Shades Two

This is our second day at Shades State Park.  A bit unusual for us as we tend not to stay in the same place two nights in a row when we are on the road.  And we’ll be here tomorrow night also.  Downright unprecedented.

After breakfast, we drove to the parking lot of several trailheads and hiked on Trail 1, a loop trail with a spur leading down to Silver Cascade Falls.  The spur descended steeply using stairs into the ravine and we both commented on the temperature drop between the top and the bottom.  Kind of like natural air conditioning, along the tiny stream it was quite cool, which felt great from the rising heat of the day.

Abigail had to take a phone call so we left her at the RV and took 10-mile bike ride.  We left Abigail standing on the passenger seat, trying to keep as close to our cell phone signal booster as possible so as not to drop the call.  Cell service is abysmal to non-existent here so it took some acrobatics to make it happen.  I should have taken a picture.  It was rather comical.

After lunch we hiked Trail 2, listed as one of the more rugged and also one of the most scenic of the trail system.  And it was both.  Quite a bit of the trail follows the stream bed down Pearl Ravine until the stream joins Sugar Creek.  We were walking in the stream for quite a bit of this distance, clambering over rocks and logs.  It took some careful hiking not to slip on the wet rocks but it was a fun hike

What goes down must come up and it was over 200 steps to climb out of the ravine.

It was too hot to do much else for the remainder of the afternoon, so we took a nap and did some Bible Study.

After dinner we drove to a nearby covered bridge.  At nearly 150 years old, it spans Sugar Creek and even offers some picturesque views of the creek and the cliffs beyond.  Not a lot of hiking here, but we’ve done quite a bit already today.

Done for the day.  Back to our camp site for showers, rest, and journaling.