Sounds of the Desert

In attendance and in order of appearance in picture below (members from OhioBPH Yahoo Group): Row 1 (L-R) Green Hornet (Ben), Gabriel, Marilyn (Dog), Gabby (Lisa), Ms Doolittle (Cheryl); Row 2 (L-R) Gigger (Cathy), Diane, Paulie, The Pope (Jim), Dave, and Julia.

Picture link at bottom.

It’s Friday afternoon and I’m counting down the minutes until I can leave work. I’m heading out at 3pm to meet up with Gabby and the Pope in Dayton so we can head to The Blackwell Campground in the Deam Wilderness to meet up with Ben and Paul. We’ll be camping among the horses, the cowboys, rednecks and hillbillies tonight. It was an interesting evening. Everything was still wet from the 2 days of rain that was received previous to Friday.

We got there just as it was getting dark. So, we pitched tents and started gathering wood. We sat around getting acquainted with each other and it got to be about midnight. Our neighbors became pretty entertaining. Hillbilly Bob (as Gabby so lovingly referred to him as) began making prank phone calls to people in his phone book. Gabby made a comment that was meant for him to hear and this became his invitation to come over to our camp.

He thought he was a pretty funny guy. Lemme tell ya, he told every racist joke out there, except for redneck jokes.  He didn’t leave our camp until probably around 2am when we started edging toward our tents.

The horsemen were up late, or early, depending on how you look at it. I don’t think it quieted down until around 3:30 or later. I do know that one drunk horseman got on his horse and decided he was going to go riding. He was daring someone to get on the back and the next thing I hear is him hitting the pavement.  He must have been okay because there was no real panic, just a lot of asking if he was okay.

So, we wake up to horses huffing and whinnying the next morning at about 7 am. Everyone was due to start arriving at around 10 am and we’d be hitting the trail. Everyone that signed up for the trip showed up. Our only maybe, Camp Hilton, didn’t make it, but we left him a map on Gigger’s (Cathy’s new trail name) car for him just in case.

We headed out on the Grubb Ridge Trail going counter clockwise. This is a fairly easy hike, but there are a lot of horses and the trail is pretty torn up. I was having some issues with overheating.  It was a warm and muggy day for sure. We took a lunch break once we hit the intersection of the Axom Branch trail.

We head onto the Axom Branch trail and start heading down into a beautiful gorge. I immediately start thinking about the climb that was sure to follow.  This hike was very pretty as once you got into the bottom of the gorge, the trail followed a stream and crossed on a few occasions. A perfect opportunity to get my bandana wet and cool off.  But sure enough, 2 miles later, the impending switchbacks that led up to the next ridge appeared. Remember me speaking of my overheating spells? This part was grueling for me. Heat exhaustion was starting to set in. 

We finally got to the top where the trail intersects with the Terill Ridge trail which leads to the campsite at the end. As we’re on the forest service road, I’m bringing up the rear. I can see there is some sort of commotion up ahead and turns out I just missed a copperhead sighting. Apparently Gigger had a near miss. 

Our campsite for the night is near a cemetery that was being guarded by locals for the Memorial Day weekend. Gigger and Diane were “kindly” told that the campsites were in another direction. So, we find the pond that would be home for the night.

We set up our tents and are in dire need of filtering water but were seriously questioning our water source, the pond. They don’t call them filter killers for nothing. But, filter we did and clog we did. Gabby, I need to help you clean your filter out or buy you a replacement since we used yours that night. 

We gathered wood and sat down for dinner and got to know one another. The group dynamic was great. It was cool to get to know everyone. A very important part of the story is how Cathy got her trail name. Some guys nearby were frog gigging and Cathy knew alllll about giggin’. She was offering all sorts of tips to them. She was very helpful. Henceforth, she will be called ‘Gigger’.

Once it got dark, the tree frogs started coming out and all the pond was a chorus of frogs. We ran around looking for tree frogs and Ben tried to catch other types of frogs, while trying not to get leeches.  When we got back to camp, we found everyone had headed off to bed. We made sure the fire was out and crawed into our tents as well. I was sung to sleep by the chorus of frogs tonight.

I was awakened at about 2am when I ran my hand over my neck and felt something strange there. Ugh… What the hell? Yes, I got my first tick!  Ugly little parasites!! So, I was paranoid for the rest of the night and didn’t sleep very well. Ben did not do his job as I was told that he would attract every tick around.  Hmmmmm……

Next morning, we eat, get packed up and take a quick group shot. Today we would be hiking back the same way back to Grubb Ridge and continue counter clockwise on Grubb Ridge. Going was much easier today. I didn’t take my water pill last night which seemed to make a world of difference along with doing the crazy uphill when it was still cool.

We hiked on the Grubb Ridge until we reached the Peninsula Trail and a decision had to be made. Either we’d be going down 2.6 miles to the lake and camping there or heading on about 1.5 miles to camp at Patton Cave. At this point, the group split up. Gabby, Pope, Gabriel, Diane and Marilyn would go onto the lake to camp and swim. The rest of us headed on to find the cave.

About an hour later we found the side trail (not marked on the maps) that would take us to the cave and campsites on top of it. Another 20 minutes and we found the campsites. The cave was found in a cliff directly below us. The guys and Julia went down to the cave right away to cool off and start filter water. I rested for a bit and waited for someone to come back up so I could go with them back down to it. Ben came up to get his flash light, I grabbed my filter, bandana and camera and we headed down.



The cave was incredible. It was about 50* and a welcome feeling when I entered it. I looked around the big room a bit and checked it out. Paul and Ben crawled through to the next big room to check it out. I sat and soaked up the coolness for a bit, filtered water and headed back up to set up camp and collect firewood. We ate dinner and checked out the exit of the cave which is tiny.

Tonight would be an early night and we’d fall asleep to the sounds of the wipperwills and owls. I heard coyotes twice in the night as well. I always welcome that sound. 

Next morning, we ate breakfast and got packed up. Ben and I headed back down to the cave one more time. We knew we could get a tad later start as the other group had about a 6 or 7 mile hike out (compared to our 4 mile hike out) and were planning on bushwhacking part of it. We headed down at about 9 and Dave came looking for us at about 10am.  It’s really easy to lose track of time in there. We headed back up to the campsite and got back on the trail at 10:30 am.

The hike out was uneventful. The trail was pretty tore up from the weekend of horses.  It made for some difficult hiking in places, but we made it back to Blackwell at about 1:15pm.

What a great weekend we had. The heat and humidity were a small price to pay.

Things I learned:
•I will never, ever take my water pill again before I plan to hike 
•I love my crocks more now than ever! 
•To make sure that EVERY area of my body is covered in bug juice 
•Ben really likes reptiles and amphibians 
•Gabby is still gabby 
•The Pope can’t walk on water 

Pictures are here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/550907418iWzvmr