Road Trips and Hike Reports

This was just a leg stretcher on our drive between Cornwall, Ontario and Brian's parents' house in Derby, Vermont.  The trail was very enjoyable and mostly stayed very close to the Rivière Saint-Louis. Since it's freakishly warm this Christmas trip, temps were hovering about freezing which is very warm for Quebec at the end of December.  There were icy sections where some recent rainfall had frozen but no snow to speak of.

This was an unusual hike in that it was suburban and close to home but over 5 miles long.  We’d never been to and I had never even heard of Gosnell Big Woods Preserve but it came up on AllTrails and seemed like a good way to get a satisfying hike without a long drive.  We’re traveling to Vermont next weekend so extra driving didn’t seem like a great idea especially since it was supposed to rain later in the day.  On the way we tried eating at Original Steve’s Diner in Penfield.  They are opening a Steve’s in Victor and I was curious to see what we can look forward to. This hike had a variety of terrains from nearly flat creekside trail to woodsy and undulating with some intriguing hills with dips and little valleys.

We've walked around Turning Point park before.  The walkway out over the river is amazing. This time we started at the spot where we usually turn around after starting at Turning Point.  We also went farther South along the greenway towards Lake ave.  It was a satisfying walk without the long drive we usually have to get to our hikes.

I thought this was a trail we hadn't done before.  It turned out when we got there, it was someplace we had been and as we did the long rainy hike, we realized we've probably been twice before.  We drove nearly 2 hours to get to this hike because even as it was raining on us throughout the hike this afternoon, the weather forecast for Franklinville showed only early morning and after dark precipitation.  This did not remotely line up with what we experienced in the forest. This was the wettest, most mucky and muddy hike we've done in years.  It was just slippery and wet almost all the way.  Sometimes the rain let up to a bare sprinkle and sometimes the ground was reasonably well drained.  Most of the time it was coming down at least a bit and much of the trail was puddled and splashy.  The only saving factor was that the leaves mostly covered up the mud which made it less messy.  I did fall once onto a knee and there were a few other close calls where I could have done a fu

My Dad's flight out of KC was at 6:05 am. So we did our best to get to bed before 8 pm on Friday night.  We were awake slightly before our 3 am alarm time.  We got to the airport before 4 am so my Dad certainly had plenty of time to navigate through it.  I headed East on I-435 from the airport then south on MO-291 and South on I-470 until I got to US-50.  I then stayed on US-50 all the way through Missouri until it dumps onto I-44 in the far Western suburbs of Saint Louis.  To get around STL I took I-44 East to I-270 and eventually I-255 and finally a few miles on I-64 until that road crossed US-50.  Then I drove all of IL and IN on US-50 East. I had hoped to make it as far as Cincinatti OH before calling it a night Saturday but as it started to get dark, my 13 hours of being awake with a short night of sleep the night before suddenly seemed like plenty even though I still had a few dozen miles of Indiana left before entering Ohio.  I stayed in the small city of North Vernon Indian