- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Messages
- 945
Went out for a short hike yesterday but forgot the camera so I don't have any pics. 
The destination was a little loop trail that lies in between the White River and the Central Canal just north of 38th st. here in Indianapolis. In general I'm pretty tired of the short trails and dinky parks around the city but I haven't been able to get out of town for a good wilderness hike lately so I make due with what I have available. That having been said, this turned out to be a nice hike with not too many folks out on the trail and rugged enough that when the sound of the river was loud enough to drown out the sounds of traffic on nearby roads I could almost imagine that I was out of the city. Given the location of the trail between the river and the canal, and circling a small lake, I half expected the trail to be under water with all of the flood warnings we've been having, but it turned out to be almost entirely passable. There was one large channel of water open between the river and the lake which made it impossible to go completely around the lake (without getting soaked) but that was it.
I took a full pack even though it was a short trail. I just wanted to feel like I was heading out somewhere more remote. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge negotiating some parts of the trail with a pack on. There were lots of narrowly spaced trees and vines and undergrowth that I had to make my way through, and that was on the trail! There was one place where I had to leave the trail to avoid wading through water and that was even more challenging. I ended up taking the pack off and carrying it in my hands in a couple of places.
I stopped near the point where the trail became impassable and tried out my Fiskars folding saw that I hadn't really used 'till today, and practiced (played) with the Fiskars hatchet that I've had for a while. On stuff up to about wrist thick I liked the saw, but anything bigger was handled better by the hatchet, and I still prefer the hatchet even for the smaller stuff as long as there's room to swing it. I tried using a wooden wedge to split a log which I chopped off of a tree that had been felled by a beaver, and it worked quite well. I'd heard that it could be done but never tried it myself. I made a small fire and made a package of ramen noodles for lunch, but I had forgotten to bring an eating utensil so I used my Mora 521 to whittle chopsticks which worked perfectly. I didn't want to spend the time to make a spoon, and chopsticks were really better suited for the food at hand anyway. I also used the Mora to make shavings and fuzz sticks for the fire. My Vic Camper and Spyderco Delica never came out of my pockets.
Sorry I didn't get any pics, but I'll probably be hiking this trail again sometime soon and I'll try to remember the camera so I can get some pics of some of the cool twisty vines and any use of blades and practicing of skills that I do along the way.
-Chris
The destination was a little loop trail that lies in between the White River and the Central Canal just north of 38th st. here in Indianapolis. In general I'm pretty tired of the short trails and dinky parks around the city but I haven't been able to get out of town for a good wilderness hike lately so I make due with what I have available. That having been said, this turned out to be a nice hike with not too many folks out on the trail and rugged enough that when the sound of the river was loud enough to drown out the sounds of traffic on nearby roads I could almost imagine that I was out of the city. Given the location of the trail between the river and the canal, and circling a small lake, I half expected the trail to be under water with all of the flood warnings we've been having, but it turned out to be almost entirely passable. There was one large channel of water open between the river and the lake which made it impossible to go completely around the lake (without getting soaked) but that was it. I took a full pack even though it was a short trail. I just wanted to feel like I was heading out somewhere more remote. It turned out to be a bit of a challenge negotiating some parts of the trail with a pack on. There were lots of narrowly spaced trees and vines and undergrowth that I had to make my way through, and that was on the trail! There was one place where I had to leave the trail to avoid wading through water and that was even more challenging. I ended up taking the pack off and carrying it in my hands in a couple of places.
I stopped near the point where the trail became impassable and tried out my Fiskars folding saw that I hadn't really used 'till today, and practiced (played) with the Fiskars hatchet that I've had for a while. On stuff up to about wrist thick I liked the saw, but anything bigger was handled better by the hatchet, and I still prefer the hatchet even for the smaller stuff as long as there's room to swing it. I tried using a wooden wedge to split a log which I chopped off of a tree that had been felled by a beaver, and it worked quite well. I'd heard that it could be done but never tried it myself. I made a small fire and made a package of ramen noodles for lunch, but I had forgotten to bring an eating utensil so I used my Mora 521 to whittle chopsticks which worked perfectly. I didn't want to spend the time to make a spoon, and chopsticks were really better suited for the food at hand anyway. I also used the Mora to make shavings and fuzz sticks for the fire. My Vic Camper and Spyderco Delica never came out of my pockets.
Sorry I didn't get any pics, but I'll probably be hiking this trail again sometime soon and I'll try to remember the camera so I can get some pics of some of the cool twisty vines and any use of blades and practicing of skills that I do along the way.
-Chris