Easter Adventure

Well today we were able to get out of the house for a little bit of a walk at McConnell Springs and onto Preston's Springs Park. Preston's Springs Park features a cave from which the waters that enter the Final Sink at McConnell Springs exit the subterranean world for the final time. Interesting little site that is seldom visited by anyone outside of the surrounding Cardinal Valley neighborhood. It would be interesting to see how far back that cave goes. However, there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of room between the water and the ceiling of the cave, making for some dangerous conditions. Anyway, it was good to get out of the house for some adventure and good to have Noelle's mom accompany us on the trip.

Land Between the Lakes and Fort Donelson National Battlefield

Spring break started with a bang, well actually snow. We got about four and a half inches of the white stuff. It's the most we've seen since we've been in Kentucky. It did, however, melt within about two days and by the time we were ready for our road trip to Land Between the Lakes the snow was gone. The trip was nice. We especially liked Fort Donelson National Battlefield where we saw a great horned owl

and a bald eagle

and experienced the sights of one of the most important, yet least known, battles of the Civil War.

After Fort Donelson, we moved north into Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The recreation area was pleasant, but not really all that exciting. We did get to see some bison

and elk (in a pen), and lots of birds.

The most interesting part of the recreation area, however, was the Homeplace, a restored village from around the 1850s.

Our days there provided a much needed shot of adventure!

Natural Bridge State Park: Arches Weekend

Ahhh, nothing like a little adventure in Kentucky's Land of the Arches to get the blood flowing. Arches Weekend 2008 was again a success. A good time was had by all (except for the mother and daughter who couldn't even make it up the Original Trail to Natural Bridge). Eric led trips to Turtle Back/Rock Bridge/Bear Pen Still, and White's Branch/Twilight Arches. Noelle led a trip to Suzanna's Arch and drove the van for Schoolhouse Branch/Crescent Arches trip. Saturday evening featured a wonderful evening program about the arches of the Big South Fork area given by the Fife brothers, two well known arch seekers from western Kentucky. We're already looking forward to Arches Weekend 2009!

Microadventure at Cove Springs Park

I've been really busy lately with both work and school taking up a good portion of my time. When you add in eating and sleeping, even less time is left for my adventure lifestyle. Today I had planned on using my day off to do some school work and run various errands. However, it was just too damn nice outside to spend my whole day working so I decided to go on a quick little adventure, what one might call a "microadventure". I packed up my camera and a water bottle and hopped in the car for a quick drive to Frankfort and one of the coolest little city parks I've been to, Cove Springs Park.

There I got the chance to do a little hiking (in the mud), and check out some interesting springs and little waterfalls.

It was a much deserved break from the monotony of school work and helped to recharge my batteries. I feel I'm a much happier person and more productive after one of these quick jaunts. I'm probably a bit healthier too.

Carter Caves State Park: Crawlathon 2008

While caving used to be an adventure that Noelle and Eric would participate in quite frequently, lately it's become a once a year endeavor. This was our weekend to go caving at nearby Carter Caves State Resort Park. Noelle participated in the event as a staff member while Eric got to play and go on some cave trips for fun. He was wise this year in that he chose trips where participants stayed dry. The trips included a hike in the Tygarts Creek Gorge to three different caves, the most impressive of which is called Skyscraper Cave. In addition this trip visited a large limestone natural bridge. The second trip visited Wilburn Cave, an interesting dry crawl that reminded Eric of some of his trips into Wind Cave. Today Eric went on his final trip to the interesting stream passages of Sandy Cave. Altogether, a good weekend of adventure was had!

Snow in Kentucky (A real adventure)

Well it snowed a little bit this morning. When I say a little bit I mean a little bit. However, here in Kentucky the populace reacts to snow a little bit differently then people in most of the rest of the United States. We got a dusting and people were freaking out. Some schools have even canceled classes for tomorrow and more snow is NOT in the forecast. It's actually a bit pathetic. On the positive side it allowed the opportunity to get some nice photos of my place of work McConnell Springs Park in the snow.

Big South Fork NRRA: Charit Creek Lodge

Do you smell that? Well do you? That smell in the air, it's called adventure. To be honest we haven't smelled it too much lately, but I can detect a slight waft of it in the air. Being busy people, with both work and school, Noelle and I haven't had the chance to get out for as many adventures as we would like. However, we recently had the opportunity to make it out to the Big South Fork NRRA for my birthday for a little bit of hiking and a stay in the Charit Creek Lodge.
The stay was awesome.

We were the only ones there for the night

and the food was really good. For dinner the first night we had chicken, greens, fried sweet potatoes, corn bread, beans, and ice cream with bananas for desert. The next morning for breakfast we enjoyed pancakes, eggs, ham, and grits. Our plates were overflowing with food and I ate a lot. When we weren't eating we were hiking. We explored Pickett State Park and visited its Natural Bridge.
We also hiked to the O&W Bridge at BSF.

Overall, a great start to our adventure filled year!