Category: Hiking/Running/Caving

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller     Expedition Date: September 16, 2019

Rosie and I camped at the Stanton, Missouri KOA and toured Meramec Caverns just off Route 66 where Jesse James and his brother Frank once hid out after robbing a train. The caverns, a 4.6 mile cave system opened in the 1930’s, were beautiful with colored stalactites, rock formations, underground spring, a 50 ft. by 50 ft. ballroom & a consistent temperature of 58 degrees.
Brief Jesse James Cave History: Jesse & Frank escaped Meramec Cavern through a water filled passageway and out the back of the cave. At Loot Rock, four items (lantern, two parts of a rifle & a strongbox dating to the Gadshill, Missouri train robbery) were found. Jesse had been familiar with the cave since back in the Civil War as his gang of Confederates in 1864 raided a squad of Union soldiers who were mining the cave to make explosives.
In 17 years, the Jesse James gang robbed more than a quarter of a million dollars from banks, stage coaches and trains. He was shot in the back and killed in 1882 by Bob Ford, a fellow gang member, whom collected the reward money. However, a man in Lawton, Oklahoma named Frank Dalton claimed to be the real Jesse James and lived to be 103 years old Photo #11). Do you think he looks like young Jesse (Photo#12).

Expedition Team: Nick Kelly, Jacque Kelly, Dave Miller, Holly Eller, Justin Eller
Expedition Team: 2017 & August 3, 2019

This is an astounding Roadside Attraction. It’s not a normal zip line because after the first test zip line, the remainder are in the dark cave. Holly & Justin joined me the first time with Jacque & Nick joining me two years later. The Louisville Mega Cavern, is a former limestone mine that extends under the Louisville Zoo and the Waterson Expressway. Year around temperature is 58 degrees. Nine zips total plus a Indiana Jones like swaying walking bridge across a deep gorge which is quite challenging. We highly recommend it.

Expedition Team:  Jacque Kelly, Dave Miller                                                                                    Expedition Date:  April 2018

The week we were in Athens, twice Jacque and I hiked a wooded trail, one of Athens seven hills called Mt. Lycabettus. It was a 908 foot hike up the moderate to strenuous trail to the summit where the Chapel of St. George and a restaurant were located. Photo#1 shows a unique modern art of a person jogging and in the top right corner is the Chapel way up on top of the mountain.  Photos#3 & #4 show Jacque leading the way up the mostly wooded trail.

The Chapel of St. George sits atop the summit of the trail which is the highest point in Athens.  The whitewashed Orthodox Chapel, built in the 19th century, has a beautiful bell tower (Photo#5) and is surrounded at the base by pine trees.

On one morning hike I helped a 90 year old woman clean up the grounds around the chapel. On the second hike Jacque followed (stalked) a group of soldiers who, twice on a daily basis, made the trek in order to raise and lower the Greek flag by the chapel (Photo#6).

I have to admit, by the bell tower on the summit you have the best panoramic views overlooking all of Athens (Page #7 & #8).

Discovered an ancient olive tree on the hike down (Photo#9). We had to stop and could not cross the street to our hotel as a half mile log group supporting the communist party protested down the street because USA had just bombed Syria. Our hotel was in lock down since many Americans were staying there.  Surprise – on the hiking trail we ran into Hall of Fame Horror Movie Host “The Creeper” who was also vacationing in Greece (Photo#11).

Hiking Team: Rosie Miller, Dave Miller
Hiking Date: June????20????

To celebrate our 30th??? anniversary, we spent a week at a Sandals resort near Fort Rodney, St. Lucia in the south Caribbean. Hiking the famous world heritage site Pitons was our #1 goal.

THE PITONS: The Pitons are two volcanic plugs or large lava domes located by the small town of Soufriere on the western coast. The Gros Piton is 2,530 feet high (90 feet higher than the Petit Piton). Scientists have recorded 148 plant species, 27 bird species and 8 rare tree species on Gros Piton.

THE HIKE: The van ride through the winding St. Lucia roads took 1 hour 45 minutes to travel 32 miles. Rosie got car sick. The driver stopped the van, took his machete and cut a coconut from a tree in the rain forest. He made Rosie drink the juice and she immediately got better. Good native medicine. The small town of Soufriere was quaint and hundreds of grade school children were cute wearing their Catholic uniforms. A small village was at the base of the Pitons. We waved and spoke to several families with cute small children with big smiles. Our group consisted of three native guides and 12 hikers.
The strenuous trail up Gros Piton began at sea level and climbed all 2,500 feet. Hiking up the mountain side was very tough, steep and rocky going up. Half way up the rocks turned to a dirt trail. Hiking through the trail we were surrounded by rain forest conditions and 90 degree temperature. I carried a backpack with water and cliff bars. A large tarantula scampered across the trail in front of us. At the summit the visibility was breathtaking. You could look east and see the island of Barbados. It was a very treacherous and challenging decent along the trail but worth every ache and pain. The whirlpool, the swimming pool and a few drinks back at the resort restored us.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Rosie Miller                                                                                    Expedition Date:   July 1, 2018

After hiking Kenai Fjords National Park, we drove on toward Seward, Alaska.  A fatal car accident stopped all traffic for one hour.  Being the only road to Seward we were stuck.  We took a walk and at one isolated house we saw some unique yard art including a stuffed man.  Once traffic began we drove to Portage Glacier.  Rosie along with Marsha from Switzerland took a ride on the Portage Glacier Cruise around the large lake.  The remainder of the group and I hiked the Trail of Blue Ice in the Chugach National Forest, a two mile trail trail where, at the end, you could see the glacier in the distance.  The trail (Photo#5-#8) gave us scenic opportunities to take photos of snowy mountains reflecting off the water and small artistic shaped icebergs floating in the lake.

By 7pm we finally arrived at the coastal city of Seward.  Pioneers settled here in the 1890’s and the town was incorporated in 1912.  Work began around this time to  build the Alaskan Railroad.  Seward is nicknamed the “Mural Capital of Alaska” which were seen on many buildings (Photo#9).  We spent the night at Murphy’s Alaskan Motel, two blocks from the wharf.  Dinner was salmon and hot soup at a restaurant while watching sea lions  (Photo#10) float in the harbor.

Expedition Team: Jacque Kelly, Rosie Miller, Justin Eller, Holly Miller, Dave Miller
Date: September 15, 2018

The 5K Run course took us through downtown, out onto a trail between the floodwall (with beautiful, historical painted murals) and the Ohio River and then through the Tue-Endie-Wei State Park past Chief Cornstock’s grave .  All four of us runners placed in our respective age groups: Holly and Dave finished in second place; Justin and Jacque finished in third place.  Holly was the 3rd place overall female runner in the entire race.   I was so happy that I won a medal as this was my last running race as my cancer came back five weeks later.

Expedition Team:  Rosie Miller, Dave Miller                                                                                    Expedition Date:   August 2017

We hiked a 1.1 mile trail north of the marina and beach area.  As dusk approached we headed to the beach area as a thousand people were parked or had tents to observe the annual meteor shower.  The concession stand was open, they showed a Star Wars movie, an astronomy club had telescopes set up and we got to view the planet Saturn.  We did something we had never done before, we camped out in the back of the pickup truck.  We had a large air mattress, sleeping bags and blankets.  We laid there and looked up at the stars.  Unfortunately, there happened to be a full moon night which brightened the sky more than normal so we only saw a couple of meteors around 10 to 11pm.  We learned one important fact about camping in the bed of the truck, dew.  When we woke up the next morning the outer layer of our sleeping bags and our faces were covered in dew.  Still it was a fun experience.

Expedition Team:  Nick Kelly, Jacque Kelly, Dave Miller, Rosie Miller                                  Expedition Date:  July 2017

After hiking the Natural Bridge and having lunch outdoors at Miguels Pizza, a local popular pizza place, Nick drove us to the National Forest where they had over a dozen trails.  Nick led us on the Auxier Ridge Trail, a 5 mile moderate, challenging trail that led us up to a high plateau with a tight trail and a long drop if were not careful.  Along the flat, high summit, you had a majestic view of the area and could see a smaller natural bridge in the distance.  Nick did his Luke Skywalker impersonation by jumping across two rocks and it looked like he was walking on air.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Rosie Miller                                                                                    Expedition Date:   May 5 & 6, 2018

We camped at the state park campground and attended the Ohio Bigfoot Conference.  But we were mainly there to try out our new travel trailer and to hike.  It was Amish country as we talked to several Amish who were fishing, kayaking and playing in the park.  One Amish man had modified his buggy to hold his kayak and fishing gear (Photo#2).  The trails were nice and diverse.  The state park has been the site for several Bigfoot sightings so I kept my camera handy as we hiked four trails.

The Morgan’s Knob Loop Trail, a one mile trail, was our favorite with both hilly, wooded and challenging terrain.  We saw dozens of chipmunks and a few deer.   The two mile Shadbush Trail was more hilly but shady.

The Hosaks Cave Trail also one mile, had a dangerous upper trail above a small waterfall and cave (Photo#6 & #7).  Another trail lead us a rugged 1.8 mile loop to the Stone House Museum and the Kennedy House, early pioneers whose house built in 1837 from locally quarried stone overlooked Sugar Tree Fork.  A strange lean-to made of tree branches and sticks looked like a Bigfoot cabin (Photo#9).

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Nick Kelly, Jacque Kelly, Holly Miller        Expedition Dates:  March 2018

We hiked four times in March at Germantown Metropark.  Winter hiking on the 7.5 mile Orange Trail is fun but right after snow melt or rain some of the trail by Twin Creek or on the steep hills are wet and slippery.  One creek crossing was very slippery as Holly fell down and got muddy (Photo#5).  Genius Nick bypassed the creek and went overhead on a tree limb (Photo#6).  We saw a few turtles on the trail and a large animal print which turned out not to be a sasquatch print.  Someone had left a large unique hiking stick behind.  From the looks of the stick it might have been Moses.  We noticed another pair of hiking sticks leaning up against the restroom.  I wonder who was in there?