Chain O Lakes

  

Since we couldn't go to Bloomington for Labor Day weekend, Doug and I tried to find something close to home to do that we hadn't done before.  Cam suggested hiking, so I texted my friend, Wendy, who has spent a lot of time hiking, biking and running through the parks in our area.  She highly recommended Chain O Lakes.  I had only heard of it as a camp ground.  Doug had been there once before, but didn't remember a lot about it.  Since it was only 35 minutes away we thought that we would give it a try.

Doug, Cam and I left around 11 a.m. this morning to try our new hiking venue.  We had enjoyed the trails in Brown County on previous trips to southern Indiana and hoped it would be something comparable.  It was raining when we left, but cleared as we pulled into the park entrance.  The trail that Wendy suggested to try first was crowded, so we headed to another area and found relatively no one there.  None of us were sure what we would find as we headed into the woods, but were almost immediately pleased with what awaited us on trail one.  There was a path through a highly wooded area that was easy to follow.  We were impressed with the size of the trees and beauty of the flowers.  Cam took many pictures so that he could look up the names of each on the Seek app that he had downloaded for Biology.  We also saw multiple species of birds and Cam even found a toad camouflaged in the brush area.  He said that his favorite part of the paths were along the lakes as they had the best views.  I liked those as well, but was most fascinated with all of the downed, uprooted or leaning trees, especially after our recent experience with a cracked tree in our own backyard.  All in all we spent two hours at Chain O Lakes State Park covering four miles on our hike and exploring three separate paths.  We all decided that we would like to return to try a different path in the near future.

While we were hiking we did experience some rain.  Fortunately it didn't dampen the mood or ruin the trip, especially since the trees blocked most of it.  We were worried, however, that it would change our next planned adventure of the afternoon, Paige's Crossing Mini-Golf, but thankfully the sun came out just as we arrived to Columbia City.  We played two rounds before leaving to pick up lunch in Warsaw at Mad Anthony's.  Doug won the first one as I felt apart on the last four holes and Cam held on to win the second round.  We made it home around 4 p.m. and enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner pf jambalaya pizza and various unwraps.  Although it wasn't the trails of Brown County or Mother Bear's pizza, Doug, Cam and I all still had a lot of fun today.