Moonlight hike, Knobstone Trail at Deam Lake, Friday, 4 Dec.: Ten people did this hike by the light of the full moon after dinner at Neil's Place.
Sat., 5 Dec.: No info.
Lick Creek Trail (Little Africa), 6 Dec.: Anne C. led 16 hikers (1 new) to this area of the Hoosier National Forest near Chambersburg, Indiana the rest of us had never been to. Three hiked about 3.5 miles and the other 13 did that plus about 4 miles more. Only later did we learn that we almost completed a loop. About 11 ate at Pizza Hut in Paoli.
Sally Brown and Palisades Nature Preserves, 13 Dec.: Only 5 people (1 new) showed on this dreary, wet morning. Jim G. led us on hikes at these two nature preserves near Nicholasville, Ky. We did the loop of maybe 2.5 mi. along the Kentucky River opposite part of the Palisades at the Nature Conservancy's Sally Brown Nature Preserve, in a light mist, then drove down the road to the State's Palisades Nature Preserve, where we hiked about two miles in varying rates of light rain along another part of the Palisades. Four of us ate back in Louisville at the Bluegrass Brewing Company.
Jefferson County Mem. Forest, 20 Dec.: Despite the dreary damp weather, 12 people came on this hike. We decided to do the Siltsone Trail rather than the McConnell loop to avoid mud and simplify the logistics. We did about 6 miles out and back. We didn't eat afterward since most of us were going to the Christmas party a couple of hours later.
The Christmas party at Barbara's was great, with about 33 people. We had lots of good food, our usual gift exchange game, carol singing and plenty of conversing. Some nice hikers gave your website editor some extra gifts, for some reason.
Charlestown State Park, 27 Dec.: We had planned to go up to Brown County State Park, but the majority of the 9 people who showed didn't want to go that far, and the others didn't care. So Larry led us on a hike in Charlestown State Park to the site of the old Rose Island amusement park. It was a long (at least 8, maybe 10 miles) and interesting hike. We saw an ice-coated Fourteenmile Creek, cliffs, big trees, beaver work, a fox carcass, the ruins of Rose Island, an old trash heap, a deer carcass, old explosives-testing buildings, and a park ranger and a state conservation officer, who issued us all warnings for trespassing. Apparently, even though the area where we were hiking is part of the state park, it is not open to the public--so don't go there.
We didn't hike on the 31st, but we had a New Year's Eve party at Bryan's house, with 20-something people in all (arriving at different times). We had lots of food and good beverages and interesting conversation.
http://members.iglou.com/frazar/hike/log199812.html, 01 Jan 1999