Kentuckiana Hiker’s Review

As Kentucky continues to recover from the January ice storm, many of the state’s parks are slowly reopening trails as the cleanup continues. One of my favorite local hiking haunts is Bernheim Forest, just 20 minutes south of Louisville off of Interstate 65.

Bernheim Forest is an arboretum and research park, complete with miles and miles of gorgeous hiking trails through untouched habitat. I’ve been hiking Bernheim since I was 4 years old, and some of the best days of my youth were spent in the park.

The January 2009 ice storm will probably go down in the history of the park as one of the most damaging weather events in its history. Thousands of trees have incurred damage of some sort, and many of the parks trees suffered complete root system failure from the saturation of the ground and have toppled over. Pine trees in the park were hit especially hard, including those surrounding the Big Prairie Loop road and the Guerrilla Loop recreation area.

Currently, the park is open and all of the paved roads are clear of debris. Trails that are currently open include

• Lake Nevin Loop
• Two Ponds Loop
• Nursery Loop
• Canopy Walk

These trails are some of the few in the park that have paving or gravel over most of the trail. All remote woods trails, including all trailheads on the Forest Hill Road, remain closed. The Canopy Walk on the loop of Forest Hill  Road is open and offers some views of the damage in the forest at treetop level.

Scheduled events continue at the park and the cleanup is moving forward. I was a bit shocked at the sheer volume of the damage, but to keep it in perspective this is nature’s way. The research center will now be afforded an unusual look at how a forest repairs itself after storms of this type. There is currently no timeline for reopening the remote trails, but with the volume of downed timber, I wouldn’t expect any update for a month or more.

Volunteers are welcome!

“To learn more about volunteering yourself, with a group of friends, family, or a work-related team, visit our website at www.bernheim.org or contact Dottie Pilato at (502) 955-8512 x 236 or dpilato@bernheim.org. Bernheim is a great environment for fostering peace, teamwork, communication, cooperation, and the satisfaction of a job well done!”

While I visited Bernheim, I also took a few pictures of the damage. The photo album Bernheim Ice Storm Damage has several pictures that don’t do the widespread damage any justice, but do depict scenes that are pretty much everywhere in the park.

Some of the pics I’ve taken over the last couple of years. Cool embedded slideshow courtesy of the Hiker’s Journal.

Find more photos like this on Hiker’s Journal

Kentucky was hit pretty hard by the huge ice storm a few weeks ago. In fact, some parts of the state are still struggling without power.

With mid to upper sixties forecast for today, I decided to head to Tipsaw Lake and hike the loop trail and see what the damage was like in Hoosier National Forest. It turned out to be quite an adventure.

To set the stage, we’re experiencing unseasonably warm weather for February. On top of that, the snow and ice in the area has completely melted and we’ve even had some rain, so I knew going in that it was going to be muddy. The unknown element was going to be the downed trees. All of this combined for an unusually strenuous hike around Tipsaw Lake.

The Tipsaw Lake Loop is fairly flat, but at 6 miles, it’s just long enough to be a decent workout while you also get to enjoy lake views almost all the way around the loop. With the warm temperatures, it was a great day for birdwatchers. I spotted  hawks, blue jays, pileated woodpeckers, orioles and lots of songbirds I could not begin to name. As usual with me photographing birds, they were elusive and everytime I was able to focus, the target would fly away. My hats off to ornithological photography enthusiasts for their patience. I don’t seem to have the knack.

Tipsaw Lake Loop is also a very popular destination for bikers as well as hikers. The cleanup has begun, but the trail will take a long time to recover and an intense effort will be required before biking on the trail is safe again. Many of the pine stands in this recreation area are devastated and in several spots, the trails are almost impassable. I had to hike around many long sections of trail with huge trees covering the ground. With literally hundreds, maybe thousands of downed trees and limbs to deal with, I doubt that Spring biking will be a viable option this year.

If you do decide to tackle the loop trail in the next few months, be prepared to scrabble over and around downed trees and wear long pants if you can to prevent getting scratches on your legs. If I hear of any volunteer efforts to help in the cleanup, I’ll be sure to pass them along.

I took some pictures of the damage as well as the scenery, so I hope you enjoy the photo album  Tipsaw Ice.

We have a new “friend” of the blog here and I hope you check them out.

It’s call Hiker’s Journal and it’s an interesting and powerful social network for lovers of the great outdoors. They’ve got some great photography and the ability to embed content from their site on your MySpace or Facebook pages.

Be sure to click the link for the Hiker’s Journal and check them out.

Until further notice, all trails in Jefferson Memorial Forest remain closed due to downed trees and debris from the ice storm that hit the area last week. Damage is heavy and will take some time to clear after all power is returned to the area of course.