Hiking Team: Dave Miller
Date: February 19 & 21, 2021
I hike this 1.1 mile historical trail down and back several times per week. Adding a mountain bike loop on the opposite ridge gives me a the total trek of 3 miles. It is an easy to moderate trail entirely in the woods and leads to a cliff ridge overlooking the Great Miami River. At this cliff in 1899 the Wright Brothers would picnic here and watch the large birds fly on the updrafts. At this location while watching how the birds utilized their wings, Wilbur Wright came up with their wing warp idea for airplanes. A creek 50 to 80 feet below snakes between this trail another ridge (Photo#1).
This was my second hike in three days after a six inch snow making the hike quite a workout. Animal tracks were plentiful (Photo #2, 3 & 4). I saw rabbit, deer and fox tracks but no sasquatch evidence . The snowy landscape with the creek meandering through it was beautiful. At the south turnaround point the wind blowing up the cliff face was brisk and chilly. At the northern and middle section of the winding trail I noticed red blood spots in some of the tracks on my first day (Photo#5).
On my second expedition on the trail I saw a female deer across the stream on the west ridge. On the way back near mile 1.5, I saw a deer walking through the trees about 25 yards to the left in front of me. We both froze. As I maneuvered for a photo it ran off down the ridge then stopped below (Photo#6 & 7). I noticed it was running using just three legs. I found the deer’s hoof prints in the snow and backtracked it’s trail. After about 50 yards I saw a round depression in the snow where the deer may have lay down. There was a larger mass of red in the snow. It seems that this deer hurt one of its legs in recent days and the wound is still fresh.
