This past Saturday was a gorgeous day to be outside. The sky was blue and the temperatures were mild. In my world, that meant it was a good day to go hiking.
So, I made a picnic lunch and headed out the door to start my day of adventure.
I drove over to Lake Monroe and arrived at the Turkey Trot Trail at Allens Creek State Recreation Area.
The reservoir was built in 1964 by the Louisville District of the Army Corpof Engineers and designed originally for flood control for the White River.
Lake Monroe is 538 feet above sea level. The water covers 10,750 acres while the total land that makes up Lake Monroe is 23,952 acres.
There is a boat launch at Allens Creek but the trail goes through the forest and eventually leads to the water’s edge. The trail is 1.75 miles in length and is considered moderate in ease of hiking. It’s an in-and-out trail, so total miles can be more.
There’s not an official sign at the trailhead but it’s easy to find because it’s located at the upper parking lot with a gate in front of it. The trail is pretty much an old forest road, which I believe makes it easier to hike.
When I arrived at the trailhead, I was happy to see there were not many cars in the parking lot.
The trail started as a slow climb, not steep, but a climb just as well. It was a very beautiful walk, with trees displaying a variety of green hues. The leaves were filling out on the trees to make a nice canopy of shade overhead.
I could hear the sound of a pileated woodpecker drilling a tree in the distance. Probably looking for a meal.
It was a pleasant walk and I took a deep breath, taking in the scent of the damp earth and forest. The hill leveled out and I found myself on a high ridge. Then I started descending a hill.
The trail was up and down a couple of times but still easy enough to call moderate.
Eventually, I came to a place where the trail split into two directions. I remembered this trail well and I turned to the left.
I soon came out on the shoreline of the lake. I had arrived at a small cove with a rocky beach, littered with rocks and fossils. I had the cove to myself except for a couple of small fishing boats in the distance.
It was a pretty amazing. The water and the weather, the beautiful shoreline and the solitude. The water level of the lake was up a bit from the recent rains.
This left me a smaller space on the shore where I could walk. I explored and examined lots of rocks. I had a little picnic lunch with me and found a flat rock to sit on. I enjoyed the view of the lake while eating my sandwich — just a perfect day.
When I researched the history of this area, I read that at one time, the area was a higher ridge. But when the lake was constructed in the early 1960s and the dam was built, the water line rose quite a bit, which covered many of the fossils in the area.
Sometimes the water still covers the fossils. Today was one of those days.
So I spent my time there just relaxing and enjoying the day. It was soon time to return to my car, so I headed back the way I came.
It was a wonderful hike and a great day at the lake.
To get to this place: Travel south of Bloomington on Ind. 446, after crossing the causeway over the lake, you will see a sign to turn on the west side of the road. Allens Creek Road will take you to a parking area near a boat launch.
A quote for your week: “It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.” — “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, American writer
Until the next trail, Susan.
This article originally appeared on Evening World: A Hiker’s Path: Even with high water, lakeside trail at Allens Creek is worth a visit
Reporting by Susan Anderson / Evening World
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
