Bill and I returned to O’Bannon Woods State Park today. When we went two weeks ago, we tried to reach the site were the scouts had camped, but because our time had been limited, we had to turn around before we reached it. That hike was only about five miles round trip. This time we had more time and our goals were loftier. We hoped to reach the camp site and go a full ten miles round trip.
We parked the car and headed to our first destination of the day: Lloyd’s Cabin. Its 2.5 mile distance from where we parked to our car was as far as we walked last time.
We followed the green over white trail marking and before long, we made it.
When we arrived at Lloyd’s cabin, we found it vacant. It’s available on a first come, first serve basis for hikers who might need to take refuge overnight. Bill and I laughed and reminisced about our transcontinental road trip years ago when we tried taking film pictures of ourselves in cabin windows using the camera’s timer. That was back in the day when we used a film camera. We had a lot of goofy pictures and not one of us together.
Bill prompted me to try again but I just smiled and snapped this one of him.
After we left Lloyd’s, we ventured ahead to the camp site where the scouts were. There was quite the change in elevation on this trail. The rocks are part of a creek bed that we kept crossing.
It was another 1.5 miles from Lloyd to the Pioneer Picnic Shelter. This is where the boys camped. Although camping was not permitted, the scouts had obtained special permission to overnight there.
We stopped for lunch, sharing the general area with a mom, her three sons and their dog.
Then we pressed on to the next destination noted on the markers: the Modern Campground. It was another 1.5 miles ahead. When we arrived, we found the campsite quite full and many of the spots were filled with horses.
We hopped back on the trail and went a smidge farther before declaring that we had done enough to meet our 10 mile goal. We did an about face and made our way back.
This is the marker at the Pioneer Picnic Shelter directing us back the way we came. As we walked back, Bill and I decided we had probably gone about 1/2 mile farther than we should have. We were both tired and fatigue and my form was falling apart. Our conversations were getting loopy. Bill was ahead of me and we laughed together. Though I was very tired, I suddenly picked up speed. Bill called out, “Hey, you have a few liberty turns in you yet.” When I asked him to explain, he shared the Coast Guard expression refers to extra speed added by the engineers to get the ship home faster.
We saw lots of moss covered rocks. I don’t think I’ll ever look at one of those and not think of our friend, Lisa the Librarian, who retold the story of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock.
Total mileage today was 11.04 miles in just under six hours. We count that as a victory.
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