Year 4, November 1st, 2019: Turkey Run State Park with the Whole Family + 1

Ah, we made it home in one piece!  The day couldn't have been more perfect!  The weather was crisp and cool and most of us were overdressed.  I didn't take my coat off because I would have then had to carry it, so I even had sweat around my fake collar on my fleece shirt and on the camera strap!  We all wore "waterproof" boots but still soaked through them.  Whoops! As I expected, there were a couple of spots with more water in them than there was two years ago when Jared and I went. But wow, oh wow, the colors were gorgeous, especially as the leaves on the ground were mixed up together! The water in the little creek and Sugar Creek were crystal clear.  Everyone stayed emotionally neutral and didn't complain too much.  Having another adult around definitely help keep that to a minimum.  We had one point went down a trail that took us a little further than we wanted to, but it was an easier trail so it wasn't as hard, just time consuming.  We had to stop a few times after the 140 steps and 70 steps so I could catch my breathe. Man, I haven't had a workout like that in years.  My lungs burned a little and when I got in the van, it was almost like my throat muscles were sore from exercise (vs. sore from being inflamed with sickness).  I just kept breathing deeply, keeping the air in as long as possible to optimize oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange and it helped.  It wasn't until we got home and I started stipping off the layers that I realized my feet were wet and I was sore all over.  It's going to take me a good week to recover.  But it was worth it.

The kids weren't as thrilled with the ladders and canyons as I had hoped, so that's a little disappointing. Well, I guess I will keep trying.  At one point Keturah said, "It's only leaves and trees, Mom, I've seen those things before."  Well, first of all, I'm glad it's commonplace for you because it means I've done my job of showing you.  But second, can you open your eyes and find 10 new things?  How about the way the types of leaves changed from being close to the banks of the big creek to the inner trees of the park.  So many colors and shapes! I know Jared and I oohed and aahed more at those kinds of things and the layers of rock in the canyons. Oh well, I told Jared that we'll just have to take Abishai with us and leave the older 3 behind.  Abishai was a doll.  Well, at one point he did cry about walking, but towards the end, he was asking what each sign meant.  He wasn't impressed by the ladders, but he liked that hidey holes in the canyons' walls.  At one point, he climbed into a hollow log to see if anyone lived in there.  And we went on a "bear" hunt, too.  The bear was Benaiah trying to take a nap everywhere we went because he had slept poorly at his friends' house because one of the guys threw up on him with maybe the flu! Eeek! We know for a fact it wasn't alcohol because Benaiah repeatedly told me there was no alcohol in the house, even before he asked to stay there.  Poor kid, and poor Benaiah.  Serves you right for puking all over me several times on the last descent of our airplane rides when he was a baby.  You're welcome.

On the way home, Jared purposefully tried to take the scenic route but ended up doing a million switchbacks around farm fields on 1 1/2 lane pot hole ridden country "lanes" with local guys talking to each other on the side of the road next to their pickup trucks.  Why they weren't on their tractors, I don't know.  There's still a harvest out there to bring in! One road we went on was dirt and gravel! It brought back memories to when I would just go done a road on PEI and "felt" my way home.  I used to say, "Well, I can't go too far out of my way because I'll eventually run out of roads because it's an island.  i was never truly lost because I did have GPS on my phone at the time. I do like exploring, if I have a map or inkling of where I'm going and I'm prepared of it, and that's usually the case.  I even brought a flashlight in case someone got injured and we needed to see better because our cell phone batteries are dead and we had to wait until help arrived and it turned dark.  Thus the extra water and granola bars just in case. .  We did see a person get lifted out on a stretcher two years ago.  This is the extremely rugged trail we were on, so I also brought toilet paper and baby wipes.  You just never know! And extra hats and mittens in case people kept their gloves on and accidentally fell and get wet.  But everybody stayed fairly dry because they are older and know how to walk. I brought extra pants of Abishai but I forgot to tell Benaiah to pack a lunch.  Whoops! We did eat lunch before hitting the trails. Everybody carries their own water bottle, so the backpack isn't so heavy. Still, carrying the weight of a 35 lb body on your shoulders through rugged trails automatically put you in bad shape anyway.  But we made it!  10,000 steps and 3 hrs later!  We beat our old family record for longest hike, both in steps and in time.  Woot! Woot!

But now, we have dehydration headaches and are sore all over.  Neither Jared nor I will be able to get up out  of bed early tomorrow.  Thank goodness we can sleep in, if Abishai lets us. We'll see.  I have some errands to run.  There's always projects at home to work on, so let's get to it. (or sleep)

iphone pics and vids:

Turkey Run State Park 11/1/2019

Info about the different trails.  Just click on the trail number.  We used 3, then 5, then 10, back to 3.  I think we should try the rest of them next time! The ones we didn't do are more in the eastern part of the park and several connect to a cabin, an old mine, and the covered bridge.

https://www.turkeyrunstatepark.com/hiking_trails/trail1/index.htm

What an awesome crisp cool morning!  A perfect day for a hike!

There was still snow left on the ground, too!

A little frost and/or snow on the moses grass as well.

Snow!

Parking lot vibes.  Abishai did fall asleep on the way to hiking and definitely on the way home.  Benaiah was exhausted from the night before, so he slept the whole way going to and coming back from hiking as well.

We all packed lunch, except Benaiah.  He assumed I packed food for him.  Goodness!  I forgot that our routine is that we pack our own lunches.  Benaiah had quickly come home and showered after someone had thrown up on him at the house we stayed overnight at.  I forgot to remind him to pack a lunch!  We offered him food, but he decided to skip.  Uh, we are going on a 3 hr hike, so, is that wise?  Probably not, but whatever.

Hi, Ava! I'm all the way up here!

Here we go!  Heading towards the suspension bridge!  Abishai was super excited!

The only way mama gets pictures of herself doing something is through selfies. But I was there!

OOO I like this one!

Heading down the stream bed.

Crazy log and tree formations.  I'm so glad that we waited a bit because there was still enough leaves on the trees and tons on the ground.  Perfect combination!

Here's the ladder I've been talking about for years!  Kids were completely unimpressed though. Buggers.   (See more pics in the DSLR section below.)  Thankfully, none of them were scared to go up, not even Abishai.  When I first saw them and then when I did go up and turned around, I was a bit leery.  But overall, not bad.

There goes Abishai!  No fear!

Abishai was a great observer today, while the rest of us were trudging along waiting for us to find the pathway home.  He saw this huge log and wanted to see what was inside.  That is something I wished I had known to cultivate more in the older kids, the power of observation and taking the time to actually explore.  I hope to take Abishai on more walks where we can do this without the older ones shutting us down with their complaining.

Yes, he climbed all the way in, without any fear of what could be back there.  We could see the back of it, though, so no worries.

My little explorer.

Wow, this was a long, long time after the last pic.  This is in the "Punch Bowl" where part of the stream comes down in a little waterfall. The water was so clear and beautiful sounding!

I was trying too take pictures of the crevices in the Punch Bowl after I walked back down and around to it, but I moved too fast and the other two pics came out super blurry.  But once again, while I was on top of the Bowl, Abishai had crawled in the crevices and started exploring. 

Bwahahahaha, Benaiah wasn't going to risk it until Ava did it!  Wimp!  So now he couldn't let her show him up, so he went ahead and did it and survived.  I love how Ava pushes him out of his comfort zone, just that little bit.  I sent her a text later saying how much I appreciate that and she is a blessing to him.  The whole time we were hiking Benaiah wanted to find places to sleep and Ava kept pushing him and pushing him. She's also always encouraging him to stop spending money, drink less energy drinks, and be nice.  It's a win-win!

Iron in the rocks! I forgot about this part!  This was in the canyon part.

I could live here! Not really, but boy is it spectacular in the fall!  This is as close to New Hampshire I can get here in Indiana.  We passed so many flat farm fields to get here though, lol.

At the end of the hike, under the suspension bridge.

We hiked for over 3 hrs!

And we hiked almost 5 miles!  There are more trailers, even easier ones, but I love these rugged ones!  I'm super sore from it, but it's worth it!

Instead of going through the corn fields on the main roads again, Jared drove the back roads on the way home.  And when I mean back roads, I'm talking about roads that are 1 1/2 car widths ride between farm fields.  This part was pretty though.

Almost "tree tunnel."

I insisted that we stop at the covered bridge that was on the edge of Turkey Run State Park.  Someday, I will have Jared drive me around during the Covered Bridge festival.  That's more of a thing to do when your kids are grown.  So, for now, I'll enjoy one when I come across them.  I just think they hold so much history of transportation of yesteryear. There's a whimsy about them I guess, especially set deep in the woods in the fall.

Ah, another happy place of mine.

Tada!  (Remember, more pics are below, so sorry for all the selfies all at once.)

Uh, where are we going?!

Sleepy and/or about to be sleep kiddos, all 5 of them!

These roads remind me of the backroads I would take on PEI just for the fun of it.  They only exist for the farmers to get to their homes.  There's very little traffic and we almost hit a truck that was hanging halfway in the road.  We found a couple of sets of farmers with their pick up trucks side by side chewing the fat.  Why they weren't in their combines knocking down these corn stalks, we had no clue. I understand planting was very, very late this year, but still, shouldn't harvest be done?

We tried to avoid the dirt roads, but still found ourselves on one!  Plus, farm roads usually wind back and forth and have 90 degree angles around the fields. So you usually end up going backwards a bit and not making much progress in the direction you really want to go.

There they go, fast asleep!

DSLR pics

Ah, back to the beginning of the day.  I won't journal every pic, but I didn't want to leave all these gorgeous pics out of the blog either!  This is my favorite time of year and I've had a grand time enjoying it all while I've been driving back and forth to appointments.  My happy place!  first up, there was still snow on the ground when we first arrived at the park.  Abishai loved jumping on the leaves and hearing the crunching sound.  The snow had melted by the time we got back to the car.

The parking lot and nature center.  Yeah for real bathrooms!

A squirrel right outside the back door of the nature center!  Abishai spotted it!  I told you he is a great observer!

A turtle in a tank in the nature center. They had displays describing the local wildlife just like the ones we saw in Delaware or at Holliday Park in Indy.

Hiding in the log at the nature center.  Come on, it's time to go hiking!

Who can push who off the sidewalk into the "lava" as Abishai called it.  Ava had this wonderful move of going around Benaiah and getting out of his grasp.  This girl can hold her own!

But then there's this.  Awwww.

And this, awwwww.  Poor Jared, we forgot to pick up his hat on the way out the door and he was stuck with a hat that had a pom pom on it.  Thankfully, we didn't need it for long.

More snow.

Suspension bridge time.  I had to tell everybody to wait up for me because I had certain ideas about certain pictures in mind and I didn't always want just pics of peoples' rearends.

My crew.

Snow!  We are hiking with snow on the ground!  Just like I have in New Hampshire or on PEI in June!  Seirously, in June 2015, we were on the wooded trail to the dunes, and there was still a patch of snow under some trees in the beginning of June.  Remember, that was the coldest and snowiest winter in 3 decades!

Leaves and snow!  I'm in heaven!

Ok, here is where I stop journaling if it's just a scene of colorful trees because I could say gorgeous a million times over.  My happy place forever!

Artistic shot of the 100 + yr old pillars probably from the original trails.  I think I have pics of them in my blog from two years ago as well.

On different parts of the trail, we noticed different patterns and colors of leaves.  Here's some close to the river.

OOOOOO, sometimes I impress myself with my artistic ability! Oak leaves of course.  I didn't arrange them like this, God did!

Aw, I hope Jared and I look this way when we are admiring nature.

Here's the pillars again, and Jared showed the kids where the original cuts were made by hand own the side of the trail.

This is called the "Ice Box" because I believe Bear Hollow and this deep ravine next to the river was thought to be formed by glaciers.  Or maybe it's where all the run off comes after winter.

Trees grew roots on the edge of the rock and you can see them.  Have you ever looked up to a tree through their roots before?

Daddy helping to get Keturah up on the ledge for a picture.

Abishai didn't want to take part in the picture.  And actually, I think the selfie pic came out better (see above).

Tree tunnel!

First cave we found!  And these two found their hiding spots.

Then Ava coaxed Abishai in to sit by her.  Benaiah found his place to take a nap. Ain't they the sweetest crew?  I love their different poses.  I didn't have to pose them!

Awww, yes, I'm going to say it, could this be them a few years down the road? Hm,....

A lot of these markings were probably there a long time ago and they are almost Native American like.

The beginning of Bear Hollow.

I had to duck under a log, so I took the pic then too.

I love the lighting on this one.  At first, I though maybe I should take another one, but I'm glad I didn't.  It gives off an eerie vibe different than my normal "vibrant" vibe I love.

Again, how sweet that Abishai loves Ava and Ava is so good with kids?

A little waterfall.

Now that I'm looking at these again, I wonder if there was a lot of damage here from the storms in the past few weeks?  Turkey Run is directly 60 minutes west of the middle of the outside edge of Indy, so they get the storms before we do.  Hm.

Notice how the leaves have changed shape and color?  I love all the different colors!

Here we go, at the end of Bear Hollow!

Ready to climb the ladders!  Remember, this trail is impassable in the spring because of winter runoff.  Even that day there was a couple of inches of water in places because of the recent rains.  I can't imagine how high the water was in June when we had storm after storm.

Benaiah.

Ava

Justin

Waiting for me.  Again, I didn't pose them.  It's funny that Ava is the only one smiling.  Oh my unhappy sheltered city kids.

Slippery!

Going up the second ladder.

The rock is worn so smooth from all the water.

Justin.

Ava.

Benaiah.

And yet a third ladder to climb, that Jared and I did, but Jared didn't remember that, so we went down a different trail with the 140 steps.

They went the long way around.

Again, I could have taken another picture that was more clear, but I have the one from two years ago that is fine.  Plus, look at those sun spots!

Ready to head up the 140 steps that nearly killed me.  My heart was racing and I couldn't breathe deep enough.

Looking back at the ladders.

Another amazing shot.  Thanks DSLR!

A good portion of two of the trails we were on were like this.  Kind of "flat" and just forest floor. It was nice to have a breather from the water and stairs.

Mr. Observer saw this spot in a tree and wouldn't stop talking about something living there. How sweet!  I love that we are in the "why" phase of life!

We love tall trees with a great canopy!  So pretty!

Some of the easier paths still did have upwards and downwards parts.  But you didn't have to trip over too many roots and stones.

Abishai found another hidey hole!  He even put his head in there!  For a split second I thought that maybe there's a creature in there that might bite him, but I relaxed and just let him be curious.  He kept saying, "Hello! Anybody in there?"

A little brighter pics of the huge hollowed out tree.

Another hanging out spot.  Oh wait, this is the same one. We backtracked a little bit to get to the other trailhead.

Abishai was whining about who sat where in the hideout spot.  He also wanted to stay there and play the rest of the afternoon.  He cried for a good 15 minutes after we walked away.

Jared enjoying the view.  He loves, loves, loves trees and nature, although they are terrible for his nose. We have a lot of different interests, but at least we can agree on this one.  Oh, and he scooped up three beech nuts to bring home and plant. Of course!

Benaiah doing some kind of funky dance.

I always love finding lone red maple leaves amongst the others.  They always remind me of Canada.

This leaf had all the colors!  And no, I was a good girl and didn't bring it home.

Further down the trail, we found all brown oak leaves.

Reminds me a bit of "Lovers Lane" from Anne of Green Gables or some kind of magical woods.

The staris weren't terribly slippery thank goodness, because I'm sure it wasn't comfortable carrying Abishai on his shoulders.

The start of Rocky Hollow.  I just love that they have these cool names for these areas.

I went up on top of the Punch Bowl following Trail 4, while the others went into it through Trail 3.

Here's the little stream that feeds the punch bowl.

Hand hewn steps right in the rocks.  These have been here for years and years!  In one place, there were cutouts that were just wide enough for one foot and they were deep because of people using them and the water wearing them down. This hollow also floods during spring.

Ooooooo

Man, I wish I remembered how to take a professional shot of a water fall, but I think this does well quite nicely.

Generation "I'm always on my screen."  Lol.  But a couple of days later, I saw their Instagram posts, so I know they were taking selfies, too.  And they weren't on their phones when we were walking.  Since it was the very rugged trails, you really had to pay attention while you walked.  I took pictures after I had paused and only took a few (ok, 27) videos.

My motley crew.

Another shot of the waterfall.  I said this last time, but photographers come down here all the time for photo shoots.  I did see a couple of people with tripods today, just like I saw last time.

Justin led the way in being par core!

Don't let the girlfriend show you up!

The narrowest part of the trail and yes I had to step in water, and yes, my boots were in fact not water tight.  I didn't realize this until we got home and realized my pants, which were tucked into my boots were wet.  I thought they were just cold.

Lots of water, although I know there's usually more.

I thought this had a name, but I can't find it.  It's fairly large though.

Another cave!

Wedge Rock.  Last time, we were able to go through Wedge Rock, but we noticed new fencing and signage that told us to stay off of the area in order to preserve it.  Bummers.  I wanted to see if Benaiah could squeeze through!

At this point, Abishai was very interested in the signs and kept asking Jared about them.  They were new and we hadn't seen any on the previous trail except trail markers that had obviously been there for years but still clear.  We did go through an extra bit, but didn't have to backtrack any.

Aw.

Again, different shaped and colored leaves.

Last bridge out of the hollow.

Back at the suspension bridge.

Nice!

The water reflecting off this cliff under the suspension bridge.

Breathtaking.

Woah. I was busy taking pictures and then I overheard Keturah teaching Abishai how to write letters in the sand!  Hm,...I see this happening in our future school time!

I wrote an "A", Mom!

Aw!

No more snow.

Big boy, be careful!

I'm not looking forward to walking up those 70 steps!  Thankfully, at least on these trails, there weren't too many stairs.  Well, 140 and 70 stairs are a lot, but the rest was not as hard to do.

From the Turkey Run website: "The Narrows Covered Bridge, which spans Sugar Creek, was originally built in 1882. It is a pedestrian bridge now and is accessible from Trail 1 and Trail 2 south of the creek, and from Trail 4 north of the creek."

I love this!

Look at how worn and rounded those edges are!  I don't know when they replaced the boards last, but it's got to be a few decades, maybe never! I mean I'm sure cars couldn't fit on this, so maybe just horse and buggy way back in the day?

Although I didn't plan out everything exactly or think through what my minimum requirements were, I am pretty happy with how the day went.  From the beautiful weather (we overdressed, but that's ok), to the perfect setting in the woods, even with the level of waters in the creeks, to the less grumbling because we had a guest with us (note to self to always bring a guest), it was a perfect as we could have made it.  I was grumbling by the end as well because I was also hurting and would for days afterwards.  I know it's not their favorite thing either.  And they did all try to pose and smile when asked.  Abishai had one 15 minute episode of crying, but overall, he did great for 3 hrs.  And it's always special when we do something as a family because it's so very rare these days.  So very rare.  I try not to cry over that fact, because Benaiah knows that I don't ask him to do family events that often and I know that he does divide up his time the best that he can and does it well. Now I'm ready to settle in for a long winter's nap, or rather, work on all the inside projects that have been neglected this fall.  I have many of them lined up to keep me busy and after next week's appointments, I should be all clear to catch up on them. What a blessing today was!

The End