1.5 + 5 mile hikes: Turkey Run State Park

Throughout November and December, Jeff had been working long days trying to finish a big contract for his work. It was due at the end of the year, so we booked a couple of nights in the Inn at Turkey Run State Park for the first of the year. The last time we had been there was during our attempted bicycle trip from St. Louis around Lake Michigan in 2012, one of the hottest summers on record. We'd been on the road only a week at that point, but heat, calorie deficits, and no room at the inn meant that we'd been unhappy campers when we arrived that summer. The restaurant's buffet and the inn's WiFi revived us on that trip, but we'd still been disappointed to not get to stay overnight in the air conditioned rooms, so we decided now was the time to go!

We arrived Jan. 1 and did a quick 1.5 mile jaunt on a couple of trails near the inn while we waited for the restaurant to open for dinner.

I'll take a brisk day with icicles over the kind of heat we had during that summer 2012 trip, but when we woke up the next morning, it was much colder than brisk and about 4" of snow had fallen, with more on the way. Temps were in the teens, which wasn't too bad if you were out of the wind.

After many years of trying, I have finally convinced Jeff of the utility of things like hats and puffy coats. He borrowed them from me for this hike and is finally willing to consider getting his own. I layered up in my long-sleeved micro-weight Icebreaker merino wool shirt, thrift store long-sleeved button up, and Ghost Whisperer wind anorak and stayed warm enough as long as we kept moving.

We went up one of the hollows but eventually decided to turn back because the trail was in a stream and we didn't want to get soaking wet feet when it was this cold.

Instead, we headed back to the flat trails along the river and went out to a covered bridge built in 1883 on one side of the river and came back to the inn on the other side. Snow was still falling, and we were ready to get back to our warm room, so we hiked fast on the way back.

I'm glad we ventured out even though it was pretty cold. The pack I carried helped keep me warm, but we were happy to spend the rest of the day at the inn playing in the game room and having dinner in the restaurant. I also spent part of the evening annotating the SHT maps with information from the guidebook to make them more useable, but more on that later :)