Anyone up for a trip with me this weeken d?

“I am jonesing to get out on the trail. It's been a month now. I'm willing to drive 3 - 4 hours (from Gary, Indiana), thinking southern Indiana perhaps. If there are no takers, I'll go alone, but I wouldn't mind company.”

“more than 3 or 4 hours, but you can come to NC and climb Cold Mtn and others with me.”

“Roam, Would love to do that trip with you. I was considering the Roan Mtn trip actually. But I'm just not up to that much driving this weekend. Sometime this summer I need to go to WV for work and I hope to make it a BP trip as well. Maybe Monongahela. Then I can write the whole thing off. Wahoo!!”

“Doin similar trips on some big mtns in July and August too.

Check out July 4 - Black Mtn Ballbuster and Aug - Plott Balsam trips on the trips page.”

“Hmmmm...Just wondering, can girls go on ballbuster trips? How does that work exactly? ;)”

“Yes, girls can go on ballbusting trips.



I prefer to use the term "deathmarch" when talking about that kind of trip.”

“lol, that's EarthNsky's doin.

Gemini's going, in spite of the fact that she admittedly has no balls.”

“Rudy - Those terms for a hike are codewords that mean 'no out of shape hikers' or 'slow hikers will be left for the bears to eat'.
They generally are very fast long backpacks thru difficult trails.

I generally avoid these types of hikes. ;-)”

“hey ruby....
i'm taking my kids down to shawnee backpacking trail this weekend (near portsmouth ohio)....you are welcome to join us if you like....”

“these just involve some fairly signigicant ups and downs going from one major mtn to another.

The trails themselves aren't that dificult, well, maybe in a few spots, and the distances are reasonable. It's just the elevation gain and loss, over and over and over.....”

“Thanks, Gonzo! Are you going to be hiking significant miles? When I go out with my 2 boys (9 and 4), I'm a lot more limited on hiking and tend to just car camp or base camp? What's your plan adn what's Shawnee like?”

“ruby....
with my kids along i think that i can safely say that this will not be a ballbuster....but it will be fun!

i loaned my map to a friend, but if my memory serves me correctly, shawnee has an eighty mile loop that is divided into sections, making it fairly easy to explore new sections or hike a loop....the topography is typical of southern ohio....steep wooded ravines and ridges....deep forest and many little creeks....there are designated camping areas that have water and privies....

we will probably go down saturday morning and we have the option of staying one or two nights, as long as we can get out of there fairly early on monday morning....

how about you? what does your schedule allow for?”

“Sounds appealing. As far as my schedule, I would like to drive in on Friday afternoon/evening. I'd have to leave Sunday afternoon. I'm going to mapquest the drive to see about the distance. Let's stay in touch. This just might work out.”

“Ruby 0- you guys ever go on the "Kids in June" thing?”

“Ruby, lemme know what you're doing. I'll probably come this weekend to celebrate the end of finals. Would love to hike with ya.”

“Yikes! 6+ hours. Might be too much for this upcoming weekend. I'll think on it for a few days.

Laqtis, nope, never did. I don't think anyone ever mentioned it again. But I'm planning on doing the "All About the Kids" at N. Manitou. Which reminds me, I better get ferry tickets soon.”

“Roam you are doing Cold Mtn this weekend?”

“Hey Dub, I saw a pimp car with your name on it yesterday! If I knew how, I'd post the pic. I was laughing my butt off. Do you have any recommendations for OH hiking that wouldn't be so far away for me?”

“Black Mountain is a rewarding hike. When you are done, you know you did one of the hardest trails in the east. The sites along the way are amazing.”

“Shawnee has a ton of trail options, over 50 miles of trails. The main loop is 40 miles. Here is a large 1mb map

I'm down with the Deam wilderness if you wanna go there? Or somewhere else in IN.”

“Deam sounds better to me distance-wise. How about it? Y'all are invited!!”

“Well Ruby, the Buckeye Trail circles the entire state...but a lot of it is off-trail aka roads, so it's not fun.

As for the rest, most of the backpacking trails in Ohio are located on the east and southeast side of the state, so it'd be a long drive for you.

Some smaller state parks offer camping and hiking trails that are great, such as Hocking Hills (which is probably far from you).”

“Deam would probably be okay with me...or somewhere else in Hoosier.”

“With my very limited experience thus far, Deam is the only IN place I have been to. I'm open to anything. That's a good distance for me though. There's also Morgan-Monroe SF, which is just a little NE of Bloomington”

“Where is Deam?”

“I'll go with ya to anything that is equal to or less than in distance from Columbus to Deam. So mapquest away, pick a trail, and I'll go.

There is a 14 mile trail in SW OH outside of Cincy in a state park that is 5 hours from you.

East Fork State Park

It might be fun?”

“Charles Deam is part of the Hoosier National Forest, a little SE of Bloomington. Just down the road from John Cougar's house.”

“Ceaser Creak State Park is also 5 hours from you and has a 14 mile backpack trail. And that's all OH has to offer.

So what do you want to do, Hoosier or OH?”

“Did you call Crazy Mike or Free? If not, I'll give them a call after 7 when my minutes are free and see what they're doing this weekend.”

“Well, Dub, I am open to anything. But if we both have never been to Morgan Monroe, how about if we check that one out? I know CMB goes there regularly so it must be more than car camping. And looking at my atlas, it looks pretty substantial in size. Would you come in on Friday night?”

“Yeah, I'd come in on Friday day. What is the nearest city to Morgan Monroe so I can mapquest it?”

“It's near Hindustan. That's such a small town though, use Bloomington. The SF is between Bloomington and Martinsville off Route 37.”

“NM, answered my own question. Martinsville, IN.

Closer to me than Bloomington so okay.

I'm not sure how many miles you wanna do for the weekend but I wouldn't mind a low mileage trip? Trail suggestions?”

“I'll have to check out their web site for trails. Low miles is fine with me. I'm thinking 10 - 15 for the weekend. What do you think?”

“10-15 sounds fine to me. Will we be hiking on Friday or just car camping?

Ruby, start a trip on the trips page then invite the IN regulars, Wounded Knee, SloppyJoe56, etc.

I've gotta go, got a date. I'll call you in a little while.”

“[a href="http://www2.tsc.com/~bobp/mmsfhtm.html"Morgan Monroe map[/a]”

“hehe, almost. try the new bbcode and use [ url = http://www.www.www/ ]”

“D'oh!


[a href="http://www2.tsc.com/~bobp/mmsfhtm.html"]Morgan Monroe map[/a]”

“LOL

I suck so bad! I give up.

Now I'll go see what kind of damage I can do on the trips page.”

“Roam you are doing Cold Mtn this weekend?"
crazygurl
05:39:41 PM
06/14/04

yeah, I'm going from Cold Mtn to Black Balsam Knob starting sat morn and finishing either Sun late or Monday.

feel free to join.”

“Ruby, it's prolly too late to catch you.. but if you can get to nashville.. you can carpool with us.. and go to Roan Mt.. We are leaving out Wednesday... about 3pm.. or you can ride with Karo and his crew.. they are leaving out Friday afternoon.. just email him or I.. and you can catch a ride with us if you want to do Roan Mt.”

“Thanks for the offer SD. I can't not work for that many days. But I sure appreciate it!”

“Okay. Trip is in the works. Check out the Morgan-Monroe SF June 18-20 thread.”

“Last time I carpooled, I got a Speedo ticket. (rimshot)”

“okie dokie ruby. We'll take lots of pics for ya.”

“Signed up. After my last trip with Prosecutor I'm rethinking my cheap, lightweight food ideas...I might have to go buy some stuff for some gourmet cooking, mmm.”

“Ok, my brother bailed on me for a 2-nighter we planned for this weekend. I'm going somewhere, not giving up a weekend in the woods. Anyone want to join me?

I don't see anything listed on the Trips page or I would join an existing trip.”

“Come to DC Ruby ;o)”

“Note the "Reusing this thread" subtitle...”