Meador Manor

Sand Creek (click image for slideshow)

I last walked the Bugle Trail at Osage Hills State Park about three months ago and decided to spend a warm overcast Sunday afternoon blowing it up. By that I mean that I repeatedly strayed off the trail, taking roads and bushwhacks and unofficial trails to expand it, visiting a few places I’d never been before and finding a few recently cut alternate trails.

I parked near the park office and took the Tower Trail up the hill to the observation tower where I surveyed the empty picnic grounds, closed for the winter. I then deviated onto the old road along the park boundary heading straight north to the remains of the CCC camp, passing the husk of a tree and enjoying the fall colors before the rest of the leaves let go. At the CCC camp chimney I turned west rather than east and followed a gravel road around to the oil well and then bushwhacking from there past a small dry feeder fall over to the shore of Lookout Lake. As I bushwhacked along the western shore I passed a tree which had grown so it looked like its base had melted over the rocks and at another small feeder fall a tree looked like it was propping up the rock beds.

I bushwhacked my way along the southern shore over to the dam and followed the Lookout Lake road until I reached the pipeline right-of-way and followed it southwest and then bushwhacked up the ridge until I could see the various park buildings hidden on the private drive. I then bushwhacked down to the dry creek leading south from Lookout Lake through the big CCC stone culvert. I made my way over to the big culvert, walking through it and then posing to provide scale.

I then walked along the creek bed, winding past both ends of the bike trails and following the dryer-than-normal bed almost all of the way to Sand Creek itself. I then had to scramble my way up the steep muddy bank, fighting a nasty thorny vine which left several souvenir cuts on my right hand. I was very glad to finally make it up to the flat field near the bike trails and found a new dirt trail which led from behind the metal building over to the previously known “wrong way” trail leading down the east bank of a side creek toward Sand Creek itself. It was clear some bikes had been taking this new cutoff.

I followed the dry creek bed down to the park’s “other bluffs”, lying along the north shore of Sand Creek where it makes its sharp bend. Then I returned to the regular Lake Trail and followed it south onto the Cabin Trail. As I passed the lagoon I was surprised to see another new dirt trail to the west, paralleling the regular trail southward. This trail would eventually cross the real one and I followed it, recognizing this portion as a bushwhacking trail I’d discovered previously that led into the picnic area north of the pool. I’m not sure why these trails have been cleared for easy passage, but I welcomed the variation.

Nature called as I walked through the picnic area. Since the new restrooms were closed for the season, I crossed the road to the big old CCC restroom with its huge rock overhangs, now sadly stripped and abandoned. After marking my territory I took the Falls Trail down to the dried-out main falls area and then climbed up the Cabin Trail, passing the lovely stone stairs leading upward to the cabins. I crossed over to the Creek Trail and was glad the overcast briefly parted for a sliver of blue sky as I made my way to the main bluffs on Sand Creek.

I stretched out, doffed my Tilley hat, and enjoyed my snacks, assessing the minor damage from my earlier bushwhack and admiring the creek. Then I bushwhacked across a side creek over to the Creek Trail Loop, following it clockwise and enjoying the peaceful solitude of the trees sprouting from the yellowed groundcover. When the trail began to head east, I bushwhacked my way north up the side of the ridge to the big boulders I recalled along the upper edge from an earlier struggle through this undeveloped portion of the park. From the top I could look out westward across the valley carved by Sand Creek and see a neighboring cattle operation.

I struggled eastward along the park’s fence line, looking mournfully across the barbed wire at the easy going on the neighboring property’s fenceline path. But I resisted the temptation to cross for most of the way, even negotiating a steep dropoff, but took a brief excursion across the wire for a bit when the going got too tough. Back on the proper side I finally reached a large fire ring and knew I must be approaching the camping area. I was finally rewarded for my bushwhacks by spotting some deer across the line, with one pausing to stare me down.

I returned to the car, having hiked 6.7 miles and satisfied that I’d blown out the Bugle Trail far enough. This bushwhacker was more than ready for a hot shower!

Click here for a slideshow from this day hike

Chaplin Nature Center (click image for slideshow)

On Saturday I drove over to Arkansas City, Kansas (popularly known as Ark City) to walk the trails at the Wichita Audubon Society’s Chaplin Nature Center. It is a few miles west of town along the Arkansas River.

I’d planned to have lunch in Ark City, but none of the restaurants there struck my fancy and I knew that I was only a half hour away from a delicious Mexican lunch at Enrique’s at the Ponca City Airport. So I detoured south for that and then returned to Ark City and negotiated a couple of miles of gravel road to reach the center.

It was warm for November but very windy and I had to wear the straps on my Tilley hat to keep it in place. After signing in at the register in the center I walked straight out through the back of the building to reach the Bluff Trail and follow it east along a bluff above the Arkansas River bottomlands. All of the trails had beautiful limestone markers and trailside nature signs. One said to look for plants with various characteristics which I thought I was more likely to notice about fellow walkers: which ones were smooth, hairy, prickly, slippery, etc. I’m pretty prickly at times myself.

Soon I turned onto the river trail, which led past a large tree and had a bridge over Spring Creek and then passed another tree which dwarfed its neighbors. There were few red autumn colors at the center, but some trees sported yellow. Here I was reminded of Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center at Mohawk Park and how the peaceful surroundings are marred by the sound of aircraft landing nearby. For next door to the Chaplin center is some sort of dirt bike tracks and I could hear the sound of motors revving. Not the ideal neighbors.

I followed the Sandbar Trail over to the Arkansas River where I saw more trees with yellow bunting across the way. The wind whipped my hat off at one point, but I retrieved it and walked over to the shore for a closer look at a bird making calls from across the river. I then walked through a very minor sandstorm (which had me rubbing sand off my forehead later that day) to see a big tree along the shore.

I then returned to the River Trail and upon discovering a huge chair in the woods I clambered up for a portrait. Then I crossed a large prairie restoration area where various tall grasses had been seeded. I followed the Spring Creek Trail and posed in the very low crook of a tree before passing a fallen log sporting very large white mushrooms. The Lost Prairie Trail had Honey Locust trees with vicious thorns and I wrapped up my 2.5 mile walk at a large set of stairs on the bluff.

I left a donation and drove back through Ark City where I had to stop at the busts and other statuary in Ranney Park, which seemed very out of place in the Kansas plains. While it wasn’t a long nor a particularly pretty walk today and I’m no birder, I did enjoy the Audubon trails of Ark City.

Click here for a slideshow from this day hike