More Astrophotography

We've had some pretty clear skies over the Memorial Day weekend, so I thought I'd go out and do a little imaging.

Around dusk, the crescent moon was stunning. I'm pleased that the blue came out in the image, and the burned in corners from the rim of the telescope give an unexpected depth to the image.

Early the next morning (around 2:00a), I went out to see if I could capture Saturn. This was much more difficult than imaging Jupiter, as it's not only smaller, but roughly twice as far from Earth as Jupiter. We could use a little more light, and magnification for this one.

Brown County State Park: Taylor Ridge Trail (Trail #9)

Taylor Ridge Trail is the last of four hikes I made in a weekend while visiting family down south.

The official trail-head is in the Taylor Ridge Campground, and there is no parking other than for campers. So I picked up the trail at the end of the extension which is what brought me to Ogle Lake.

Ogle lake is where the extension begins.

When I entered the gate to the park, I ran into construction. They were having the roads repaired. After winding through the road patching, I got to the Ogle Lake parking lot, which was being entirely resurfaced. As a result, the first 1/4 mile of the had the faint smell of hot asphalt, and the constant beeping of construction equipment backing up. As soon as I topped the first ridge, however, that was gone.

As you approach the trail, There is a small opening in the trees. It gives the impression of a gateway into the trail.

The start of the Taylor Ridge Trail 9 Extension

The trail starts with a steep 8 foot incline that turns left and rises steadily up the side of the ridge. There are few switchbacks for most of the trail; most uphills will incline in one direction up to the top of the ridge. The temperature was around 62 - 64 deg. F. I started with a flannel shirt & by the time I finished the first 1/4 mile up the ridge, a t-shirt was plenty.

The wildlife tended to be small: squirrels, striped ground squirrels, and songbirds.

One of the locals checking out the intruder.

On the plus side, despite the recent rain, there were no mosquitoes. No bugs at all really, except for a deer fly that wouldn't leave me alone for 100 feet more or less. Vegetation consisted of a beautiful lush green forest, but sparse enough where you could see a few hundred feet down the sides of the hills. I counted what I think to be 3 different varieties of ferns.

Some of the different types of ferns that thrive along the trail

The streams were really cool. Stream beds were all sedimentary rock. In most places, the crushed pieces gathered to form the streambed, but every now and then, you run across a portion of the stream that flowed right over the flat layer of sedimentary rock exposed by erosion.

A section of stream that has eroded all the way down to the rock.

The trail quality was excellent. Trail was well-worn, and signs and posts were well placed to keep you on-trail. (There is no blazing on the trees).

More often, where logs had fallen across the trail, they were cut on each edge of the trail. There were 2 or 3 left from the recent storms that had not yet been cut. The $7 I paid for entry was well worth it, if only for the maintenance and care that went into keeping the trail up.

3 miles in, after crossing over two ridges, you hit the official trail 9 loop. I took it to the campground, then back to the loop to finish the trail. Total length was 8.01 miles.

Taylor Ridge Trail is Brown County Park's most difficult trail. The Property Map (a pdf on the State Park's website) has it listed as "rugged". The loop (the trail without the extension) was rated as "moderate" on the trail-head sign in the campground. While it was a workout, it wasn't too difficult, and I'd have a hard time thinking of it as rugged. Stream crossings tended to be simple, as the streams were, at most 3 or 4 inches deep, and had rocks to help keep your feet dry. In one place where the runoff eroded down about 5 feet, there was a bridge to help you across.

My overall impression, having now hiked multiple locations in both Indiana and Illinois, is that Indiana seems to do a better job maintaining trails, as well as publishing trail maps and information than does Illinois.

Details:
Min. Altitude: 162m
Max Altitude: 318m
Cumulative ascension: 517m
Distance: 13km (8.01mi)
Duration: 3hr 1min
Temp: 65 deg F

Shawnee National Forest: Indian Point Trail

Indian Point Trail is the third of four trails I hiked over a weekend while visiting family down south.

I had no intention of hiking Indian Point; I didn't even know it was there until I drove past it on the way to Observation Trail. I had some extra time to kill, however, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Trail head

The trail started out a little muddy. It was no doubt hit by the same storms that impacted the Panther's Den trails. It dried quickly as I gained elevation. It starts with a subtle uphill climb. You walk past a small pond, that we'll come back to later. Next, there's a moderately steep uphill climb. The trail levels out as it winds around the south edge of the mountain top with a few places to get really nice views. Unfortunately, the well worn left turn will cut out a good portion of the actual trail which continues on south for a while before returning to the mountaintop. You can see in the map below, the actual trail (a light-gray line) versus the trail I followed in blue. There are no markings indicating that the trail continues on straight.

A view of Garden of the Gods Wilderness northwest of the trail.

The trail has camp sights dotted along it with remnants of campfires. They are close enough where campers cannot really get much privacy from hikers passing by.

Vegetation is a sparse enough that you can easily see through the forest. There is a thin layer of soil sitting on top of the rock, so foliage isn't as lush as some others. The ground is covered with small plants along most of the trail, with more pine needles along the top.

Some of the flora along the trail.

I stopped for some water and a granola bar looking out over a rocky outcrop, and took a little time to sit and enjoy the view to the west.

Soaking in a view of the Garden of the Gods wilderness.

I continued on, and found what looked like a small trail going down the side of the mountain. I headed down a very steep path between the rocks to explore a little. I found some caves in the side of the mountain just under where I was sitting that residue from campfires in them.

There were a few caves like this tucked into the side of the mountain, just underneath the trail. Both had residue from campfires in them.

I went down a little further to where the path exited the rocks and went into woodland, then headed back up to the top.

Time to turn around and head back up. It's a 50' climb from here, and I'll end up at the top just above the tree.

The remainder of the trail is a winding path back around the top of the mountain to the pond, where I picked back up with the trail heading back to the trail-head.

This trail is not overly maintained, and not well marked. There are no blazes or signs, so it's up to you to figure out where to find the trail. It's generally not a problem, as it's well worn, and not easily confused with streams (see my earlier account of the Panther Den hike). As mentioned above, the lack of marking has the potential to cut your hike short.

Details:
Min Elevation: 768 ft.
Max elev.: 928
Distance: 1.37 mi.

Shawnee National Forest: Observation Trail

The Observation Trail is the second of four trails I hit last weekend while visiting family down south.

The Observation Trail is not really a hiking trail; rather, it's a walking path paved with sedimentary rock and cement mortar. It's really laid out more as a park service supported tourist attraction than a trail, but the views are really nice. The walking path is a quarter mile long, and about three feet wide in most spots. It includes benches and plaques describing the rock formations and geology of the region.

The first visible rock formation and the walking path

Garden of the Gods has some beautiful views, particularly for the mostly flat Midwest. I arrived at around 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday. There were only a few visitors, So photography opportunities were frequent.

Just minutes into the walk, a view to the north opens up. There are no guardrails on most of the outcroppings of rocks to stop you from going over the cliffs.

Looking north. Most of the visible land is part of the Shawnee Wilderness.

Looking south by southwest.

The Devil's Smokestack. This formation occurred as softer sandstone was eroded from around the rock.

Camel Back Rock bears a striking resemblance to a camel.

Panther Den Wilderness Hike

This is the first of four trails I hit last weekend as I made a trip down south to see family. It is brought to you in part by Samuel Adams IPA, which I have been drinking all night while writing this. :)

While heading down to see family down south, I decided to stop off at Panther Den Wilderness for a little hike. Panther Den is just south of Marion, IL, off of I-57. It's part of the Shawnee National Forest, a dispersed set of parks in Southern Illinois. I read a review on some blog, and the author gave it a pretty bad review (something like 2.5 stars of 5). I would not go that far. It had some issues, but... Well, let's just get into the hike.

Some sage advice for entering the wilderness.

The adventure begins by exiting I-57. I went quickly from civilization to back country in the blink of an eye. Seems there was a gas station at exit 40, but it's long gone, now. All that's left is the pump shelter. After numerous back roads, turns, and partially washed out gravel roads, I made it to the trail-head. There were 4 other cars when I arrived in a space that can accommodate 7 or 8. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. I cleaned off my shoes on the obligatory shoe brushes (we don't want to bring in any invasive species, now do we?), then it was off to the hike. I left the Questing Trail-head (lower left point on the map) heading for the Panther Den Loop.

The first section was very nice, but I noticed that the sedimentary rock and limestone on the path was damp, and there were fresh green leaves laying all over the trail. In addition, there were lots of small streams - some no more than a few inches wide, and a half inch deep running across the trail. A storm had obviously passed through within the last day. For the most part, this part of the trail (trail 371 leading up to the loop) was well cared for

I entered the trail just after another couple, and as long as I stayed 100 feet or so behind them, I could not hear or see them. That is the one of the niceties of this trail. The foliage is so dense, you really feel secluded.

I was also struck by how green the forest was. Perhaps it's because we just came out of winter, but the green was amazing.

Sidebar: That said, there was one jackass that seemed to think it was cool to bring his iWhatever music player out with a battery-powered external speaker and play music so the whole forest could hear him. He should have received a medal for achieving heretofore unseen levels of douchbaggery. I'm a music lover. I really am. But if you're going to bring music out to the trails, bring headphones. Seriously, no one wants to hear you're music, and it's bad enough we humans go lumbering through the wild making the noise we do, scaring off the wildlife. We don't need to make it worse by playing music out loud.

I came upon a sign that gave me two options: go straight for the Panther Den loop, or go straight for the River to River trail. I chose straight.

Decisions, decisions. Maybe go straight?

While still easy to follow, there was clearly less maintenance taking place on the trail as I ventured deeper in. I ran across this beautiful example of a fern.

The ferns thrive in this forest.

Ferns are indigenous to the area, and thrive in the dense vegetation and moist environment.

Next I came upon my first stream crossing. The amount of sedimentary rock in the stream beds makes crossing pretty easy; surprisingly so, given that the area just received a good amount of rain. That's where I got my first glimpse of the rock formations.

My first glimpse of the rocky outcrops in the wilderness.

Continuing on, I am faced with a fork in the road. Go left for the River-to-River Trail (actually, a subset of the larger River-toRiver trail going between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers), or right for the Panther Den Loop. Enticing me to go left was the "Rock formations" sign. But, I came here to do the loop, and I figured I would just add a little to the hike by taking the left path on my way back.

At this point, the path quickly deteriorated. The runoff from the storm had turned much of the trail into a stream. Heading north on the upper-right portion of the trail, I was sure I had gone off-trail until I compared my GPS record to the trail map. As it turns out, when I thought I ended up walking some random stream, I was, in fact, on the loop the entire time. The westbound portion at the far north end of the trail was even worse. Much of the trail was overgrown, numerous trees had fallen across the trail, and there was standing water throughout. I started to become pretty discouraged, now, thinking I was just wandering through streams. As I started to head back downhill, I walked through an area where bare rock was the trail, and it was really beautiful to look at. A little further down, and I had the most wonderful surprise.

A welcome surprise after wondering if I'm on trail.

I stumbled right into the rock formations indicated by the earlier sign. These were much larger than what I saw at the stream, and incredibly beautiful. They were eroded by time and rain, covered in moss, and displayed a wonderful set of colors including gray, tan, and orange. It was time to explore in the crevices, a bit.

The crevices were stunning.

Heading into the big crevice, the temperature dropped about 10 - 15 degrees F. Also, the change in sound was overwhelming. The sounds of birds and wind through the trees disappeared, and the silence was overpowering. While ambient noise faded, any sound I made bounced around in a reverb/echo fashion.

The rock formations were beautiful.

Deep in the rock, the air was cooler, the sound of the forest disappeared, and the views were incredible.

While in this crevice, there was a gentle patter of water all around dropping from the tops of the rock cliffs. It felt not unlike rain, but that I could easily evade by just walking back under a cliff.

Another awe-inspiring crevice.

The trail now tracked along the rock-faces, presenting serene views of mossy rock in the forest. This, to me is amazing. I come from Northern Indiana, generally referred to as the "Heartland of America" (code for flat and boring as hell). Seeing rock just popping up like this is a real treat for me. What's especially interesting is that just 20 miles north, the terrain was all generally flat and farm land. Here, at the very start of the hills in the south was such a gem.

I hit a number of stream crossings, and came across horseshoe marks on the trail. My first big stream crossing was fun - I ended up crossing over a fallen tree.

Stream crossings were frequent, but this one was too wide to try to jump. Fortunately, some fallen trees were available to help.

A little further down, I had another stream crossing that left me with a very wet right shoe (which is now drying on the counter next to the sink in my hotel room). A few hundred feet later, another stream crossing. The plan was simple: pop off the right foot, lay the left foot on the 6" rock in the middle of the stream, then swing the right leg forward to grab the bank. Left shoe now wet.

As I headed further south, I hit a small set of switchbacks going up a small hill. Then I saw signs marking the River to River Trail. and left the 'formal' Panther Den Wilderness.

Looking backward, heading out of the wilderness, proper.

Before long, I was back at the signs in the fork, offering the loop or the rock formations. I was back on the trail I started on, heading back to the trail-head.

7.6 K after the start, I'm back at the trail-head. The only downside of the trail was the lack of blazing. The service's website calls out, explicitly that the trail is well-marked. I would argue that there is some room for improvement. Some additional blazes on the trees would have been really helpful. That said, it probably would not have been as much of an issue, had a storm not just passed through, and left the trails in a poor state. The rock formations really made up for it, though, and left me feeling that I made the right choice stopping by.

 The Panther Den Loop

The Panther Den Loop elevation profile

Statistics

Min Altitude: 161m

Max Altitude: 239m

Cmumulative Climb: 301m

Distance: 7.6 Km

Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Weather: Sunny, wind: n/a, 68-72 deg F.