Hike #640; Trexler

 Hike #640; Trexler and Vicinity

7/21/12 Trexler Area with Jillane Becker, Jason Kumpas, Amanda Murphy, Lyz Hagenbuch, Ric Giantisco , Jason Michael "Jamal" Flintosh, Jamie Dritt, "Commando Tom" Petrucci, and Laura Allen Cunningham

The group at Trexler Environmental Center

My next hike would be a point to point, the next in the series to hike the Jordan Creek proposed trail. I had last hiked it the previous fall with Commando Tom and Eric Fay, the section from Trexler to Allentown. This time we would start in State Game Lands 205 and hike back through Trexler.

The end point was our meeting place, the CVS pharmacy on the corner of Rt 309 and Levans Road. This was also once the corner of old Grist Mill Road, which we hiked a couple years prior on one of the hikes after Buckettfest.

We shuttled two cars to the west, to a parking area on Warden Road in State Game Lands 205. There were people shotting clay pigeons in the parking lot we were in as soon as we arrived, kind of an interesting way to start a hike.

We had a good mixed group, and I was happy to have Jillane out with me for the first time in a while. It was one of those great situations with both old and new friends, interacting together and just having a nice time. Of course we had Jamal being silly with his construction helmet I had given him back in the fall of 2008. The roads in the area were beautiful, winding dirt lanes along creeks and over high highland hills. Wardon Road was one of these.We followed it east from the parking area, and headed down hill past an old farm site to Kistler Road. This was a somewhat paved road that made it's way closer to the Jordan Creek. Still, there was barely any traffic. I don't think we were passed by more than five cars during any of the road walking sections.

We turned left off of Kistler Road onto Spooners Road. The road signs were hand painted, another thing that set this apart from other places we'd been. Spooners Road headed up hill through State Game Lands to Scheirers Road, another gravel lane with a lovely old house on the corner. The roads had nice views off into the valley of the Jordan Creek along the way. As per the maps that were given to me in late 2010 by Phil Hunsperger from the AMC, the roads we were following were the proposed route of the future Jordan Creek Trail. After walking them I could see why they were chosen.

The road led over a hill and past a house with an old car, which looked like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the beginning of the movie out front. A fork in the road ahead led into a game lands parking lot. We tried to take a side path in through fields from here, but it was getting way too overgrown, so we kept to the road. This wasn't a bad thing though, it was lovely.

We soon turned left on Winchester Road, another very nice dirt road over a hill toward the Trexler Nature Preserve. At the bottom of the hill, and just before crossing Mill Creek Road, Winchester Road crossed Mill Creek on a little concrete bridge. This was a good place to stop and take a dip because it was just getting warm. The water was quite deep under the bridge, and there were a ton of minnows. We had a break and spent the entire time skipping stones down the creek.

We soon crossed Mill Creek Road and bushwhacked straight up a steep slope into Trexler Preserve. It wasn't long before we reached the Trexler Border Trail and turned left. This 8.5 mile trail goes all the way around the preserve, and connects with many other trails. The first leg of our trip was to follow it north, through what they refer to as the North Range (Trexler is separated into three "Ranges", north, south, and central.).

We made our way past a couple other trail intersections and continued along the north side. The trail had a lot of ups and downs making for a pretty good workout. At the north side, we came to a very nice view over the area. The trail zig zagged and soon reached a fantastic view both west and north toward Blue Mountain. From here, we stayed on Trexler Border Trail until we reached a right turn on Teardrop Trail.

Teardrop Trail was just an old farm lane, which had a few trees bordering it, as well as corn fields. It was nice to see that they had been treating invasive Ailanthus trees along the route of this trail, as they stood dead. We follwoed the Teadrop Trail to where it split and took the right fork heading to another great viewpoint toward downstream Jordan Creek. We then doubled back on another section of the trail on to the orange blazed Turkey Ridge Trail heading down hill toward Jordan Creek northbound. There were a few limited views along the way. Where this trail ended, we turned right on the white blazed Fireman's Trail.Fireman's Trail went steeply down hill to the abandoned Schlicher's Covered Bridge, a beautiful old bridge spanning the Jordan Creek. We took a long break here and splashed around a bit. Kumpas found an awesome Sycamore tree to be hollow and climbed up into part of it. The water was quite deep at one spot under the bridge, so this was a perfect spot for a break.

When we were ready to move on, much of the group wanted to see the Central Range Bison to the north. I adjusted the hike route so that it would pass by them. Jillane went down the more planned route of the hike to a foot bridge over Jordan Creek near where the game preserve road crosses in a famous ford. The rest of us crossed the creek on another foot bridge near the covered bridge and headed steeply up hill to a view point over the Trexler Zoo. We t hen walked a fence line until we could see the bison. Everyone else walked the entire loop around the fence while I sat down and enjoyed the view for a bit. When everyone returned, we followed the blue blazed Elk Viewing Trail down hill gradually. It led to a spot where we could see the Elk grazing in the fields below to the left. We then continued down hill to the foot bridge where Jillane was waiting.

We took another nice long break at the bridge, and then followed the red blazed Covered Bridge Trail, a wide former road path along the west bank of Jordan Creek to Geiger's Covered Bridge. I'd been to this one a few times before. It's a lovely bridge with an oblong entrance uncommon of covered bridges. We then passed through the bridge and continued on Covered Bridge Trail up the other side of the creek to where we were before.

Some of us took a last dip in the creek before moving on, now up the Trexler Nature Trail's teal marked path. This trail leads up hill somewhat steeply to the Trexler Border Trail just south of the Trexler Environmental Center. We turned left on the border trail to the Environmental Center and took another nice relaxing break and admired the fantastic view. Aside from the sometimes difficult inclines, this was overall a relaxing hike as well. I think I still needed it.

We took a bunch of silly pictures and continued back to Trexler Border Trail and headed south. The trail took us past a couple more nice views, and then descended through former orchards to cross Old Packhouse Road. It then entered the property of Kidspeace, a non profit I think for helping kids. The trail still skirted old orchards. I had thought that we would be coming to Grist Mill Road, but the trail was not aligned as I expected it would be. When I checked the GPS on my phone we had overshot the point where I wanted to turn. We cut to the left on a gravel access, and then stopped for another break to goof off on a kids playground. After that we headed across the property heading toward Grist Mill. Some guy opened a door of a building and asked what we were doing saying we shouldn't be there or something. A few of us were trying to talk to him, asking him how to get to Grist Mill Road, telling him we were leaving. He seemed like he felt like being an authoritarian.

We followed one of the access roads for a bit, and then I realized my GPS was showing a road where there was no lnoger one. We had to bushwhack to the right in order to get down to it, now cut off where there was an obove ground water tank. Jillane was now wearing sandles, which really sucked for going through the woods, and I felt bad for telling her it was okay to put them on, that it'd only be back roads from here out.

We made it down to the gravel road, then followed it out to Grist Mill Road, also a lovely dirt road. Everyone admired the weird patterns in the cut rock along the road. We followed Grist Mill up hill gradually and turned right onto the abandoned part of the road, now with a trail sign but rather obscure.We headed up hill on the former road, which became paved closer to it's end at Rt 309. The old former road signs that we had seen the previous time walking it had since been removed. Only a "Do Not Enter" sign remained at a pile of dirt placed over the road.

We arrived at CVS and had a nice sit down before moving on. Surprisingly, I was not really feeling hungry yet. I always try to block out hunger on hikes, but when other people begin talking about food, I of course become extremely  hungry and this didn't happen this time. I felt pretty good overall, relaxed, but like I could still act like a nut with the group. I only wish I could have run around more often. I saw the others dashing down hill at one time, and I physically could not join them due to my pulled muscle in my right leg.

Jillane and I stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home, sort of out of desperation. She was really hungry and I was getting there, but we both felt sick after eating it. It was just the easiest thing to get to.

In the days to follow I had a doctor's appointment, and was told that I had Lyme Disease version 23B or something. Previous few tests we showing false negatives, probably because there are so many different versions of Lyme Disease. It explains my headaches and fevers I'd been going through on previous hikes, and why the Doxycyclene I was taking (to finish with during the week) was working so well. I'm a bit discouraged that I may end up having symptoms for the rest of my life; I might be more tired, have joint pain...I just hope that it doesn't effect my ability to run. The fire already killed my respiratory endurance, which has still not recovered, and I've felt old and broken in a way.

At the doctor's office, I was told I had tendinitis, and that the only way it would get better was with a shot. I took the shot, and even just the Novocaine was the most painful shot I'd ever gotten. I then got some sort of thing to relax the muscles so they would heal, and was told it would hurt badly for two days; they said I should take Alleve.Fortunately, it seems to be healing so far, and I'm hoping with the end of the medication I can start on the path to healthier living and get in the shape I want to be in.

I'm optimistic that things are going to improve a lot over the next couple months, in every way.