After we dropped Mason off at Holiday World, Bill and I drove to Ferdinand State Forest, about 20 minutes from Santa Claus. Interestingly, Santa himself has no problem being Covid-19 safe, but many people out and about at gas stations and passing through are unmasked.
Ferdinand has five trails ranging in distance and each marked with a different color. We grabbed our map and started off. Our plan was to follow the Twin Lakes Trail to the Kyana Trail to the Fire Tower Trail and jump back on Twin Lakes to return to the car.
Every park marks its trails differently. Here we felt like we were playing Candy Land, in search of and advancing to the next colored square.
The blue trail took us up and around to Fossil Lake. At first, we could only sight it through the trees.
After a bit more walking and some serious elevation changes,
we crossed a low bridge and
made it to the edge.
There was a lot of movement on the ground on this trail. At first, we discovered they were not crickets but rather very small hopping frogs. We were playing a real game of Frogger. (There is a frog in the upper right corner no bigger than a US quarter.)
At one point, we were in search of a trail marker on the Kyana Trail. I misidentified a patch of lichen located at about the right level as one of the true green marks. Note to self: a greenish circle is not a trail marker.
On the Fire Tower Trail, we found the eponymous landmark. We had to climb a huge hill to get to it!
Red trail markers on the Fire Tower Trail seem deliberate or, at the very least, an uncanny coincidence.
This last leg of trail provided soft ground cover with fallen pine needles and lots of shade from the trees themselves.
Nature sightings included several types of mushrooms, flowers and more little blackberries.
We wrapped up with 7.5 more miles to add to our log. Bill and I both felt like the hike was more strenuous and longer than we expected. Given the heat index of 103 degrees, this makes a lot of sense. We both hope to return, get a much earlier start and hike all five trails.
Oh my that was a heat index!!! I love the trail markers…and the mistaken lichen! (Well only the story not the actual event…that would be a bummer to get on the wrong trail.) I love the word eponymous….my kids will all get that word right on the ACT…cuz whenever Dave Matthew’s Band comes on I remind them. (I did not know that word for the ACT!!)