Morgan-Monroe SF Trip Report

“Place: Morgan-Monroe SF, Low Gap Trail Loop; 10 miles

Date: June 18 - 20

Attendees: Sloppy Joe, Dub, Silent Jay, and Ruby

Weather: Around 70’s daytime temp, very low humidity, sunny, beautiful

Wildlife encountered: Cicadas, whitetail, wild turkey with poults, mole, salamander, Indigo bunting, dead snake, raccoons

Sloppy Joe arrived first in the afternoon and secured two car camping sites for us at the Mason Ridge campground. Not sure exactly what time it was, but I arrived sometime after 11 p.m., and Dub and Silent Jay arrived soon after. We talked and had a couple beers while we took our time setting up our tents. When it started drizzling, we kicked it up into high gear making camp, then stood around in our rain gear continuing to socialize, unwilling to crawl into our tents yet. Soon the rain stopped, and we all “forked” the strawberry white chocolate cheesecake I had baked and greatly enjoyed the untold joy of coolers until well into the early morning hours.

Our original plan had been to hike a portion of the Low Gap Loop on Saturday, camp in the backcountry, then hike out on Sunday morning. After some deliberation in the morning, we decided instead to hike the entire loop that day and return that night to the car campground, thereby greatly lightening our loads. Why tote beer in your pack when you can keep it in a cooler? What a bunch of slackers! Some of us slept in (you know who you are) and some of us went into town for breakfast. Then we all hit the trail around 12:30 (I think it was).

The hike was a good one, very pleasant. The trail is well maintained. (Thank you Hoosier Hikers Council). There are a couple good climbs and descents to get the blood pumping. We often hiked in comfortable silence and as a result were able to spot some deer and a turkey. The turkey was quite frantic since apparently some of her poults were on either side of the road we were walking on. She made a lot of noise and flapping around. Each of us had a pole or a rock in our hand to defend ourselves from her. She was pretty perturbed with us. But she calmed down after we moved on.

We approached the end of the trail around 5:00 with Dub keeping us apprised of our location with the help of his handy dandy GPS thingy. At the very end of the trail he yelled out, “300 feet to go!” The thought that went through my head then was, “I haven’t fallen this whole trail. This is where I’ll wipe out.” And sure enough, as I made my way up the stairs to the parking lot, I bit it. Not a StairMaster, but a StairDisaster. After a quick discussion, it was decided that we would run into town for dinner. We found a good Chinese joint, then headed back to our car camp with full bellies.

After scrounging for wood and finding a pretty big dead snake (not sure what kind it was), we enjoyed the fire, conversation, and cooler contents once again into the wee hours. We had more neighbors this night than last. Most everyone gawked at our site as it was pretty atypical from the rest…picture three solo tents and a Hennessey hammock. One woman commented as she walked past, “Them thar tents are the strangest lookin’ tents I’ve ever seen.” Dub is pretty sure that somebody tried out his hammock while we were out hiking. We were entertained for a short time with the sounds of sex from the next door campers. Later in the evening, Dub and Silent Jay had fun feeding marshmallows to the raccoon.

Sunday morning we woke up to screaming kids nearby. Grrrr! Decided to repeat our by now well-established pattern of not cooking and instead, have breakfast in town. After arriving at the restaurant, we had to pause while Dub upchucked in the parking lot. He claims it was a bad banana. Um…right. Probably bad karma as a result of the coon feeding.

All in all it was truly an enjoyable weekend with good company, good trail and good weather. Hope I remembered all the details. Please jump in and add what I missed, guys!

Hiking is great. Finishing a hike is even better.”

“Sounds like a fun-filled weekend!

Dub, you puked in the 'lot?! SLACKER! That's what you get for feeding raccoons.

Pics?”

“I forgot my memory card, thus no pictures from me. But the other three guys each had a camera. Maybe they'll post some.


A guestion to those of you who know this area: We crossed a dry creek bed many times during our hike. I know that area has received a ton of rain lately. Why was the creek dry? Is it dammed somewhere upstream?”

“Ruby, use your new trail name StairCrash!

That racoon was a brave mofo! He tried opening coolers and walked across the picnic table when I was sitting 3 feet away. It was only right to feed the little guy for his hard earned efforts (as he couldn't get any of our food, can't say the same for the neighbors though). And I did the right thing and fed him near the neighbors tents so he wouldn't disturb ours.

TT, Racoon: 1 - Car Camping Punks: 0”

“Nice trip report? Where are the pictures?”

“I actually drove through Morgan-Monroe State Forest on my way down to the Deam Wilderness. I'd never been to Morgan-Monroe and I got some info and a map.

Sounds like you all had a good time. Was it muddy?”

“You should have dropped in on us. We had a blast. I didn't realize you were close to that area otherwise I would have sent you a trip invitation.

Muddy in spots, but certainly doable. But we sure left a big dried mud mess in the Chinese restaurant from our boots.”

“I'm sure glad we left before the old man came back and saw all the mud we left in his store he would have been PO'd big time.But we all leaned something on this trip when you say " Lets car camp the first night" that means lots of COLD BEER and hangovers in the morning. Hell it took till 2 in the afternoon before I felt human again.But everybody enjoyed themselves and had a good time so that all that matters good job Ruby.”

“I don't have a good place to put them but I guess my Yahoo account will do. I had to brighten the racoon photos since it was so dark when I took them they didn't come out to well. The flash going off every 5 seconds never even phased it. Anyway, you can spot anything I altered because I gave it a name.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hartsough@sbcglobal.net/slideshow2?.dir=/b6ca&.src=ph&.beg=1&.spd=2

Silent J”

“Silent J, don't forget to change your TT user ID. Nice pics. Let's see how long it takes Dub and Joe to post theirs.”

“nice picture jdharts, thanks for sharing them. Looked like a fun trip.”

“lol

Sounds like everyone had a good time. Except maybe Dub when he was in that parking lot.”

“Yeah, made the request yesterday. I was thinking I should create a new ID but the settings page said I could just make the request. Last request I made took about 2 days to process.

Silent J”

“LOL, I still had a good time despite the upchucking. And after I was done I went inside and ate 4 pieces of toast, two eggs, hash browns, 4 strips of bacon, 1 glass of orange juice and a glass of water. I managed to hold that breakfast down.”

“got the e-mail that said to just create a new ID. I would have done that in the first place if the edit account page didn't say to send an e-mail!”

“Alright! Now fill out your profile so we have easy access to your email, etc.”

“There you are, Silent J. That's better.”

“Now to find a name for Ruby. "StairCrash", or a play on deposition as "De-positioned" as in lost, but it carries a little connotation about your career.”

“She did forget alot of things and repeat them. Amnesia might be good.”