Only half loopy

Three of us got half-loopy yesterday while the fourth had visions of armadilloes dancing in his head. Okay, it was a singular armadillo, and I doubt that it was dancing. The Texas kid had classes on Wednesday and is still having car trouble, so instead of coming home for Thanksgiving break, he went with his roommate to Oklahoma, where they saw an armadillo and got snowed on while picking cotton, both experiences unlikely to happen in Ohio.

The Kentucky kid is here, though, so the three of us have been doing typical family things like building a fire in the fireplace and playing games of Trivial Pursuit that drag on for days. (I won handily Thursday afternoon, but the kid and the old guy have been playing for second place on and off ever since.) Yesterday afternoon we took a break for a long walk, a four-mile round trip on narrow country roads I've recently come to know and love.

I take two routes up through that area, one that follows the creek through a wooded valley beside a steep hill and another that climbs the hill and follows the ridge up above. I normally walk out a mile and two and then back, but a few weeks ago I realized that the two roads must come together at some point and therefore it should be possible to make a loop and enjoy both hilltop and creekside scenery in the same walk. But where do the roads come together, and how long would it take to walk that loop?

So not long ago I drove the loop just to see whether walking it is feasible. The roads get narrower and twistier and more like corduroy before they come together, but the scenery is absolutely astonishing and the walk would be well worth the effort.

How far is it? 5.9 miles. I've been doing three miles fairly regularly and yesterday we walked four, but it'll take some effort to make a nearly six-mile walk full of steep climbs and drops. I can't do it now, especially with the weather turning quite cold, but it's the kind of goal that can keep me working out at the rec center all winter: one pleasant day next spring I'll walk the whole loop. Yesterday was just a preliminary warm-up, a sort of half-loopy lope. It was good to be together and even better to get back to the house, sit in front of the fire, drink hot cocoa, and defrost after our cold winter's walk.