge as my gauge at the put in, and was flummoxed to see that it was showing a lower, friendly water level. After a minute I figured it out - the water at the mouth was really high because the Clarion River was way up with all the rain, and it had backed up the water at the mouth of Deer Creek to show a false high! In a jiffy I stashed the boat, left the bike, and started my hike up the ridge from the take out. To make things even better a local stopped while I was walking and offered me a ride to the put in! One million thanks to friendly locals - they can really add to the experience.
This time the water was right where I wanted it. I was able to pick the biggest wave in most of the rapids (though there was enough wood in the water to force me into secondary lines several times). This kind of easy whitewater on a wide waterway like Deer Creek is just a blast - lots of water in your face with very little real risk. There were several great surf waves along the way, so I had plenty of opportunities to play along the way (I did keep out of the big Double Surf Wave though - no desire to swim!).
This time the run was so much fun that it was a disappointment to see the take out bridge ahead. The sun was out, the water was right, and this adventure could not have worked out better. Well, maybe ONE thing could have been better - I could have NOT lost my house/work keys somewhere along the way. But hey, at least I still have my car key!
Storm clouds blowing over the Allegheny highlands.
Heading home I took a little detour and headed up around the northwest corner of Shenango Reservoir. Along the way I stopped and looked at a little creek - small enough that its likely that no one has ever paddled it before. But the topos show it has some gradient and a big enough watershed - and it has a rocky stream bed...
Booth Run.
Hmmm. Could this be the scene of an upcoming adventure? Could be!
(PS - I made a GoPro video of the second day's run and edited it together as a kind of guide for other paddlers interested in the run. It's kind of long, and probably only really interesting to other kayakers, but it does give an idea of what the creek is like.)
Wow, it's been almost TWO months since my last post. It's not for lack of things going on, but mostly just a lack of time! But I'll try to hit on a couple of the high points of what's been happening lately.
My good looking kid on the night of the 8th grade dance.
Re-reading the last blog entry I see it was the high water weekend, when I kayaked Bear Creek, and was planning on hitting Deer Creek the next day. Interesting story there...
I did head over to Deer Creek, and was elated to find that it was at absolutely prime water level for a run. So I left the boat stashed at the put-in by the hump-back bridge, left the bike at the top of the hill, and headed back to the take-out to park the car. Then it was just a matter of hiking 3/4 mile up the 300 foot tall ridge, getting the bike at the top, and coasting down the hill to the put-in.
Within a couple of minutes I had the bike hidden in the brush, and geared up for the run. I was fairly upset to find out that I'd apparently left the GoPro turned on the night before when I double-checked to see if it had a full charge - and now the battery was dead. But the video was just gravy, the run was the meat of the day - and boy was it good!
Deer Creek is about 3.5 miles of class II read and run whitewater, through an isolated valley. There are 23 class II rapids on the run, so you're always either in a rapid, just leaving a rapid, or just heading into a rapid. It's a really great run that hardly anyone ever paddles because it's remote, rain dependent and doesn't have a decent USGS gauge correlation. But it's one of my favorites in the area, and I always keep it in mind when there's a bunch of rain.
My run was pretty much perfect. I managed to read and run everything, which wasn't too hard because there was barely any wood in the creek. The creek has a bunch of islands, and I managed to pick the good side every time, and had a blast on all the little rock gardens and pour-overs. Even though I was fairly conservative at times, I managed to have a good time and even got in a little bit of surfing down on the tasty double surf wave near the end. I finished the run without incident, packed up the boat, retrieved the bike and headed home, tired but happy.
Coffee Run during the high water weekend.
It gets interesting the next day. I woke up with a headache, feeling lethargic and kind of dizzy. But Diana had the day off, so we headed out to do some stuff together. Throughout the day I felt progressively worse - more dizziness, no appetite, and trouble thinking. I went to bed very early and woke up feeling slightly better the next day, just in time to go see the doctor. He took blood, did a bunch of tests, and came to the conclusion that I had a low blood sugar incident, complicated by dehydration. He added that he has to tell most of his patients to get more exercise, but he told me that I need to remember that I'm 52, and can overdo it a lot easier than when I was younger.
The moral of the story I guess is to pay more attention to what your body is trying to tell you. I know I have dehydration problems, but had no idea that by burning off a bunch of extra calories and then eating light afterwards I could be shortchanging my system that much. And I'm sure that my diet that mostly excluded processed sugar didn't help. But I did find out that I'd lost about 8 pounds in 3 months, so that was good.
In the two months since then I've continued on the diet and exercise regimen that I started in February. I can definitely tell that I've lost more weight, as my clothes fit differently. And when the trails are dry enough to ride I notice that my mtb skills seem improved - either by adding muscle from weight lifting or carrying less weight around, I don't know which.
In motion shot on Little Beaver Creek Greenway, OH.
I've managed to keep up a pretty good number of bike rides too. Checking with mapmyride, it looks like I got in 126 miles in April and 172 in May. Most of that was paved riding, but there were at least 8 mountain bike trail rides, including West Branch State Park, Beaver Creek State Park, Quail Hollow State Park, Rimrock Trail in Allegheny National Forest, and North Road Nature Preserve here in Warren.
Love the colors on this - first night ride of the year at West Branch.
Kenny went camping with the Boy Scouts the last weekend in April, and while he was out with them Diana and I took the opportunity to get a cabin at Cooks Forest State Park and spend the weekend over there. I really love the Cooks Forest/Clear Creek/Allegheny National Forest area, and we had a great time getting out and having some quiet time.
Diana on the hikers bridge over Tom's Run.
We even headed up to Rimrock Overlook for a while - and I managed to get in a ride on the shortest loop at nearby Rimrock Trail. Those rough trails over there are a treat to ride.
Kinzua Reservoir from Rimrock Overlook, PA.
The trails at West Branch State Park opened up a couple of weeks early this year, and I headed out that first day after work to get in a night ride. The local mtb club, CAMBA, did a bunch of work out there again last season and the trail system is better than ever. Now if it would only stop raining for a while I'd be able to get out there and enjoy them!
The West Branch skinnies are a bit mossy after a long winter.
Memorial Day weekend all three of us managed to get away for the weekend, to go back-country camping at Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. We got one of the dispersed campsites up above Loleta, with the East Branch Millstone Creek right beside our tent.
Our Memorial Day campsite.
Saturday we wandered around the area and had a nice lunch up at Marienville before heading back to relax at camp. We took bikes, so Kenny and I got in a couple of forest road rides through the woods. The scenery is amazing over there, and even on a busy holiday weekend there was almost no traffic. We had a great time and I hope we get the chance for a couple more long weekends together in the next couple of months.
Ken leads the way on the fat bike.
Here are a couple more photos from the adventures of the past month.
Rainbow on a Little Beaver Creek Greenway ride, on the road section near Lisbon.
Ready to head downhill at Beaver Creek State Park.
Hickory Run, a secret gem of a creek right by the OH/PA line.
And to end this post, here's a little video clip from a ride around town with Kenny. The cottonwood seeds were blowing through the sunlight at Perking Park, so I whipped out the trusty smartypants phone and shot a little clip.
Only a couple of weeks of spring left. Hope you all enjoy your summer!!!
I've been pretty lax about posting on the blog lately - seems like putting up a post each month is about all I can manage. But I was looking at some of the photos I've taken lately, and thought I could catch people up with our goings on with a few selected pictures.
Kenny seems to be enjoying his summer vacation. For him it seems that just having the burden of school homework off his back is (almost) enough to make the whole season. He's been doing well, and is now officially taller than I am.
He is a joker at heart, but is developing into a fine young man. This is him posing for the camera after his school honors program.
Our vacation was kind of a washout, since I got sick a couple of days beforehand. We did manage to fit in a little camping, and then get out for a slightly longer stay a month or so later. It wasn't quite the experience that we were hoping for. but we tried to make the best of the situation. Here is Diana and Kenny coming out of MacBeth's at Cooks Forest.
Diana is going to hate that I posted her picture, but she's still my sweetheart, and I love her dearly.
I love this picture (taken by Kenny)
Our time at Cooks Forest was great, even though we've been there dozens of times. A big part of this trip was letting Kenny spend some time in the kayak on the Clarion River, so he can build some strength and confidence to allow him to continue to develop as a young whitewater kayaker. Even though the rapids on the Clarion are small, he was grinning ear to ear as he punched through the waves.
Kenny and I at the Arroyo boat launch on the Clarion River.
We also spent some time in the woods, including a hike in the Forest Cathedral area, where the forest has never been cut.
Forest Cathedral
It was a beautiful day in the big trees. We had the place pretty much to ourselves for almost the whole time. With the rain we've been having this year the undergrowth was incredibly lush, and the mushrooms and other fungus were popping up everywhere. Noting the incredible variety of fungus we tried to find an example showing each color of the rainbow. We had them all - except blue, which didn't look like we would be able to find. But then almost at the end...
Blue! We found it.
Take a look at that bright orange fungus behind Diana and Kenny at the Big Trees campsite beside the Clarion River.
We saw the river otters in the Clarion again, this time right from our campsite. But the only wildlife photo we got was this little camp robber, feasting on cheese popcorn.
Did I mention that it's rained a bunch this summer?
It seems like through June and July it rained at least every three or four days. The wetlands are loving it - all the water has really brought them to life.
The mountain bike trails have been soft, peanut butter mud for most of the season. I only managed 8 singletrack rides through June and July, and some of them were on trails that were borderline soft. Even going to Moraine State Park wasn't a guarantee of good riding conditions.
Soft, but not TOO soft.
So there's been a bunch of rail trail riding for me lately. I've spent quite a bit of time on the Western Reserve Greenway Trail, cranking out the miles in hopes that it would help me when the singletrack was finally dry.
Waterfall on Rock Creek, as seen from the Greenway.
I'm not the only one on the rail trail though. There have been a lot of people riding & walking this summer. And the wildlife has been abundant - I've seen deer, turkeys, pheasant, a red fox, and this guy.
There's been some road riding too, but not that much - distracted drivers are WAY more dangerous than the rocks and roots on the mountain bike trails. But some roads are a little safer than others to ride...
No Trespassing (darn it)
I've also spent some weekend time with my buddy Dave. He doesn't get around too well anymore, so we've been checking out the accessible trails in our area. This one at Hogback Ridge Park is a definite favorite.
I've been up to Mill Creek Park for lunch a few times since spring. It's always a welcome break to get up to the fantastic Fellows Riverside Garden for a bit in the middle of the day.
My favorite lunch spot there is a bench that sits beneath two Dawn Redwoods. In Ohio. Too cool.
And then there are the photos that I've taken while just out driving around. Most are blurry and poorly centered, but there are a couple I like.
Humidity after the rain.
Farmland in Pennsylvania, near Moraine State Park.
I've got a thing about taking pictures of churches in decay.
One of our local fracking operations.
And one final photo - along with some philosopy - from Fellows Riverside Gardens.
