I spent most of the morning at Mogan Ridge West, putting in about 12 miles in all. Basically, I hiked the outer loop, though I did bushwhack about a mile and a half for variety.

We’re definitely into summer hiking weather here, with high humidity, spider webs, gnats, and ticks. This trail also hasn’t seen much use lately, so it’s overgrown in grass in many areas. About half of it is gravel road, so you can combine unpleasant walking surface with increased ticks and chiggers.

Still, it was a pleasant walk in the woods and decent exercise. I met one other hiker about halfway and we swapped notes on which local trails were worth revisiting. Fortunately we were hiking in opposite directions so we didn’t have to have the awkward conversation about whether to hike together.

More pictures on imgur.

[Image description: trail marker post with area map and arrows pointing in many different directions]

  • ffmike@beehaw.orgOP
    3·
    1 year ago

    There are a few nice trails in the southern part of the Hoosier National Forest, which is where this one is. Probably my favorite is German Ridge, which offers a variety of loops from 5 to 20 miles and a decent but not overwhelming number of hills. Tipsaw Lake is nice easy 6-miler which I hit when I want a quick couple hours with lake views. Two Lakes has some scenic parts, but a lot of that trail system has been logged in the past 2-3 years, so it really could use some time to recover before it’ll be nice again.

    Further out (2 or so hours from the Evansville area where I live), I like the Shawnee NF, the Deam Wilderness, the Adventure Hiking Trail, and the Mammoth Cave backcountry.

    Oh, and the logo washed out, but that last additional arrow is because this trail segment is also part of the American Discovery Trail, so in theory at least you could follow it all the way to the Pacific.