Product Review: Swiss Gear Hiking Pole

I've recently purchased my first real piece of hiking equipment. It's a hiking pole made by Swiss Gear. It's something I've been wanting since I started hiking. My sense of balance going downhill and crossing streams over logs is a bit iffy, so I wanted something that could provide a little extra balance. Eventually I may get two, but for now I just wanted the one so I can keep a hand free for the camera.

The Swiss Gear Hiking Pole is a very nice piece of equipment for the price. I bought mine at Dick's Sports, which tends to be a little pricey, but I have seen it slightly cheaper at Wal-mart and online at Amazon. It's red aluminum with black ergonomic handles. The stick can be easily adjusted to height (which is great because I'm short). The handle has a small compass embedded in the head. I double checked mine and it seems to be working appropriately.

I've taken it out on my first hike and it worked just as I hoped it would. There is little to no flexing in the pole. The tip comes with a plastic cover or you can remove it to reveal the spike (would I would expect will be more useful during the winter months). I have found that just about or slightly above elbow height works best for me. I would give this product 4.5 stars out of 5.

Indiana's Largest Waterfall (per volume)

 

Cataract Falls, IN

Back around mid-October, my boyfriend and I went on a photography/hiking trip to Indiana's largest waterfall (per water volume), Cataract Falls. It's located in West Central Indiana, about halfway between Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Due to the drought season we've been having here in the Midwest, the falls were at an all time low, so we were actually able to get close up and see features that were normally hidden by the river.

The Falls themselves are actually broken up into an upper and lower by about a mile or so of wandering riverbed. Geologically speaking, Indiana (and a good portion of the Midwest) was at one time at the bottom of an inland sea. Because of this, the primary rock is sedimentary in origin (mostly limestone, shale, clays, etc.) Cataract Falls is a great place to observe the layered nature of these stones and how water works to erode them. Even more interesting is what happens when a much harder stone is trapped within those layers and then eroded out through river action, as in the picture above "River at Work". In fact, because of the low level of the river, we were able to observe an almost alien moonscape that the river had churned out when it is running at full capacity. The imagery was fantastic! Who could imagine that such details were hidden beneath the water's surface?

Hiking and Textural Photography

Almost from the beginning of this year's hiking adventure, I've been taking pictures. The pictures I tend to take are more of textures, then things. Most of my images tend to be more close up. I am fascinated with the way patterns and colors interact in nature. I've always got my eye on the dirt in front of me or the way that water moves in rivers and lakes. My boyfriend gets a kick out of it. He tends to focus on a much larger picture, which is fine for a nature and wildlife photographer (photograph3r.com), but sometimes I will see things that he has missed. For instance, I love the way color plays across water. While he's taking pictures of the fall leaves on the opposite bank of the river, I'm taking pictures of the same leaf color as it dances on the river. To me, this is even more timeless, almost abstract. The fall color on water pictures you see in the slide show below have almost a Monet quality to them that I couldn't resist. And I love the contrast of the actual leaves floating through the color!

Fall Colors

Above are my latest collection of pictures from Holliday Park. This time we pretty much stuck to the trail alongside the White River. The colors of the leaves were still pretty good and as you can see, danced vividly on the water.

It was also a great opportunity to capture some wildlife, which is usually hidden among the foliage. The robin looks quite cold, doesn't he?! The chill of fall was definitely in the air that day! The woodpecker was working at full tilt, from tree to tree, trying to find what bugs he could before they burrowed too deep in the wood for winter.

Downtime

I've been feeling kind of bad about having such huge spaces between postings, so I thought I should find something to fill in the space, for those one or two (wishful thinking!) viewers that might check in on this blog every once in a blue moon. :)

It's not always easy to get out on the weekends, especially when you are in the middle of home repair! We're in the process of renovating/rebuilding our bathroom, so things have been a bit busy. I have crazy work hours, so my part in this fun can only happen on the weekends. In a way, this is also a bit of a workout. I'm painting the drywall at the moment, so I have to step up and down from a stool to get to the paint pan. Not quite the same as scrambling down a ravine or climbing stone steps in a park, but hey! I'll take what I can get.

Don't get me wrong, I'm missing my hikes terribly! Happily we have another trip to the Ohio Renaissance Faire next week and then a trip to southern Indiana the first weekend of October (Happy Birthday to me!). We're heading back to Lake Rudolph for another camping weekend and we are going to side trip it over to the Hoosier State Park while we are there. Should be great fun! I've signed up to be a volunteer photographer, so maybe you'll see some of my pictures on their website soon.

Until then....keep stomping!

The Ohio Renaissance Festival

This weekend was all about the Ohio Renaissance Festival! This festival starts around Labor Day and ends right before Halloween. We've been going every year for approximately 10 years and I've never been disappointed. Despite some recently developed pain in my heels, I was more than happy to tread up and down the hills on the fair ground to see the wonderful shows and take in the crafts and food. I highly recommend it!

How does this relate to my hiking? Well, we were on our feet for about 3 out of 4 1/2 hours (my heels will attest to that). The grounds are not paved and are far from flat, so you definitely have to put in some physical effort to move around. And if the hills don't get you, the gravel paths will! We covered approximately 2 plus miles Sunday afternoon taking in the entertainment, which was often located on opposite sides of the grounds.

The pictures above are as follows:

Picture #1 - Our good Queen Elizabeth (represented by a new person this year) and her royal court.

Picture #2 - An on-rushing knight in the midst of a joust.

Picture #3 - The Skull and Bones swordsmen troupe. Great act! They are not "The Swordsmen" quite yet, but they are a close second!

Picture #4 - Daniel, Duke of Danger - One of my favorite acts of the faire. If you go, you must catch his act! In this picture he is preparing for one of his balancing acts and trying to draw in the crowd.

Small Adventures

Remember when you were child and a test of balance was walking the thin line of a tire curb? I still enjoy doing this as an adult.

During my 15 minute breaks from my computer at work, I like to go for short walks to get some fresh air. The front of the building I work in has a nice curb that separates blacktop from lawn and rises about four or five inches off the ground and runs the length of the building (several hundred feet). Great balancing material! I like to go out and walk this length to clear my head and refocus. The curb kind of tilts back and forth (not perfectly flat), so it can be a bit of a challenge.

At the end of this run of curb is a sidewalk that leads to a pretty round flower bed filled with an assortment of flowers. I like to go here to see the different little butterflies and moths. Usually it's a pretty standard assortment, but today I got a special treat, a 2-3 inch long Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thisbe). It was absolutely magnificent! Unfortunately, we are not allowed to bring cameras into our building, so I couldn't get a picture of it, but I did find a nice one from the web that comes really close. Note the green hairs on the back and the translucent wings. It's easy to see how someone could confuse this with a real hummingbird at first glance. This moth has some real weight to it! Sometimes you see the greatest things on even the shortest of walks!