Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Wabash Heritage Trail

I guess I haven't posted in a while...sorry, I've been on summer vacation AWAY from my computer! And I know I owe a post about 8 weirdo facts about myself (thanks to a tag from Carrie)!

But this post is about a great hike that I was able to take yesterday--the Wabash Heritage Trail. It's a one-way trail that stretches about 8-9 miles from West Lafayette up the Wabash to the Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum up in Battleground. I've always wanted to hike this trail but couldn't figure out how to get back to my car once I had walked the 9 miles one way. So I finally decided to just make a day out of it and hike the WHOLE thing round trip (16-18 miles)!

Juju & I started hiking the trail about 10:00 a.m. I thought it would be about 3 hours one way. We started off great and enjoyed the great trail. Parts of it were paved but there were other parts that were just trails in the woods. We startled a deer which thrashed about as it got up about 20 feet in front of us, and Juju had fun chasing squirrels and birds--robins, goldfinches, cardinals, bluebirds, and even orioles! It was great to be in God's wonderful creation.

One interesting sight along the trail was these old cars, too. Go figure.
One of my favorite parts was crossing Burnett's Creek on the stepping stones. On the way up I ran into the trail manager (and her dog Yeager) and she warned me that I might run into trouble on the way back because they were needing to work on a well and the trail was going to be flooded for a little while. I made it up to the Battlefield Museum by 1:00 and stopped to eat lunch: peaches, banana, and PB & J!

The trail manager lady said that they WERE going to be flooding the trail, so she offered me a ride back to the Davis Ferry bridge, which I was happy to take by then. So I shaved off the hardest 3 miles of the trail that way. On the way back I stopped to rest more frequently but still made it back to the car by 4:30. Juju and I had a great adventure but were tired out! After stopping for ice cream (for both of us) at Culver's we crashed at home. I've never seen Ju so tired...she basically slept from 5:00 last night until 8:00 this morning!

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Good for you Beth!!! you need a back rub now, huh! :) Looks like you two had a great time. I love those hikes.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun hike! But very long!! I do my usual nightly walk through the Al Quaal--but I haven't hiked any of the trails yet this summer. Maybe when you are here!!

bethoven said...

Sarah Curtis, you know I'd take any excuse to get a back rub from you! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh! that sounds like so much fun! I'm so glad that you did that. I had heard of that trail, but didn't really know much about it. Sounds like a blast!! I'm sure Juju was in her glory!

Kiwi said...

that's a fun trail... my family took it once but we only made it like 1/3 of the way! nice pictures!!

Jonathan Haynie said...

Sounds like good times. I love nature and walking around in it every once in a while. It gives one time to pause and reflect.