Because it was expected to be another brutally hot day, we got up early to be on the trail by 9 am. We planned to hike section points 9-11 which we skipped last time here. It was projected to be mostly towpath or woods hiking, which would help. When we first got started, we were met by an EXTREMELY friendly orange cat in Wayne Park, who took an annoying liking to me despite my best efforts to ignore him. Naturally April encouraged his friendly behavior, as well as that of another cat, to the point that the orange tabby kept following us for like a quarter mile along the road and we worried that it would cross a busy road and join us on the towpath trail…which it thankfully did not and turned around at the last minute. This was a welcomed hike in the shaded woods along a well-marked trail. It was amazing to see how many critters were burrowing into this towpath – must have been a complex city network underfoot. You really had to pay attention not to twist an ankle. The path was also crisscrossed by spiderwebs, making it necessary to carry a stick in front of your face to intercept them, usually with spiders in tow! Eventually the BT came out of the woods and ran along the edge of farm fields = soy and corn. I learned here for the first time that corn stalks can provide much more shade than soybean plants and was amazed at how regularly the corn was planted and how strong its roots anchored it into the soil. I was never up so close and personal to a corn field and came away very impressed! The BT tucked back into the woods, and along with the many burrow holes we came across some truly magnificent trees that had to be very old. The size of the tree trunks in the remaining canal was also a testament to how long it had been dry.
We were done by noon and came back to camp and relaxed over lunch. It was still very hot and humid, but our shaded campsite was pleasant as long as you didn’t move much. April and I went into town and Wendy stayed back at camp for the afternoon. I went to the library to explore its architecture, which was remuddled inside, and enjoy some AC while I read my book. I was glad to see an issue of the BT magazine across from me in the periodical section! April joined me after window shopping antique stores in Defiance and we headed back to camp to wrap things up. We decided to head out the next day early (thanks to two bald eagles having a loud discussion in trees at our site at 6:30am) so April and I could get home to watch the USWNT World Cup match against Vietnam (in our AC’d condo because we deserved it). So, the good news is that we did manage to finish the Defiance section of the BT over two extended camping outings at Independence Dam State Park, but I think we learned that some days we bit off more than we could chew so we have to allow ourselves a better mix of hiking to leisure activity so that we don’t repeat subjecting ourselves to any more miserable days again.
