Deam Wilderness Trip Report

“Friday night I suddenly got permission from the ball and chain to go backpacking when her brother decided to go with her to the Dave Matthews concert instead of making me go.

I got up early Saturday morning about 5:30 a.m. and started packing. By 11:00 a.m. I was at the Grubb Ridge Trailhead. I met a dayhiker at the trailhead and we struck up conversation. He was going to do the Grubb Ridge Loop and wanted to know If I thought he could do it before nightfall. We ended up doing most of it together.

The trail was very muddy in some places because of all the rain the night before but the creeks were full of cold clear water which made topping off easy. About 5:00 p.m. we split up and he took the trail along the road back to his car. We said our Goodbyes and I let him know about Trail Talk and he said he'd check it out.

I hiked the Cope Hollow Loop another 3 miles or so and then set up camp just as the sunset in a pine stand. I got a nice fire going and ate and cleaned up a bit from all the mud.

This morning I got up about 8:00 a.m. and topped of my water bottle in a nearby stream and saw a deer. With the morning light I could see circadia shells and dead circadias all over the ground. I put some of the shells and dead circadias in a plastic bag for home. I then began packing out.

The weather for both days were great, sunny and in the upper 70's, low humidity. Probably won't get weather like this again until September.”

“Sounds like a subdued and awesome trip.

I haven't had the luck of seeing any cicadas or their shells around my area. Was hoping to before they left for the next 17 years.”

“There was a group of us this weekend at Morgan-Monroe super close to where you were. It WAS a great weekend, wasn't it? I hear the weather is calling for higher temps and humidity starting tomorrow. We lucked out. Glad to hear you had a good one.”

“Sounded like fun, what is a cicadas?”

“They're bugs. The ones from Starship Troopers. No not really. They're some kind of flying insect that bury themselves in the ground and only come out once every 17 years to make a bunch of noise and then die after a couple of weeks.”

“This is the day hiker that hiked with ultrapecker. By the way ultrapecker, you will be happy to know that most of my hike back to the car was ankle deep mud much like the rest of the trail that we hiked. However, I really enjoyed the whole day and our hike. Most hikes are dry and normal, the mud added something that made the hike more of a challenge, not to mention something a little different. I think that I am going this weekend with some buddies of mine, but I am not sure yet. We have talked about doing part of the Adventure Trail or going to Kentucky on a hike. I am looking forward to it. I will let you know how things go. If the trails this weekend are anything like the Grubb Ridge last weekend, I have a feeking that I will have an interesting and muddy time.”

“Glad to hear from you bush jr. Let me know how things turn out this weekend.

We'll have to get together for another hike soon or maybe go hunting together in the fall.”

“Welcome to TT, Bush!

I'm thinking of heading to southern Indiana again this weekend to catch another hike after the success of Morgan-Monroe last weekend.”