My Almost-Autumn Hike

It’s perfect hiking weather here in Northern KY. I love to look up into the trees when I’m on a hike. I look for birds or squirrels, or just marvel at the colors… and it struck me, there’s still A LOT of green up there! I’m very ready for the autumn yellows, oranges, and reds.

 This past weekend I went on a hike at Big Bone Lick State Park, which is only maybe ten miles south of where I live.  It’s a great park, named after the animal bones and mineral deposits found there (the child in me can’t help but snickers at the double entendre).

A little history lesson:

Big Bone Lick contains the remains of some of America’s early animals; students at NKU and UC are still to this day conducting digs and coming up with bones from extinct species.  They say the land was a swamp and the combination of water and minerals found there attracted animals such as the giant mammoths and mastodons, ancient bison, moose, and horses, and the ground sloth.  Apparently, the ground was unstable and many of the creatures sank into the bog-like soil and died struggling to get out.  The early pioneers to Kentucky called it “jelly ground”.  

If this story intrigues you, click here to read the full version from the park’s website.  

Better yet, read the book Follow the River by James Alexander Thom.  It’s historical fiction about Mary Ingles and the Shawnee Indians (spoiler alert, they come to Big Bone to gather salt), and I think it’s classified as young-adults, but it is a great book.  One of the best I’ve read, the kind you just have to keep turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning.  It’s based on a true story but even the author states that some of the story telling is just that – story telling because there was no original written account of the details.

Enough history, back to today.  I found some Kentucky cows on my hike.  I was hoping to get some pictures of the bison they keep at the park but they were on the far side of the pasture.  Maybe next time, for now, we have KY Cows!

Oh yeah, if anyone reads the book, let me know what you think.  I really liked it and am hoping that is not just because I am reading at the young-adult level and real literature escapes me :)