Moraine State Park - Pennsylvania

I have only recently found the North Country Trail (NCT).  This trail starts in North Dakota and stretches to Vermont. Its does this via and actual dedicated trail and via roadways. Here are a few websites if you want to know more.  https://nct.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=247bfb7befd64180a4471533b937ec25&extent=-80.9868,39.8497,-77.4766,42.4751

https://northcountrytrail.org/

I first encountered a section of the NCT here in Ohio. The trail sections I have encountered have been more remote and take more effort to hike than other trails. The effort is what makes it all worth it. The volunteers they have working on this trail system do an amazing job.

So, back to my hike on the NCT. I was looking at challenging myself physically and mentally with a hike this summer. I looked through to start with utilizing AllTrails found here https://www.alltrails.com/.

After hiking on the NCT in Beaver Creek State Park I wanted to see if I can find other sections in Pennsylvania and in New York. I found several sections of the NCT, but one stood out to me.

This section would be in the Moraine State Park 

This park is in Portersville, Pennsylvania and is big enough to get away from most of the people. Lake Arthur is in the park. This sees heavy boat traffic and a lot of people in the summer.

The NCT trail section here has plenty of elevation deviation. I ascended and descended through out the hike 3300 feet.  As you can see in the graphic below it is quite the roller coaster ride. There were only two climbs and descents that were tough I thought.

I also wanted to mention I don’t think a lot of people out there are used to this, let me explain. When you get into an area that has a trail that goes up and down for several hundred feet these trails become rivers and creeks when it rains.

When this happens the dirt and sometimes the smaller rocks get washed away. If you in an area with clay this can be very slippery when wet.  For example, every step you take must be deliberate and caution must be taken.  You will see in the videos water still running down the hills. The creeks and springs were all running strong. I love the sound of running water there is something about it that just makes me feel at peace.

I deliberately chose to go no faster than 2.0 mph on this hike. I wanted to finish the entire length of the trail I laid out in Garmin Basecamp. I had calculated it was 16 miles long.  I place mile marker waypoints along the trail to assist myself to monitor how I was doing.

I would make a conscious effort like at mile 6 to do a system check on myself. I would ask how do I feel? Do I feel hydrated? Am I drinking enough water? How much water do I have left?

Since I do a lot of my activities solo, I need to make sure I do these system checks. Out of the three people I saw on the trail today most of the time I saw no one.

Yes, so please use common sense and be prepared.

I saw only wone deer today and a bevy of hoof prints. The mosquitoes were annoying but as wet as it was it could have been a lot worse.

I saw two interesting birds yesterday. I saw this bird down in Beaver Creek State and along the trail.  The one was an American Redstart. I thought at first it was a mismarked Baltimore Oriole. The next bird I saw I thought I was seeing things. Its body was bright but deep red in color and its wings were black. What I saw was male Scarlet Tanager.

I try and be very aware of animals that I see and hear around me. This was neat to see these two birds. Especially the Red Tanager. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.

This would be one of the highlights of the day. At about mile 16.15 I was ready for the hike to end. I was very hydrated, but my almost 60 yo body was over it. My dogs were barking, and I was done. I call it zombie hiking. This is where your body knows what has to be done to complete the task, but your brain is off! Lol

I hope you enjoyed the write-up and the artwork and be well.

Sonder

Pennsylvania 15.8 Mile hike on 6.21.2025

 

I am headed to Pennsylvania for a 15.8 Mile hike on 6.21.2025

I will be hiking another section of the North Country Trail (NCT).  Between Alltrails and Garmin Basecamp I have laid out the hike.

It is telling me that the ascent and descent will be over 3300 feet. I am going to see how it goes through the hike. I would like to complete it on Saturday.  We will see I have never been there.

I am taking two water bladders with me in my pack. The one bladder is 3 liters and the other is 2 liters. I am only going to carry a total of 4 and not 5.

I have not covered terrain like this since the service and that’s been decades ago.  I will monitor my pace and keep it slow and steady.  Even at a 2-mph pace that’s 7.9 hours! I will pack my head lamp just in case lol “not really funny, but kind of is”.

Be well,

Sonder

Beaver Creek State Park in Ohio

The one thing about hiking is getting there early. This is for several reasons. some of the reasons are to be ahead of everyone, sometimes it's for a photo and I don’t want other bipeds in it, less noise, and now so I can get spiderwebs in my face. The spider webs show me that no animal or human has been on that part of the trail today.  

I arrived at the Beaver Creek State Park parking lot at 0800. This would be my baptism under fire for the new chest pack.   

I would start out with my battery pack today as the prime power source for the GoPro13. The set up worked better than I had hoped.   

I will utilize this set up when fishing in the future.   

I put on a hike together in the park consisting of 13 plus miles. I will be concentrating on the North Country Trail today.  

The trail goes through the state park. I would take it to the west where route 7 reaches.  

This section is not used to a lot. I had my Garmin 64sx and I could reconnoiter to find the trail. Yea this section is where I saw bear scat and believe I heard a bear huff at me. I was on the high ground, and I just kept on trucking.  

The GoPro13 does not do well in low light scenarios. The videos look ok, but I know they could be better. I just wanted to mention that some of the quality is not the best and explain the reason.  

I only saw one person physically on the trail I was hiking today. I think the wet trail and the number of mosquitoes scared a lot of people away.  

On a wildlife note, I saw more rabbits today thanks to seeing them in the wild in a long time. It was nice to see the numbers I did.  

At the start of the hike, it was nearly 70 degrees. With the amount of fog in the valley it was going to be humid and hot. I had three liters of water today.  

I was wearing shorts and long sleeves. I have found that in the hottest conditions that 3 liters will work for me.   

The morning weather was foggy, very foggy. The GoPro had several issues as you can tell when I was under canopy. The pace was ok, I truly could have gone faster, but I would have paid for it dearly on the return loop. I backed off each time I found myself leaning into the hike and swinging my arms.

I notified the NCT folks about the bear. I will do another section of the NCT this week weather dependent.

Be well folks and drink water!

Sonder

Headed out for a 13 miler today

Stay tuned folks I am sure I will have plenty of videos to share.

Sonder

Video Collage

 

Beaver Creek State Park in Ohio

Aerial Photo

I have been here before but only to fish. This was the first time I have ever visited this area.

This is part of the Western Allegheny Plateau and shown here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Plateau

You will find Calcutta, Ohio nestled in Columbiana County. This area is very rural and you will need to plan accordingly because of the lack of infrastructure.

This is not a bad thing and in fact it is a good thing from a visitors point of view.  A person just needs to plan accordingly when visiting the area.

I arrived on Saturday the 7^th of June to an almost empty parking lot.  Beaver Creek was up and muddy and on the drop.

I laid out a trek of 13 miles, but I would end up falling short because of how busy I saw the park when I got back to the parking lot.

I started with the Alltrails (alltrails.com) web site and downloaded a few trails. Then I linked them all together using my Garmin Basecamp program.

During the 11.2-mile hike I would ascend and descend over 1200 feet.

I only saw a few hikers out on this day.  I was a little surprised. I don’t know why it was not as busy on the trails. Most of the people I saw were involved more with the park festivities.

There were a lot of people attending the goings on at Pioneer Village. Here is a link for the park. https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/beaver-creek-state-park

I managed to see two beautiful Barred Owls on this day. They were roosting and I happened to catch them off guard. They flew away but you can clearly see a glimpse of them on the video below. They come and go out of frame quickly.

The terrain I would encounter would go from gravel, rocky, dirt, and spongy dirt under the hemlock trees. This would be a great area in the fall to see wit the mixture of hard woods and conifers.

The bathroom facilities were extremely clean.

One note was nice and never really had an opportunity to hike on single track trails. This means when passing someone, they would need to step off and allow you to pass. This was unique to me and likely another reason I did not see other people on this day.

I hope you enjoy the artwork and the write up.

Be well,

Sonder

A friend and I fly fished in Lake Erie

I can see your eyebrows raised already asking yourself “how can you fly fish Lake Erie?”.

My friend who took me out on Lake Eries is one of the fishiest friends that I have. We fished forty miles on Lake Erie.

My friend’s boat has a lot of bells and whistles. This includes side scan radar that I have never seen used before. The morning started out as a chilly 47 degrees.  The winds were at 4-9 knots and the chop on the lake were at 1 foot.

Our targeting species on this day was to be freshwater drum.  These guys and gals are a hoot on a fly rod. They fight hard and at times they pull drag. The rod setups for open water Lake Erie can vary from 6 weights to 8 weights.  The lines you will need to throw are 250 full sinking lines and a sinking leader that sinks 5 inches / second.  A word of warning is you need to have a decent set of casting skills for this style of fishing. To know how to perform a double haul is going to be key in reaching fish most of the time. Another point about this type of fishing is the more stamina you have for casting 10 straight hours the better shot your going to have at hooking a fish.

The flies we used all had heavy lead dumbbell eyes on them. The tippets we used were 15-pound test fluorocarbon. In this trip we fished areas that he knew could possibly hold fish.

Depending on the wind, waves, and depth of water you will need to switch it up to see which set up is allowing you to keep your fly the deepest in the water column for the longest amount of time.

Other than trolling and one time in the ocean I have yet to fly fish out of a boat all day. My good friend’s boat has more bells and whistles along with being armed to the gills in tech. He had 22” screens with radar this sonar that and then I was floored by the side scan radar he had on the boat.

We departed the marina and headed out. He got up on the plane and cut through the 1-foot swells like a knife. He has been a boat captain for over 30 years, and I could tell him by his tactics.

We arrived at the first rock out cropping aka jetty and would fish both sides. The water was 64 degrees here in this area.  With my very buddy jigging fly I through it five feet from shore.

I felt its ticking off the ballast and then when I thought I was done a fish doubled over my TiCr 6-weight fly rod.  At this moment I did not know it would be a nearly seventeen-inch largemouth bass.  I was ecstatic as my six-weight doubled over in pain.

My fingers created a brake while fighting the fish. Its bull dogged me and turned out to be a decent fish. My fishing partner would be gracious enough to net my fish.  This fish would remove my skunk, but I had no idea what was in store for me ½ mile away.

I learned that in Lake Erie you have structure, humps, troughs, ledges, rocks, and weed beds.  What I did not know that will also hold fish is where the clay (silt) meets sand or other material.

For an example he went to a spot that had a gentle slope to it that was loaded with small cobble and small stones aka river rock. This would intersect the clay (silt) in the lakebed.

This would also hold fish and using the crab crawl technique with the retrieving of the fly it’s an extremely deadly practice to hook fish.

When I arrived at the next spot, he was giving me directions on the areas where I needed to cast. I covered the first 100 square foot area he told me then we pushed out into 10 fow (feet of water).

Here is where with the height of th4e waves and the 8 knot winds we switched over to a 250-grain full sinking line. I used his Scott rod for this. I could have used my TFO TiCr 6 weight, and it would have been fine.

All the flies of choice were olive, buggy, some rattles, and tied on jigging hooks. These flies were also max 3-inches long. Some of them had rubber legs and some did not. The only time we switched patterns was where we found a large pod of feeding white bass (WB). When we fished for WB it was a chartreuse clouser over white.

Let’s get back to the freshwater drum adventure.  These fish pull hard and the large ones over 10 pounds you will need to put on the reel IMHO. We hooked between the two of us, I am guessing 30.

After hooking several in the area my friend took us too, I was looking to get a break. He knew I was a little worn down from all the hook ups we had. He said, “hey want to try and find some White Bass?”.

I of course said yes to give my harm and hands a break! So, we headed off to another part of the area.

We arrived on the opposite side of a jetty to find birds sitting on top of the water. I told my friend there is a lot of bait here. He said, “how do you know that?”. I said the gulls are not resting on the jetty that is fairly close, and they have decided to rest and float low around where we are. This is just like saltwater when you see active birds it’s a potential sign that something is about to happen.

Then the White Bass (WB) started to smash bait all around us.  It was a WB blitz!  These 10-to-14-inch WB with a few larger ones sprinkled in had their feed bag on.

Like most WB fishing when you find them it’s a good time. One after another WB was caught, and it was a welcome relief for me. I have not had a day on the water like this in a long time and never in a boat.

I told my friend over and over have grateful I was to have this opportunity to do this with my friend because of his generosity.  It was a blessed day all day.

Then my friend said “hey, want to take a trip and see some of the other islands?”.  I of course said yes, and we put everything away and took a boat ride.

We made a pit stop and fished for one area that he had known about.  With the 250-grain sinking line we drifted as slow as we could with his trolling motor to stay in out casting lane.

The water looked so amazing this far north and as I started to not think about fishing, I hooked a moped.

With the head shaking and then followed by coming out of the water there he was. A Dark olive green with darker olive stripped smallmouth. He wasn’t a big smallmouth, and it did not need to be. I just wanted the opportunity to hook an open water smallmouth.

My friend was johnny on the spot with the net.  We hooted and hollored and picked up stakes and pressed on.

We visited North Bass Island and that’s a pretty place. We saw a few gars and I attempted to sight fish to one. Instead of putting the fly into his swimming lane I put it on its head lol. Needless to say, that opportunity was blown I laughed, and we pressed onto a spot in the middle of no wheresville!

My friend spot locked us into the spot, and we hooked a few more freshwater drum and decided to start on our return leg back to the dock.

My friend would end up driving his boat 40 miles to put us onto fish.  The boat traffic was heavy for a Monday, but we also saw a lot of boats far north fishing. 

We arrived at the dock baked and ready to go home. 

We unloaded our gear and loaded up our vehicles. I thanked my gracious host over and over because he did not have to do all this today. He could have made it a short day, but as good friends do, he made it into a trip of a lifetime for me.

I hope you enjoyed the adventure as much as I did. I hope you also liked the artwork.

To my dear friend thank you for me this was a trip of a life time thank you.

Be well,

Sonder

 

Cuyahoga Valley National Park 8 Mile hike loop

Sorry for the late content

My good friend and I linked these two trails together for a longer hike. Yes, we had to do a little road work, but still worth it.

Sonder

Ohio Tail Water Fishing

 Today I found an extremely sexy little tail water. Well, the fish are safe, no fish were harmed today.  As you can see, the flows are extremely fishable. I did see fish rise near the shoreline. The water was up about a foot from normal. I had zero clues where the fish could be holding.

 

I brought the eggbeater also and had the same results as the fly rod. I was using 2” flies and 3” curly tail grubs. The strikes I was getting were only by the tail and they never got the hook.

I hope you enjoy the artwork!

Sonder

Saturdays 13.6 Mile hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

I took a longer route on a hike today in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). I put together a 13.6 Mile route in Basecamp “this is the program that Garmin uses”.

This loop took me into a few places I did not know existed and it was a pleasure for sure. A few small creek crossings and a few goat up hill climbs. I ascended 2012 feet and descended 1999 feet. I did this throughout the hike today.

It has rained and rained a lot here in Buckeye state. So, it surprised me today to see people in sneakers.  There were a lot of trail runners today.  I also ran into a young man who was actually using a small section of a USGS topo-map. I was shocked and thrilled to see this.

IMHO if you start with the basics this will make you a better person when it comes to mountaineering and hiking. I was approaching him after crossing the creek.  He asked me how far a road was from where we stood together. I pulled out my Garmin 64sx and did a straight-line distance measurement and told him.

You could tell he was young and was wearing a lightly used backpack.  He said thank you and that he was doing the trail in small steps, so he does not get overwhelmed. I said great idea and asked him if he had water. He said he did “I said be careful and see you again” on the trail and bidded him a good day.

I ran into a lot of standing water north of Vaughn Road along the Cuyahoga River.

I have high attention to detail when I create my content. I am still learning about my GoPro pros and cons.  I have realized that GoPro 13 does a super job when the sun is out in full force and you’re not in the middle of the forest. It has issues with dimly lit areas.

When used in an environment such as this you get distortion in the video sometimes it is subtle and sometimes it looks awful.

Well through some other social media outlets I have learned a few tricks. The one option when turned off is the hypersmooth.  When I to this you see my head ditty boppin down the path and to be honest its hard to watch and far to distracting.

I am not producing film quality for professional films, but it’s hard to watch.  With I don’t have any video to share from the hike.

I will do a short hike on Memorial Day and tweak my setting yet again.

I am thinking I am willing to lose some detail in the videos I take. It will not detract from the big picture what I am trying to show the viewer I believe.  There will be some motion blur and some pixelation. These issues have been visible, but at this point they have been minor.  For me it does not detract from the over experience that my videos are attempting to show.

I will keep doing it this way and keep learning as I go. Be well folks and until next time.

Sundays Hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park for 10.8 Miles

I had to wait for Sunday to do any hiking. We had some heavy rainstorms hit us.  

I wanted to hike for 10 miles. I like this distance in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP). 

One issue with a trail that long it’s tough to get away from others. There are trails a person can join that will allow you to do this.  

I took two routes and joined them to make a 10.3 mile hike through Garmin Basecamp.  

I would first have to utilize All Trails to down the two trails.  

I connected them with one mile of roadway. The temperature was balmy 51 degrees. The wind gusts that were over 20 mph made it chilly throughout the hike. 

 I saw very view people when I originally started at 0800.  

Part of my route was on a bridal trail. I never saw any pasture puppies. I was kind of hoping to see a few on this day. Instead, I saw tons of spring flowers, red squirrels, fox squirrels, and a few dogs.  

I am still learning about my GoPro and the low light conditions this morning and how in some areas the videos look great and some they look like dirt lol.

Hell Hollow Wilderness Area- Lake County Ohio

 

I relearned that just because it’s called Wilderness and it’s not in Montana, Maine, or Michigan it should not be discounted.

I have seen Hell Hollow a few times on an Ohio Map, but again I discounted it.  I never gave it a fair shake.  Information for the park can be found here and here

I strapped on my waders and unlike the last time I was here in February Paine Creek was flowing with no ice jambs.

I arrived and people were at the pavilion having a little family picnic celebrating graduation.

I hiked in my waders and wading boots to the high falls that be found here N41° 40.953' W81° 06.915'. This is a double waterfall. This has two waterfalls that have been created through water erosion done differently.

A lot of the shale was covered in brown algae. This stuff grew where the water was not constantly moving over it.  This stuff was slick so slick I fell once while not really paying attention to where my feet were going.

I walked back 1.2 miles in the creek to the main falls that everyone sees and the bottom of the stairs after you walk through the woods, I am guessing 300 yards.

This creek was primarily a exposed limestone bed and extremely smooth.  It has several smooth potholes in the creek bottom from water erosion.

I remembered seeing other waterfalls downstream from the aerial photos I have seen.  I continued my creek hiking downstream.  I saw two more waterfalls after this one and I could hear another.  This waterfall can be found here N41° 41.880' W81° 07.483'

I looked downstream and the riverbed looked to had dropped 15 feet vertically downstream.  I could also hear another waterfall.  This waterfall was higher than the other one at the north most end of my hike.

This southern waterfall can be found here N41° 41.919' W81° 07.461'

This waterfall, like the more northerly one, has a great swimming hole at the bottom of it.

I climbed out of the creek and jumped onto the trail. The trail was established but it was hard to follow them as you get closer to the bottom of stairs to climb out of the gorge.

I ended my hike after climbing out of the gorge.  Hell Hollow Wilderness is an amazing little gem. This area would be great to watch birds.  The other time of year that would be great would be fall. All the hardwood trees with a mix of hemlock trees would be a great mix of fall colors and greens.

Here is an aerial view of the route.

Here is my mapping program overall hike path.

Startrails with a GoPro13 and with an Olympus TG-6

 

The above image is from the GoPro 13

I headed out to a friends farm to take my Olympus TG-6 and my GoPro 13 to do some startrail photography. The frost was heavy and on my sleeping bag had turned to water only. 

The content turned out really well and the Bortle Scale for this area I was in is a 4.

The above photo was taken with an Olympus TG-6

Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park Ohio Part 2

In Ohio you can find gems in plain sight. I have been close to this park in my travels through Ohio. I have never stopped until today.  Herre is the State of Ohio Park link 

With all the rain I knew the waterfalls would be running hard. I had full access to Cascade Falls and they are getting close to wrapping up the construction project on Minnehaha Falls.

This place has a lot of mud after it rains so be very prepared. I wore my waders, and a wading jacket and I was dry as it continued to rain all day.

This place is close to the road, it’s in the country but I am sure as the water is wet it teams with people in the warmer months.

The rock formations are incredible. I want to believe with my limited knowledge of geology and erosion patterns these have eroded by an ancient river.  This is not sitting go no plateau or atop a mountain and constantly being bombarded by winds.  The other point to make the erosion patterns appear to be from the bottom up.  Water still runs at the bases of a lot of these huge pieces or rocks.

Here are some better sources that explain the geology of Nelson – Kennedy Ledges:

Ohio State Link 01

Geology Link 01

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Info

Ohio State Link 02

There are loops you can hike. I only did 1.8 miles but there is more to hike by using other loops.  I hope you enjoy the videos!

Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park Ohio Part 1

I have been in near this park several times in my travels. Today the weather was wet and I knew the crowds woud be zero today with all the potential of alot of mud. 

The rains have been relentless around the Great Lakes lately. This is our spring weather and it will help us alot during the summer months. 

I hope you enjoy the artwork.

Spring 2025 Panfish Fest

 I am headed out to a panfish lake here this morning. Stay tuned and be well folks.

Before

After

All the Crappies are safe lol had a nice day to get outside.

Hoofing it in Hocking Hills State Park Pt 2

 

Hoofing it in Hocking on 4.12.2025

I went to bed at 1700 because I needed to be up at 0400! Yea, we love what we love lol. I made breakfast and ground some fresh coffee and headed to the Hocking Hills State Park near Logan, Ohio.

I chose the same route as I have taken before. Last time it was a hair over 11.25 miles and this time well should be the same.

I choose this route because normally there are very few people on it.  I got on the trail 0800 and it was frosty and 27 degrees.

I purchased over Christmas a few R1 Air Zip-Neck from Patagonia, and I am truly impressed. It has kept me warm during the day off and one rain two weeks ago when I went hiking at Paine Creek.

The rain came and gone the other day and some of the exposed clay was wet and you needed to be careful.

As I would pass a few small creeks I heard the water flowing through them. This hike would turn into a waterfall extravaganza. All the waterfalls I saw were discharging into the few gorges I walked on top of.

I would end up doing 12.9 miles on purpose and it was worth every step.  I saw a few ppl, but they were mostly at the bottom of the gorges. I did see two rappelling classes going on around the ridges I was hiking.

I found a beautiful waterfall this day. I have never seen a video of it and I will be doing some recon to get into the gorge to take some other videos of it. I will not share its location because she’s a gem.

I did something on porpoise today. I set my GoPro up today to take videos at 30 frames per second instead of 60 frames per second. I knew the quality would not be the best, but they still look ok, I think. I will return and retake them in the heat of summer.

I hope you enjoyed the write-up.

Sonder