Does anyone have a remedy for the bites or preventative measure to avoid them?
The Mogan Ridge East trail in Hoosier National Forest is an interesting mixed habitat trail closely nestled to the Ohio River. To find the trail head, take I-64 West to the Sulphur Springs exit and then head South for about 18 miles on Indiana State Highway 66. Just prior to the turnoff to reach the trailhead parking lot, you’ll pass a sign for the Mano Point Boat Ramp and then immediately afterwards, you’ll cross a short bridge. Just after the bridge is a gravel road on your right which will lead you to the Mogan Ridge East trail head.
Mogan Ridge Trailhead
Hiking in from the trailhead, you’ll find the first half mile or so to be dark, damp and rocky. During wet weather, this section can have mud and slick rocks, so watch your footing. You’ll pass what looks like a mudslide or bulldozed area on your right at the .3 mile mark. Although it may not look like a trail, this is in fact the return section of the loop. Continuing on, you’ll exit the forst into an open area filled with scrub and grasses and many types of wildflowers. This is an ideal habitat for birds and especially deer in the early morning hours.
Rose Gentian
In this area, you’ll reach a fork in the trail. To the right, you’ll find the shortcut to the loop. It descends to a lowland area adjacent to a creek. To the left, you start the longest section of the trail up to a high ridge. Taking the left, you’ll begin a climb that continues for at least a half mile or so. On this section, there are still many leftover downed trees from this year’s ice storm and the trail has gone somewhat feral. Lots of high weeds will greet you in between huge downed trees which you will have to navigate.
Ice Storm Obstacles Still Exist
This section of the trail in summer has lots of sunflowers and once I reach the ridge top, provided a great overlook into a valley where I spotted turkeys as well as a few white tails. When you start to walk downhill on this section, you’ll be getting close to the next section of the trail which is comprised mainly of an old hunting or fire road. Turning right from the southern section onto this road, you’ll notice that it’s completely clear of debris and you’ll enjoy easy hiking on this section for the next mile or so before you reach the shortcut loop again.
Continuing on the loop, you’ll enter an area with a few decent ups and downs on the trail. This area links you back up to the spur that connects the loop to the trail head. You’ll find a lot of mushrooms in this area as well and you’ll have two creek crossings. During my hike last weekend (July 18th), I also spotted some tiger lillies but the blooms were way past their prime.
Chicken Mushroom
The Mogan Ridge East trail is one I’ll return to, especially since it is a hiking only trail (though there was some evidence of horse traffic). The different habitats as well as the diversity of plants and animals make this trail a nature lover’s dream. If you don’t mind a little climbing, hike the entire loop for the full effect. I think you’ll find the trail worth the trip.
Zebra Swallowtail
Check out the other pictures from my hike in the album Mogan Ridge East
When I started hiking in earnest several years ago, the Appalachian Trail (AT) became sort of a mythical beast to me. I’ve read about it (Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods I can’t recommend enough) and I’ve heard a lot about it from my sister, who has hiked sections of it. She even knows a few folks that have hiked its entire length from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt Katahdin, Maine. It was something I couldn’t quite fathom, the enormity of it all.
It has occupied my mind for some time now. Could I actually hike the whole thing? How could I attempt it? But like every great adventure, you have to take the first step. After two years of regularly visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I finally made my first real venture out onto the AT this past weekend (July 11th).
The 4 miles of the AT from Newfound Gap to Charlie’s Bunion is probably the busiest section of the trail in the park. For one, it’s a very manageable day hike at just a little over 8 miles out and back. For another, Charlie’s Bunion is an amazing lookout affording views that must be seen to be believed. In addition, other than Clingman’s Dome (the highest point in the park), this section of the AT is also the only length that penetrates the 6000 ft elevation barrier. All of these things make this hike quite attractive to hikers of all skill levels.
On a cool Saturday morning, we drove up to Newfound Gap, watching my car’s outdoor thermometer drop from 75 degrees in downtown Gatlinburg all the way down to 62 degrees at the Gap. The weather called for possible showers, but that is the norm for the Smokies in July. At altitude (over 3000 ft), you can get a mix of clouds, rain, wind and thunder on any given day, but it never panned out that way for our hike.
The trailhead for the AT is at the northern end of the Newfound Gap overlook parking lot, just above the restrooms. Be prepared for going uphill for a while. The trail starts at just above 5000 ft and for the next almost 2 and a half miles, rises above 6100 ft. When you reach the Boulevard Trail split, you’ll begin your fairly steep descent of the last mile and a half or so to Charlie’s Bunion.
The AT Trailhead at Newfound Gap
During the first two miles, I was amazed at the lush vegetation even at high altitude that adorned the trail. Ferns were abundant, along with rhododendron and the moss and lichen were thick wherever there were rock outcroppings. To say that it was humid should really go without saying. If you hike anywhere in the Smokies, you would be hard pressed to find a day when it wasn’t humid. The park is practically a temperate rain forest and the reason its flora and fauna are so remarkable is the abundance of water.
Be prepared for walking uphill
Just after the Boulevard Trail split, you’ll pass very close to the highest hiking shelter (5900+ feet) on the AT at Icewater Springs. This is a nice place to check out and even stop for a snack. During our hike, we arrived at the shelter well before noon and it was unoccupied. If you hike later in the afternoon, please be mindful of backpackers and thru-hikers who might be setting up camp for the evening.
The Icewater Springs Shelter sits in a blackberry bush filled glade. Near the beginning of August, the berries will be ripening and bears have been known to frequent the area, so just be aware. After passing the shelter, you’ll come upon a pipe where an actual spring is located. If you have a filtration system or water purifier, you can refill your water supply at this point. For about the next half mile, you will descend a very wet and rocky trail continuing on toward the Bunion. During rainy periods, this section will be almost like walking down a creek bed.
Icewater Springs Shelter
About a third of a mile before you reach the short spur trail that proceeds out to Charlie’s Bunion, you’ll walk along a bald ridge that will afford you panoramic views of the Smokies on both sides of the trail. You can also see Charlie’s Bunion from the this area. During our hike, we came upon a patch of Turk’s Cap Lilies here as well.
Turk’s Cap Lilies on the Trail
Charlie’s Bunion is reached by a short and very narrow spur trail. During busy periods, you may see from 30 to even 50 people in the vicinity, so be patient. It is a very popular spot. The actual “bunion” is a large rock outcropping that requires you to climb to a little to a perch on the top. Since the Bunion is exposed and the drop offs are severe, be VERY careful if you bring youngsters to this overlook. Be patient if you want to see the view from atop Charlie’s Bunion, and don’t camp out too long. Take your pictures and make room for the next viewers.
As for myself, I’m not petrified by heights, but I do get a little vertigo when in close proximity to vast expanses and drop offs. The Bunion is one of those spots that can rarely give me knots in the stomach and the peculiar dizzy sensation. It’s an amazingly beautiful overlook, but seeing so many people tempting the fates made me nervous. We stayed long enough to eat our lunch and then started our hike back.
Charlie’s Bunion
The hike overall is pretty strenuous but certainly can be handled by even the novice hiker. Take plenty of water as always as well as some food and you’ll be sure to have a great time. If you take a little extra time, you will see an incredible variety of mushrooms and fungi along the trail, especially in some of the pine forest sections where spotting them is easy. Even in July, the wildflowers were plentiful and the showy Turk’s Cap Lilies provided an occasional surprise along the way. If you ever hike a section of the Appalachian Trail, probability says you’ll be most likely to hike this one. I doubt you will find a better example of the AT’s beauty and majesty.
Mushrooms are Plentiful
To view the other photos from my weekend in Smokies, check out the photo album Charlie’s Bunion.
Thanks, I’ll post the maps here when I get it completed.
Spider Wasps
On a recent hike along the Scott’s Gap Loop in Jefferson Forest I took a moment and stopped for a nice long drink while descending the last hill of the day. Looking around, I heard a loud buzzing near my head, which is a pretty common occurrence on the trail in the Summer heat. Turning my attention toward the noise, I watched a black colored wasp fly past me and land directly on a wolf spider’s web on the hillside just above me.
Spider Wasp
If you’ve hiked any trails in Jefferson Forest, or even looked closely at your shrubbery, you’ve most likely seen a wolf spider web. About the size of a dinner plate, the wolf spider’s web lays flat on the ground or in the cover of leaves and funnels down to a hole at one end of the web. The wolf spider waits in the hole for any movement it senses on its web and will dart out to capture any insect that might land or fall into its trap.
With this in mind, I watched this black wasp land on the spider web and methodically begin to tap its abdomen on the web surface. The wasp continued its tapping while walking back and forth across the surface of the web. It then shocked me by casually proceeding straight down the wolf spider’s hole and disappearing for a moment. It then re-emerged and took flight, landing a few feet further along the trail on the next spider’s web, doing its little tapping dance again.
As the wasp darted down this next spider hole, I realized I was having another animal documentary performance. The wasps I’ve seen on TV usually attacked tarantulas, but I was just watching the hillbilly version of the spider wasp.
Necessities: July
The great thing about hiking is that really, all you need is the desire to walk. As I’ve gotten more and more involved in the pursuit of my hobby though, I’ve accumulated some of the gear associated with hiking, some of it good, some of it great, some of it rather disappointing. Since I would classify myself as primarily a “day-hiker”, I have yet to take the next big step of investing in gear that is associated with camping and backpacking.
With that in mind, I’ll recommend hiking gear each month in this section of Trail Shorts. This month, you have to start at the ground and work your way up.
First and foremost for anyone interested in hiking is a good pair of hiking shoes. Take your time. Get a good comfortable shoe. Don’t be afraid to pay a little extra. Buy a half-size to a full size larger hiking shoe than what you normally buy in an athletic shoe (to make room for a good pair of socks).
Next month: Trekking poles.
Chanterelles
I’m no expert on edible fungus. Earlier this year though, I spotted my first morel mushrooms and even ate a couple when I brought them home. The nice thing about morels though is that they can’t really be mistaken for anything else. With Summer just starting, another much desired and edible mushroom is out in abundance along the trails of Kentuckiana: the golden chanterelle. On a recent hike I spotted literally dozens of these delectable beauties.
Golden Chanterelle Mushroom
What to look for:
golden to orange coloring
unblemished and smooth cap tops
gills starting near the base and continuing to the edge of the cap
uniform light colored gills
fluted shape from base to cap
What to avoid:
discoloration or pattern on cap top
gills that don’t form straight lines from base to cap
gills that are mottled in color
don’t pick unless absolutely sure
don’t pick if found in park areas
Obscured by clouds
The hills of Jefferson County are not very high by any standards. On a recent July 5th hike along the Siltstone Trail in Jefferson Forest, the wet weather combined with cool temperatures made for very low clouds. This afforded views of the Forest that you seldom get to see.
As showers and thunder rolled through Louisville, the higher ridges of the Siltstone were shrouded in the clouds, giving the hills an almost Alpine feel. If you ever get a chance to hike in Jefferson Forest under foggy conditions, it is a sight that should not be missed..
Clouds Along the Siltstone
Echinacea in bloom
If you enjoy butterflies, then I highly recommend you make an effort to get out to the Horine Reservation section of Jefferson Forest in the next 2 weeks. Along the gravel road that leads to the campgrounds and the Red and Orange trailheads, the echinacea flowers have bloomed in abundance this year. For almost one hundred yards along the forest side of the road, these flowers are feeding a cornucopia of insects and song birds.
If you enjoy colorful photography, the echinacea make for great subject matter or as an excellent background for wildlife. Be sure to get your free permit at the Jefferson Forest Welcome Center before visiting.
Yellow Sulphur Butterfly on Echinacea
Echinacea Blossom
For more of the photos from the hikes I took for this month, check out the Horine Red Trail, Siltstone in the Clouds and Rain Out,
For the adventurous only! Enjoy a day of hiking throughout Kentucky’s Land of the Arches! On these guided hikes you will get a good look at the area’s rugged cliff lines, rock shelters, rhododendron and natural arches. Destinations include both well-known features as well as some little known secrets! Each trip is different. Total distances vary from 6 to 12 miles. Pre-registration is required and space is limited. $10/person registration fee. Adults and children ages 12 and up welcome. To register contact Tyler Morgan at tyler.morgan@ky.gov or call (606) 663-2214.
I watched my Grand-Pop fish on the Salt River long before they were even thinking about a dam for the lake. I learned to fish at my cousin’s farm which now has the bypass running directly through what used to be their land. Even the ride to Taylorsville has some great memories, especially on the older sections of Taylorsville Rd. The trees used to grow so close together my sisters and I called it a “ride through the caves”.
Good times and treasured memories.
I’ve fished Taylorsville Lake and the tail waters many times, but I’ve never gone hiking in the State Park. When the cool weather hit this week, I figured I should change that.
When I hike a new park or any new trail for that matter, I like to check out the Internet to see if there is a trail map online. Barring an online map, I’ll head to park welcome center or ranger station to pick up a map.
Taylorsville Lake State Park (TLSP) is part of the Kentucky State Parks system and as such, shares a few online tools for maps with the rest of the state. As of July 1st, I’ve yet to get these tools working properly with Firefox or Internet Explorer and I’m not sure it it’s a bug with the browser, the Kentucky.gov servers or the browser plugin being utilized to deliver the maps.
So even BEFORE I left the house, I was a little frustrated. But without worry, I drove the 45 minutes or so to TLSP and went directly to the welcome center. Asking the one employee present if they had any trail maps available, I was given a photocopy of the park’s trail map.
Bee Balm
Thinking all was fine, I went to the parking lot and sat in the car for a few minutes letting my eyes adjust to the light and the very tiny print on the photocopy page, deciding where I would start my day’s adventures.
To my chagrin, all of the trails on the map were marked for use by hikers, bikers and horses with one exception, a short half mile wildlife viewing loop trail, which was marked as hikers only. The wildlife viewing loop sounded like a good warm up to start with, so off I went to the trailhead.
Upon arrival, I suited up, checked my gear, applied some deet for tick protection and headed out. It was partly cloudy, barely above 70 degrees and it looked like it was going to be a great day. It took about 30 yards along the trail before I started to change that opinion. After immediately ducking under several overhanging bushes, the trail split and there wasn’t any direction anywhere for which way I was supposed to go. After a few minutes, I spotted a more worn area of the trail ahead and proceeded through about 10 yards of brush before continuing along the loop.
I’m not a novice hiker, nor would I call myself an expert. I’ve never spent weeks at a time humping it with a backpack and tent, but I’m a pretty seasoned day hiker. That being said, there are certain things on trails that I am always looking for that are a comfort.
Namely: trail markers.
Taylorsville Lake State Park has ZERO trail markers. They have trailhead markers and trail junction markers (some of which are confusing or worse, misnamed) but all along the trails, not a single triangle, square or any other polygon of any color is present. And it is a little disconcerting. Your best bet if you’re lost in TLSP is to look for horse hoof prints to find the real trail. Several times during my hiking, I followed what looked like trail, but eventually disappeared into vegetation. I backtracked each time and followed the more beaten of two tracks to stay on trail.
There is no “Salt River” trail on the map
Trail but no markers
To complicate things, the names of trails on the map I was given didn’t always match up to the trailhead markers or names posted to trees at junctions. I attempted the Lake Vista Trail according to the map, but the same trail was marked the Lake Loop, the Salt River Trail and no where along the trail was the name “Lake Vista” posted.
And what I thought was a loop trail, dead-ended at a picnic table and also at the end of an access road. There was no going forward, so I started back along the access road, which showed a trailhead for the “Lake Loop” trail, which does not exist on the map.
For a while, I felt like Moses in the Sinai and wasn’t sure if I would have to retrace all my steps just to return to the parking lot.
Until these problems are addressed, I won’t be heading back to Taylorsville Lake State Park to hike anytime soon, unless I suddenly develop a severe streak of masochism.
(Trail conditions aren’t bad, but this is “horse friendly” park, so many trails are beaten up badly from horse traffic. Your best bet would be to pick one of several shorter trails, but I wouldn’t recommend TLSP for hikers or bikers. TLSP is notorious for ticks, but in the approximately 4 miles I hiked, I picked ONE tick off of my socks.)
Deer are plentiful in the park
Praying Mantis
Check out the rest of the photos from my hike in Taylorsville Lake State Park.
Louisville Hiking and Backpacking Meetup Group