Thursday 4-18-24 Humid Day, Natural Tunnel Trail & Having Fun

 

Picnic shelter built by the CCC

We had a hot humid day. The low was 65 degrees and the high was 85 degrees and humidity was 57%. The morning temperature was in the 60's.

I woke up at 7:15 and made cinnamon french toast sticks for breakfast. Then we got ready to go on another hike. We unloaded the motorcycle and started it. Today our hike is at the far end of the park by the nature center. The trail was The Natural Tunnel Trail. There are two trails, a green and blue. The green is 2.75 mile round trip and the blue one goes to the tunnel and back, round trip 8 miles. We started on the blue trail, which took us up the side of the hill, down the hill and through creeks. The trail was challenging because you have to hike over rocks, rocky creek beds and natural things in trail (roots and rocks). When we climbed up the hill it was steep by the time we got on top of the hill we had to rest to catch our breath. The direction we were hiking we didn't catch the breeze until on the way back. We had hiked 2 miles to the connector trail, we could either go to the left, which took you to the natural tunnel (1.8 miles) or to the right, which took you back to the parking lot (1.6). There was a bench there so we decided to rest a bit before going back to the parking lot. After we rested we took it to the right. While we hiked we saw a lot of small butterflies, four turtles, a turkey and heard a lot of birds enjoying the weather. We saw the turkey when we stopped to check out a tree, that had grown around a barbed wire fence. We scared it out of its hiding place and it flew in front of us. It was a big turkey. The turtles we saw were on the trail. Their heads were sticking out more than the other day when we saw them. One Larry saw walking across the trail and up the hill. When we got to it, it was hiding the trees. We walked through one of the creek beds and saw beautiful rock formations and a cave that was created by the creek. The trail came out by the cabins and fishing area on Bennett Spring. By the time we got back to the motorcycle we were hot and tired we had hiked 4.5 miles total. Our hike was very pretty through the forest and up hills. We had a great hike.

 

One of the turtles we saw

 

A natural cave

 

A rock formation

 

Bennett Spring 

As we were riding back to the campground we noticed there were a lot more people fishing today. The ride back cooled us off.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing with a book. I played my Daily Challenge of Solitaire and event. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games (3 Klondikes and 3 Tri Peaks). It took me 10 minutes and 59 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group.

After lunch we went over and took showers. Two days ago they put up signs indicating something had gone wrong with the water system causing the pressure to drop and there was a chance the water may have become contaminated and you should boil your water. They sent samples out to be tested and today they removed the signs so the water's ok. 

After dinner I walked around for a half hour to get my steps finished. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.