I took a day off Friday and decided to go down and check out East Fork State Park southeast of Cincinatti. I parked at the visitor's center, checked in and grabbed a map. I was told campsite #1 should be reachable but the trail to #2 might be under water. It was sloppy in places but overall nice trails to campsite #1. Just as I reached the shelter Doctari texted me to warn of rain on the way. It was good timing because just then it came down. It just so happened that someone partied a little too hard and had abandoned a vomit filled tent nearby and I found their rainfly discarded and used it to rig up from the front of the shelter for a little extra coverage. As I was hangin my hammock there struck in the loudest and closest lightning strike I have ever witnessed. It sent me jumpin 2 feet and left my heart racing for a good ten minutes. After the storm passed and I started to settle in for a night on my own ( Doctari comin in sometime after 1am) three backpackers showed up. ( Randall, Bill, and Adam) They seemed interested in my hammock but even after I insisted they give it try I couldnt get any takers. Adam did say he was planning on pickin one up.
I didn't get alot of sleep that night. It turns out the birds liked to fly in and out of the shelter and as it turns out they enjoyed bouncin off the side of my hammock. One of them must have gotten bored with the side of my hammock and decided to try it against my head. At one point I had to shake my TQ at one and it almost got tangled up and came close to hangin in my eno. I got up early to water the bushes and went back to sleep. I woke up to a weary eyed Doctari standing next to the shelter, he got in about 3:30am and still asleep I think. We had breakfast and broke camp to head to Doc's pines. It started to rain again and as we were waitin it out a bit Doc's phone rang but was at the bottom of his pack. As it turned out it was Bonsaihiker checkin to see if Doctari was up for a short trip to East Fork. Worked out great because we were way ahead of him. After Bonsai made his way to camp we headed off to the pines only to find the trail was indeed under water. Lucky for us Doctari used to maintain these trails and knew them well. He led us to a very nice spot in some pines and we setup and had dinner. The last thing I remember about that night was Doc and Bonsai were standing around chatting when I decided to warm up in my Incubator and Burrow. I woke up four hours later to tend the bushes and went back to sleep. No rain all night slept with my porch up and awoke to the piney woods. We reluctantly broke camp, and Doctari had to come to terms with not "winnin" the "pack up race", he says he's makin progress. We made our way back takin several side trips to explore the area. At one point we came across an old Plymouth in the middle of the woods. Big thanx to Doctari for comin out with me and sharing his neck of the woods with me. It was a great surprise to have Bonsaihiker to pop in for a night with us. Great people , Doctari is a very shy person that you have to pry things out of just incase you get a chance to hike with him plan on doin all the talkin.
Not muck gear talk here with this report maybe more on that later.
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