Devou State Park

[Flyin6]

For today's short adventure, Kat and I explored a nearby state park which occupies several hills and overlooks downtown Cincinnati

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There is a golf course there, 11 miles of hiking/biking trails, a fishing lake, pavillions and sprawling picnic areas. It overlooks downtown Cincinnati and the Ohio River from nearly 500 feet above. The view of downtown is impressive.

The lower "Blue" bridge is the famous "Robling Bridge which is the very first steel cable suspension bridge in the nation. It was built as a proof of concept before building the Brooklyn Bridge in the New Your City.

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And who can explain this "Object" that just showed up in my photo? A bird? Chinese spy balloon? Or a tear in the fabric of space-time? ;-)

I chopped that out of a pic that was in the series of the ones I took of downtown. Seems the original went away...

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There is this cool amphitheater on a hill side.

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Views from around the hill top where the paved roads are located, all within the park itself

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We hiked two of the many trails. One was a short 1 mile level trail that meandered above the city where we saw wild turkey, and so close to the traffic of Interstate 75 and downtown Cincy.

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Next up we tackled one that descended to the base of those hills, winding through the hillside. Then, unfortunately for us, it reversed and offered an unrelenting uphill climb that will wind the best of you. It was a gut check to finish that one!

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Check out the cool ground cover. Also, this was the first walk of any consequence in my new Keen light hikers. I love Keen boots. They run wider than others and I fit fine in a 13R.

Oh and a bird dive-bombed me and scored a direct hit!

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We didn't hike the "Backside of the park, that will happen next time. But the trails are more extensive, and one park ranger told us a lot steeper.

I think Kentucky hiking is really about the hills. I can't remember many walks where I wasn't beating my knees up on a downhill or huffing and puffing climbing a steep hill.

All in all, it was another enjoyable day exploring in our mid-west backyard.

[Flyin6]

Today we did Devou 2.0

The first day we hiked the front side mainly because of its scenic overlook of Cincinnati. A mile or so to the southwest is the forested part of the park divided into two parts. We did one of those today.

It has a bunch of interconnecting trails that more or less meet up with one another at some point allowing the hiker to jump around and make for a "Custom" walking experience.

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The beginner trail was super easy without much elevation change. We used it to access "The Goat Trail" well inside the park. The Goat Trail takes you up rapidly to high up on the hill where you can find additional trails.

It had rained the night before, but knowing we wanted to see how the boots were working out in the mud, we went anyway.

Wouldn't you know it, when Kat got there, she took off in her sneakers for fear of getting her new boots dirty!!!

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Goat path, trailhead:

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Wild flowers were in bloom

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The ascent was not as brutal as I encountered on the north side of that hill the other day

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I had to take a short break near the top ;-)

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I don't know what this bird was thinking, putting all that work into a nest right beside the trail???

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But we ended up hiking most of the trail system in that section of the park. We'll cross the road to the remote section, next time.