Twin Valley this weekend (5-22/ 23)

[Stargazer]

Well, shoot. The weather looks bad for eastern Ohio, but the storms should have moved through the west by Saturday morning. Thus, I'm going to walk the 29 or so  miles of the Twin Valley BP trail on Saturday and Sunday. I'll cache some water near the Chamberlain Road trail access near the Pine Ridge campground, then drive up to the Boomershine Road/ Sled Hill parking lot, walk the 15 miles or so back to Pine Ridge, and set up camp.

Sadly, the water source near Pine Ridge isn't done yet, and I'm not up to drinking the nasty water from Lake George, so water caching is pretty much a necessity.

Anybody else hikin' this weekend?

Stargazer

[Stargazer]

The hike at Twin Valley went pretty much as expected. The weather was mostly cloudy on Saturday and cool -- it never got above the mid-seventies F. The water source at Pine Ridge, the southern-most campsite, is still under construction, so I cached a gallon jug of aqua near the camp and drove back to the northern trailhead on Boomershine Road. I was carrying a baseweight of six pounds on my back with a pound of water and 1 /2 pounds of food -- about nine pounds total on my back. I was wearing my Vibram KSO toe shoes. The walk through the Germantown section is quite beautiful -- a lot of flowing water in every form -- but very muddy from all the recent rains, as was the entire trail. I walked it early enough that I saw nary a person there, even though I'm guessing that the park is extremely busy after noon on a weekend.

I finally ran into a father and son fishing on one of the lakes. It was an odd experience. The son was practicing casting, and his father stood by, hands on hips, and berated him for his form. Geesh. I thought, "That's no way of instilling in your son a love of the outdoors. I held my tongue and moved on.

Even the connector trail was pretty bereft of people until one gets to the Germantown road walk, which is still as ugly as ever. but at least there weren't many cars on a Saturday morning. The north part of the connector is still beautiful and, like the rest of the trail, well maintained and designed with plenty of switchbacks and only a few steep climbs. I couldn't resist the short walk through the Sigenthaler Nature area. The second half takes you through a city park for several miles miles, followed by that damnable road walk with the blind curves and the semis.

The Twin Creek section takes you under some bridges where the water was so high, I had to take the suggested detours along the road. Twin Valley is mostly meadow walks, but there were plenty of wildflowers and the general cloudiness provided sufficient shade. Even with digressions I ended up at Pine Creek by 3:30. I don't often average almost 3 miles/ hour, but this is an easy walk and the Vibrams help a lot, as does carrying only nine pounds.

There are only three campsites at Pine Creek. Don't forget to preregister for one of them. They're small but pretty isolated from each other. Good thing, too. The family group (?) at the camp near mine were a tad noisy, and I could clearly hear the danged dirtbikers screaming down nearby Chamberlain Road.

I set up camp and walked down to Lake George (taking a few digressions along the way) , where there were folks fishing off the pier on the other side of the lake. I just bought an 8 oz carbon fiber rod and reel. I'm going to try to fish for my supper sometime this summer. The walk to and from Lake George is among the best on this hike. There's even an old boy-scout camp, complete with large fire ring, wood, a challenge course, and even a quite-beautiful chapel. I've never seen it in use during the four times I've walked that way.

Back at camp, had a fabulous dinner, Spinach Ziti from Energia (?) -- really good for a dried dinner -- and read Huck Finn until bedtime. I cursed the noise and fell asleep in about 15 seconds.

Got up at 5 AM and was on the trail by 5:45. The walk back to the trailhead is only about 12 miles (?). You have to repeat the connector trail, but there were no cars on the road walk on an early Sunday morning. Take the short digression to the Hopewell earthworks. I was back at the trailhead by 11 AM, and home by 1:30.

Not a bad hike, all in all.

Stargazer

[Walkabout]

Glad you came through our "neighborhood". since then, we finally have the water on at Chamberlin Rd trailhead!
Stop back for a fall walk when the leaves change.
Still working behind the scenes with the sand & gravel company to get property access and get everyone OFF the road....
enjoy
Walkabout

[Stargazer]

Hey! Good news, Walkabout! I'll try to get out for a weekend or two before the season is over. When do the leaves peak out your way? Fall wildflowers?

Stargazer

[Stargazer]

Okay, I'll think I'll do the whole Twin Valley loop this Saturday - Sunday. What the heck. Gotta get in some walking, and TV is easy enough to do in a couple of days. Nice wlk, made even better by the availability of water down south.

Stargazer

[schnikel]

 Good to here there is water in the southern section now.  I have read that there are no fires at any of the sites in TV.  Is this still the case?  Anyone hear of the water conditions in the area? I know they are low around Columbus.  Thanks.
     Schnikel

[Stargazer]

Well, shoot. I intended to camp overnight, but ended up doing the whole hike (28 miles?) in one day.

This is a trail on which it is possible to make excellent time. You can't beat the trail design and maintenance of these two Metro Parks. I had intended to get up at 5 AM and be on the trail by 8 AM, but I couldn't sleep. Thus, after four hours sleep and a late-night program at the observatory (those cub scouts can take a lot out of you), I was up by 4:30 Saturday and on the road by 5 AM. I was at the northern trailhead (on Boomershine Road) by 6:45 and walking by 7 AM. I was carrying under ten pounds certainly. (Didn't bother to weigh the pack this time. It was light.)

The Germantown MP section of the walk is gorgeous, and the early hour kept the joggers off the trail. I scared the living bejabers out of a fellow hiker coming in the other direction near the nature center. He was checking out his map and apparently didn't hear me coming until I said howdy.

The walk up north is mostly along and across the river/ creek and makes for some nice views down into the gorge with the occasional waterfall/ rapids -- nothing fancy or spectacular, but very peaceful.

Before I knew it, I was on the connector trail, which on its northern leg is about the best trail to walk I've ever been on -- artfully designed through a very nice woodsy area. It passes over the Germantown Dam and near the Siegenthaler Nature Area, a very nice side trip of less than a mile. I forewent it this trip, however. I was cruising, faster than my usually slow pace thanks to an easy trail and my new Vibram Five Fingers KSO Treks -- the perfect shoe for fast walking on practically any surface.

The long walk through the city park (about 1.5 miles) is really quite easy and pleasant. It's along an asphalt path that it used mostly by runners and bicyclists. The longish road walk at Germantown and beyond is what it is. I was going to stop there and go to that lunch place/ diner, but, again, I was cruising, and I wanted to get the road walk over with. It has two nasty stretches along well-travelled roads, but in between is a suburban walk along side streets than invariably produces some brief but pleasant conversations with the locals.

The nastiest part of the road walk takes you past an industrial complex with enormous (sand?) piles, but you soon dive into the woods and are in the second metro park (Twin Creeks MP), which consists mostly of meadow walks and new-growth forests. The wildflowers were quite beautiful there. The black-eyed susans are in full bloom, a bittersweet event. That means for me that summer is almost over and classes at Ohio Wesleyan will soon begin.

Got to the Chamberlain Road trailhead in record time for me and so I just kept on walking past the new water supply (THANKS, Walkabout!!) down toward Lake George. The loop to the lake and back to Chamberlain Road is, IMO, the nicest part of the walk -- woodsy and clean. The boy-scout camp, complete with its gorgeous chapel, is a real winner. (I've never seen a soul, including boy scouts, on this leg of the trail.)

The northern trek to Chamberlain Road took me past the southern campsites, where I usually say. This time, I was on my way to Cedar Ridge, which is halfway up the connector trail, and the most beautiful and isolated campsite. I partook of the new water on the way north and kept on walking. It was early afternoon, and it began to rain, and it continued raining off and on for the rest of the hike. The Twin Valley walk on its eastern side takes you on a long trek up an old road -- easy and picturesque walk.

It was raining hard when I got to Cedar Ridge, my intended overnight rest stop, and I was tired from 21 (?) miles of hiking. However, in a surge of idiocy I just kept walking, intending to stop in Germantown for a late lunch/ dinner, and then on to the car. But I cruised past the town, into the city park, past it, and back into Germantown MP in an endorphin produced and very enjoyable daze. The walk through the eastern leg of Germantown MP was interesting. The daywalkers were out in full force, and they all seemed to want to pass the time of day with the old, scraggly hiker, so I had to slow down a bit to talk with them.

I got back to the trailhead by a shade after 7 PM, having walked 28 (?) miles in a bit over 12 hours, which is a personal best for me on both time and length of the hike.

Good walk, and my feet (and the rest of me) were pretty much intact by the end because

1.  The trail is easy and well maintained (soft ground, few rocks, no blowdowns).

2. I had only 5.7 oz. on each foot thanks to the KSO Treks.

3. The Treks kept my toes from rubbing together.

Off to Dolly Sods this weekend -- my last hurrah before summer ends.

Stargazer

[Stargazer]

Forgot to mention (twice):

Lake George was choked with algae -- even more than usual. The same could be said of the lakes and ponds at Oak Openings, where I went the previous weekend. This problem seems more prevalent up north than it does on the southern hiking trails.

Lordy sweet Jesus! This stuff looks and smells nasty. Thank goodness for the "city water" supply on the Twin Valley Trail.

Stargazer

[schnikel]

A friend and I will be hiking this trail this weekend, yes the weekend not in a day Stargazer.  I'm looking forward to the hike.  I think my base weight will be around 12lbs, so nice and light to but down the miles.
  Thanks for the TR!  Looking forward to that clean water.
 schnikel

[Walkabout]

Stargazer, thanx for the kind words about trail conditions, we're proud of our trails and try to keep on top of them.
The pond algae is especially bad because of, A: The high incubation heat we've had and 2: The pond management contractor we hired (& fired) so the new firm is trying to play catch up.

Schnikel, welcome & enjoy the walk! Water is indeed at the Chamberlin rd trailhead, for the second leg, refill H2O at the nature center on your way to Oak Ridge

Walkabout

[schnikel]

My friend and I hiked TVT this past weekend.  We arrived at 6:00 at High View parking and hiked the west section of the south loop to Pine Ridge campsite about 4 miles. It was an ok site with water not to very far away thanks to the new water source at Chamberlain Rd. The only bummer is that it is close to the road as well as a farm that has dogs that enjoy barking a lot, as well as roosters.
     The next morning we hiked the purple loop while leaving our gear at the campsite.  Then we loaded up and hiked the east side of the south loop, up the conector including the road, and bike walk (about 2.5 miles of paved walking all together) and around the east side of the north loop to Oak Ridge campsites.When the day was done I think we hiked about 17 miles on Saturday.  A lot for me.  Oak ridge was a better site IMHO further from roads as well as houses.  I did wake up at 3:30 in the morning ans swear I heard the Violent Femmes playing though my friend said he heard no such thing.  The only draw back with Oak Ridge campsites is that they are about 1/4 mile off the trail and they are dry(unless the small creek behing the sites is flowing, which it was not.)
    On Sunday we awoke and finnished the north loop and traveled back down the connector trail and out to our car.  We reached it at 11:00 after about 9 miles. So from 6pm Friday to 11:00 am sunday we traveled about 30 miles, not to shabby IMHO, though Stargazer might think otherwise
   The trail was in good shape with only a few blow downs all which looked recent.  We also met 2 volunteers on Saturday that stopped to talk to us.  I was carrying about 19lbs and my friend a little more.  The trail has minimal elevation gain, many meadow walks as well as the road/bike walk that all make this a trail that you can really but miles down fast.  At some points we were over 3 MPH.  Yes, the  road walk is bad, but isn't every road walk?  This trail does get you out and away from the people and city; for a Metro park.  It is nothing like Shawnee or wildcat Hollow but how could it: its a Metro Park, and I think it is great what they have been able to do there with what they have.
   The things I learned this trip:
  1) Bring bug dope- neither us us brought any and the skeeters were really bad
  2) If you forget bug dope bring a tent to be able to get away from said skeeters- I only had a tarp tent
  3)  Bring more than one 1 liter bottle for water- we both only brought 1 bottle each, and we suffered because of it
  4)  Always bring something to change into to just to get the sweaty clothes off you while you are at camp/sleeping
   All in all it was a good trip, nice terrain and conversation with my friend.  I enjoyed the challenge of the mileage as well as the minimalist packing I did.  I wanted to see how light I could go and challenge my comforts, and the TVT allowed me to do so.
    Schnikel

[Stargazer]

Thanks for the great TR, schnickel.

I solved the bug problem with a head net from backpackinglight.com and a light long-sleeved shirt (and nylon pants with vents on the side). Sounds hot, but the light nylon shirts are pretty cool and also protect you from sunburn. I once got stung by a "sweat" bee through one of the the tiny vent holes, however -- a perfect example of Murphy's Law at work.

Ticks have been a huge problem this year, especially at "wet" places like Vesuvius. I've treated my socks, shirts, and pants with permethrin, whick kills them bugs deader than h#ll, you betcha.

Have to agree about the southern camp site (Pine Ridge?). The middle one (Cedar Ridge) is far more isolated and pleasant. It also makes a good stopping point if you start at the northern trailhead at Boomershine Road.

Stargazer

[schnikel]

  I also forgot to add the trail magic we recieved on our hike at the nature center.  As my friend and I were walking up to it we could here music playing so we stopped in to see what was up.  They were have a kids day there and hunting for fossils in the nearby creek.  We ended up staying almost an hour there eating pretzles and drinking bananna smoothies as we sat in front of fans in rocking chairs!  With only about 1 mile left to hike out of a 18 mile day it was great to have a seat and enjoy.
 Schnikel