With perfect timing, the up-until-then consistent rain ended about 10 miles before we reached the campground at the Celina and Indian Lakes portion of Hoosier National Forest. Kent and Carole had arrived hours earlier to procure the perfect spot (not that there was much competition) and had struggled to maintain the integrity of the tarp they’d strung up.
The fire pit was more accurately termed “frog pond” when we showed up, indeed I did remove one frog from the pit before Kent, Fred and I entered a two hour struggle to turn moist wood into a descent fire. Under the influence of witch’s brew, Carole declared that I was finally becoming a reasonable person (I think it was the recent absence of 16 hour solo drives or completion of ultra-distance events that influenced that option).
Other than a 2am visit by an inquisitive owl we slept well and were at the trailhead for the 12+ mile Two Lakes loop about 8am. I’d heard from the others that the amount of blown downs had increased recently on the trail and we wondered what the new storm would do to trail conditions. We couldn’t say we weren’t warned.
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The first couple of miles were humid and muddy. Shoes were quickly soaked in the swollen creek crossings and muddy portions of the trail. We also quickly started spotting turtles, seven eastern box turtles would be passed before the hike ended.
Usually we make an off-trail detour to some cliffs on Lake Celina near the dam, but none of us wanted to head across the tall grass and chance a tick infestation so we stayed on the trail. The trail across the dam turned out to be overgrown and probably not much different from bushwhacking through the grass.
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I was told the worst of the blowdowns from the last hike in the fall had been cleaned up, but plenty still remained.
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While the trail’s conditions were challenging, we still had plenty of rewards between the slow clearing up of the humidity, emergence of blue skies and lots of wildlife. Besides the seven turtles, we saw two deer, a rabbit, a garter snake and two black snakes in the middle of procreating. The swollen streams were also pretty.
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Those same streams also eventually had to be crossed, but the two worst turned out to only be knee deep.
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We dried out shoes and socks during a lunch break, then finished the final couple miles of the loop to end by 1:30.
The Journey Is Home 