Back to the Alma

I guess I just couldn't get enough of the low hourly rates at the Sundown, so I returned this morning to Alma with CAD and Mike to the spot I had left blank Thursday. If you have forgotten where we are in our story, I skipped ahead to the Nipgen to Sinking Springs stage of the Tour de Ohio in order to leave what should theoretically be an easy stretch for CAD to mow down.
Mike dropped us off and we headed along the edge of a few properties before plunging into the woods for two miles. One of the land owners had enclosed the trees with the blazes inside his fence, so we followed on a parallel path along the corresponding tree line. Once the barb wire terminated we were able to more firmly adhere to the trail.
The walk here was bliss compared to some of the earlier trips into the Amazon I have made on the Buckeye Trail. Colin and I made friends with five or six ticks along the way, but otherwise the way was not fraught with the dangers I have encountered when I foolishly counted on the blue blazes to guide me safely on previous excursions into the forests of Ohio.

Once we hit Prussia Road, just north of Pee Pee, Ohio, we left the wilderness and the skies opened up, administering to the group a preparedness test. Mom and Duffy scored a big fat F when they revealed that they had brought ponchos up to Ohio, but left them in the hotel room.
We did learn a bit of history even in the absence of much human civilization, running into the old Eden Baptist Church, where the congregation had helped runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad: discuss.
Speaking of the Civil War, I have not yet moved far west enough to avoid further stories of that bygone family squabble. Mike told us on the ride back of Chillicothe being threatened by Morgan's Raiders, a feared group of rebel cavalrymen. They responded by burning down their bridge. The river, being less than a foot deep was quite fordable, but fortunately for the poor morons the town was saved when the Raiders ran out of granola and had to go back home so their granny could bake more.
CAD was a bit wiped out after our thirteen miles were through, so we had a big meal and headed back to the hotel. I'm going to grow quite spoiled after a week with a bed and now a few days with a pool. I'll probably wander around the next campsite trying to find the jacuzzi and sauna.

13 miles/728 total miles