Tecumseh Trail April

“Nigal,

The road is probably 10 miles, or so North of Bloomington.”

“It's Mahalasville Rd. It's just south of Martinsville which is north of Bloomington. Mahalasville Rd is right before 37 and 39 split as your heading south on 37. I can e-mail you a map if it will help.
last edited: 4/24/08 6:45:17 AM”

“Mahalasville Rd is the stop light right after Wal-Mart.There is a Shell gas station there.Here is my e-mail kevinlikestohike@yahoo.com for cell number.You will need to turn right at the first road you come to on Mahalasville that will be Low Gap.

Maybe windi can get some extra maps from the office on Friday I have some around here if I can find them.”

“Damn I'm out already. I was supposed to do a backpacking trip with my buddy but he hurt his back and backed out. Now we're just camping and fishing instead. Sorry for the false positive guys.”

“that's what SHE said!”

“Ill be starting on saturday afternoon sometime from richards rd (assuming I can find that).
see yall at the shelter!
Attila”

“Attila,

Glad to hear you're in. We'll see ya on Saturday.”

“Now we're just camping and fishing instead. Nigal

Nigal, That sounds like the real Redneck thing to do! Drink some PBR for me too, okay? LOL”

“Coyote,

Check your email.”

“You could do this go down 135 thru Morgantown and take it south out of town to Fruitdale make a RIGHT on Three Story Hill Road To Ritter Road and make a LEFT turn{THE LAST TIME I WAS THRU THERE THE ROAD WAS NOT MARKED I THINK IT IS THE SECOND ROAD AFTER YOU GO PAST DOG TROT LANE} Follow along Ritter Road a short distance and you will come to Lick Creek Road make a Right Hand Turn go about a mile and you will come to RIchards Road take a left.The next road you come to will be Carmel Ridge Road keep going after you pass Carmel Ridge Road the Trail Head is maybe a mile or so on the Left hand side there are a couple of Blazes but they maybe hard to see.You will know you are going the right way if you cross a couple of wooden footbridges right at the start.I'll e-mail you my phone number I don't know if I'll have service or not.”

“Great Hike weather was wonderful pics and trip report later”

“We are home and am getting full stomachs and clean bodies. Drucifer, that's what he decided to use as a trail name for now, had a great time. He enjoyed meeting everyone. He did say that he learned more about Randall's scrotum than he's comfortable with seeing as he had just met him. lol”

“Sounds like randall bein' randall!”

“[url]http://community.webshots.com/user/COYOTE820[u]
last edited: 4/27/08 5:45:32 PM”

“http://www.garmontusa.com/781030211.html

Looks like I got a heck of a deal at $70.00 bucks
last edited: 4/27/08 5:55:59 PM”

“Hey Coyote,

Thanks, for planning a great trip. We definitely hit the weather window right. I liked the Tecumseh Trail more than I thought I would. We definitely should do the whole thing in the Fall sometime. Great to see everyone again, and meet some new faces. Randall you sly dog... Thanks, for showing up, and making us laugh all night.”

“Hey all!!
Here are my pics from the south side of the trail!!

[http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563241866ezJHCC

I'll wait on Coyote to post his TR and then I'll post mine!!
See ya later.
Randall
last edited: 4/28/08 11:18:02 AM”

“Nice pictures, Randall. Coyote's TR is posted on the trail talk side, and not linked to this trip page.”

“nice pix randall...were those snapers fighting?”

“Thrifty,
Fighting or mating!! Hmmmm, I guess there's a little of both in each, LOL
See ya later.
Randall”

“Hey Coyote820 was that snake able to get out of the green mesh or was it stuck?”

“we came back by the snake and it was still stuck in the mesh we then set him free Sunday”

“I started my trip at the Yellowwood forest office and headed north on the Tecumseh trail. The idea was to meet the others at the Fox Den Shelter as they were coming down from the northern terminus at Morgan Monroe state forest!! I left my name off the list so that they wouldn’t be expecting me! I have been that way once and it was with Attila back in February, The trail had about three inches of snow topped off with about 1\4 inch of ice then. That was a good trip, but we made a lot of noise as we broke through that crusty snow!! This time things were totally different as the temps were in the mid eighties and I haven’t seen those numbers since early October !! I have to admit that I was pretty hot fer a while and ended up wetting my self down at the first creek crossing I came to. The trail is in really good shape and climbs up for about 200 feet then levels off for about a mile or so. I only had to cross a couple of blow downs the whole 20 plus miles. I got a lot of good pics and saw some critters along the way, nothing real crazy to write about though. There were a few hikers camped at about the nine mile mark and I made camp just about ¼ miles from them. It rained pretty hard that night with some serious wind, good thing I had my ear plugs.

The next morning I did the whole morning thing and tried to call in a gobbler that was looking fer a girlfriend just down the hill from me! He decided that I was not what he had in mind and went looking somewhere else. It was turkey season and I could hear some shots every now and then, nothing close though! I hit the trail and went about a half a mile and ran into the first of three road walks that I had to do on this section. This one turned out to be pretty short and I got some pics of a pair of Snapping Turtles mating/fighting in Bean Blossom Creek! Back in the woods and the leaves were just starting to open up. The weather was much cooler and the skies turned off blue and clear. It was great to be out and it felt like the whole woods was waking up!! A black snake came by, but didn’t stay long, better things ta do then look at me I guess. I also got to take some close ups of a box turtle, she was very cooperative and I’ll bet I could have gotten her too eat something, had I had some veggies!! I stomped through several stands of Red Pines and had to do some more short road walking. I came around the corner and there was about five trucks full of Turkey Hunters parked at the trailhead, We talked for a while (no birds for them) and then I put my hunter orange pack cover on and got back to my hike. I never saw any hunters after that.

I got to the shelter much sooner than I expected so I had lunch and set up my tent to wait for the other to show up. A older couple came in and we talked about things, they lived just down the way and came in on a different trail that they called The “Blue Bird Trail” They left and I decided to take some more pics. I had promised Attila that if he bought me some beer I would meet him at the Richards Road trailhead and help him carry his stuff in. I was on my way to meet him when the first of the Morgan Monroe bunch came hoofing down the way! It turned out to be HikingMachine and I got a pic of him , before he figured out who I was. Surprise!!, the rest were close behind so I said hello to all and went to meet Attila. He showed up shortly with his son Max and a moving cart to take his overly stuffed pack up the hill. The Shelter was 1.7 miles and that was mostly up hill, the cart worked, but I ain’t so sure that it wasn’t more work than it would have been to carry it! Oh well!! Max did well considering his age, and we got to the shelter in pretty good time.

We ate dinner, drank some beer, brandy and Shnopes and talked about stuff. Attila played some Penny whistle and I punished my harmonica fer awhile! The group broke up around 10:00 PM with the last of us hitting the sack around 12:30 AM

I got up late and the Morgan Monroe bunch were already packed up tp go!! Damm, way too early fer me!! They left, with me,Max and Attilla about two hours behind!! No problems getting out expect for an encounter with pit bull, but that went ok!!
See ya later.
Randall”

“Nice TR, Randall. I don't know if I'll see you before you leave for Alaska, but have a great trip! I want to get up there one of these days..”

“Windigrrl,

Your camera takes great pictures. What kind do you have?”

“I have a sony cyper-shot. I didn't take very many picture on this trip for some reason. I've been real happy with this camara, plus it uses batteries vs having to plug it in to recharge.”

“My birthdays coming-up soon, so maybe I can talk my wife into buying me one.”