Fox Den or Bust!

“Fox Den or Bust – TR

Saturday on the drive down to the trailhead Randall, CrashBang, and UPluver were all trying to get each other’s cell phone numbers. LOL UPluver was the middleman in all of this, and he ended-up texting me Randall’s cell. After learning that Crash was waiting at the top of the first hill I made my way to the trailhead. Driving down the Morgan Monroe forest road there was people on road bikes, and runners everywhere. They were participating in the Little Fox Run/Bike. I stopped to ask one guy who looked like he was working the event where all they were running, and he didn’t seem know much. Oh well, on to the trailhead. When I arrived Trout was there getting his pack organized for the hike. I introduced myself, and we talked for a little while. I then went ahead to hunt down Crash. We decided to just do an out, and back hike to the Fox Den Shelter. The temperature was mild, and it sprinkled on us off, and on which actually felt pretty good. The trail was quite muddy, and the creeks were all running good. Crash and I saw a nice size snapping turtle after crossing one creek just sitting on the bank. We all made good time hiking down the trail, and stopped for a lunch break at Bear Lake. No one else was there, and it started sprinkling on us again towards the end of our lunch. We moved on, and made pretty good time hiking to the Fox Den Shelter. We all filled-up our water bottles at the last creek before the shelter. Crash had mentioned that Randall said, “That there was a spring up by the shelter, but I wasn’t sure.” Crash ended-up finding the spring a little ways down the hill from the shelter. We all sat around talking about future trips, and cooking dinner. We got a campfire going, and had a nice time talking about past and future trips.

Sunday, Trout was the first up, and Crash and I soon followed. The weather this day was perfect. Sunny and cool with blue skies. Right before arriving at Bear Lake I saw a Quail, or a Grouse? Not sure, but was very cool to see. We were hiking faster Sunday arriving back at Bear Lake in well under two hours. Crash and I decided to eat lunch there at 10:30. LOL We brought an extra lunch, so we might as well eat it. A Father, and Son were there fishing. The last two, or three miles back to the trailhead we passed several hikers out for day hikes. It was great to met Trout, and we all had a good hike.

Salem”

“Nice TR Salem!!

I got there Friday around 2:30 PM and the whole place was pretty deserted. I parked at the property office and called Crash ta see where he was. Turns out he had not even packed yet!! Slacker!! I knew that he was not gonna be there soon so I hit the trail and headed south. They have done some logging in Morgan Monroe forest and a lot of it is just off of the road. I think they tried to do a better job of cleaning up than they usually do and had even planted some grass seed. The loggers did respect the trail though and that is a first as far as I’m concerned. The day was turning kinda hot with the temps in the lower 80’s by the time I started out. The humidity was climbing too; it felt like thunderstorm weather ta me. I made good time on the Low Gap Trail and passed one lone hiker heading north. I made the rock shelters around 4:30 and took some pics. My camera started acting funny and I got way more green than I would have liked, makes the trees look like a lime Popsicle, yuk!!

I continued on down the trail and passed the remains of an old house. There used to be a small cottage type of house right across from it, but it looks like it got brunt down and now that whole area looks like a Kentuckians front yard. Further down from that someone is trying ta build a pole barn and not doing a very good job either, more junk there and a real nice porch swing set up around shack built from OSB and old tin roofing. Good thing they had a pad lock on it, I’m sure there is some very valuable used tires and concrete blocks inside. I am not sure why they can build there, but it has always been there as far as I know. Maybe a life estate or sumpin like that!!

I made the Low Gap Road trailhead by about 5:30 PM. There are two creeks just south of the trailhead and all the nice bridges that the Hoosier Hiking Council had built there are washed away!! Wet feet fer me, been there and done that. I tried to cross the second creek on a log and almost made it!! Good thing the water was only a couple o feet deep and nobody was around ta see me fall!! Up the big climb from Low Gap Road and I started ta hear thunder in the distance. I called Crash and he was still messing around and was just north of Indy!! I told him where I would be and tried to make a good pace to the white pines at the next holler. As soon as I got there it started at rain and I set up my tent in record time ands climbed in. Of course it stopped as soon as it started.

I set up the rest of my gear and gathered some firewood. It thundered all around me, but nothing every came of it!! I got a fire going and waited on Crash, he finally showed up about dark with a shiny bald head., hmmmm……We spent the evening around the fire talking and watching the lighting and the fire flies through the tops of the white pines. I made sure my stuff was set fer rain and hit the sack around 11:00 or so.

Sometime close to 12:00 a big storm came and dumped on us fer close to three hours. I got kinda worried about the creek and Crash checked it out, no problems here anyway!! I put in my ear plugs but it was still pretty loud fer quite a while and sleep only came after it settled down towards 2:30 PM. My Lunar Solo shed the rain admirably, but the floor let me down and there was some water in inside. I shoulda put down my ground cloth, but I didn’t. I will next time!!!
Up with the first light and the Campsite was soaked with several large puddles thrown in fer good measure. I ate breakfast and packed up as I had top be in Illinois by 1:00 fer a graduation. I passed a lone female hiker and at that time Salem called asking where Crash was. I did not have his phone number and we could not get a signal down in the pines. I ended up calling Uplover and asking him ta call Salem. It all worked out well though!!
As I got closer there were a whole lot of people running down the trail and water stations were set up at some of the corners. The Run with the Foxes was on and they had a good turnout, more folks than I have ever seen at Morgan Monroe that fer sure!!
That all!!

See ya later.
Randall”

“Hey Randall,

Yeah, I dodged lots of runners, and bike riders on the drive to the trailhead. We didn't see any after that on the Low Gap, or the Tecumseh Trails. The mileage for our hike was 17.2 miles.”

“It was definately a quail. [img]http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Portals/9/images/diversity/songbirds/quail.jpg[img]”