Off the Map

Remember that Billings Creek Trail that I said I wanted to do and then found out that it wasn't on the map or on the Trail Challenge anymore?

Well, I met up with a hiking friend who was camping at the Reserve not far from the Un-Trail Trail head. So I asked him if he'd ever been on that trail before it was removed from the official map.

Jason said no and promptly asked me to show it to him. 

Whoops. Who is this Jason guy? Well I met him on New Years Eve of 2021 while hiking The Valley of Ice in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

We've kept in touch and hiked together once in January with my friend Bill and the dogs. Jason prefers early spring, fall, and winter hiking to avoid the nasty bugs that apparently like to bite him. 

So we headed off to the Off the Map Trail.

We spend a lot of time exploring the bluffs I'd explored last week. I explained to him that apparently the trail was too hard to maintain and even though it was there for the Challenge last year, it had been removed from both the Challenge and the current maps. 

It is obvious though, that people still do hike it as it is foot-worn in places and there are places where someone has clipped brush back with a pair of nippers. Our conclusion is that it is still hiked by folks like me.

I didn't take many photos at all. Jason described how the river bluffs were formed and he was able to even name some of the mushrooms we found.

I was able to ID flora and fauna for him when he asked. I guess it suffices to say that we were learning from each other. 

Here he is below with Charlie. Who doesn't love Charlie? 

Here is a photo he took of me and the dogs on the same pine logs. I was holding dog cookies behind my head so the two dogs would sit on each side of me.

Piper was fun. She rolled Charlie a few times in play. Charlie was the wimp and ran to Jason for help. Jason told Piper to settle down and she did. The two dogs really got along together. Charlie just has a bit of a melt down when he's pounced on.

I don't envy the clean up that Jason has to go through after his hikes to clean the burrs out of her hair. 

We eventually found the origin of Billings Creek where it is a tiny tributary of the Kickapoo River. I was surprised and hadn't even thought about ...the where of how Billings Creek originated. I knew it as a stream that is pretty wide only a few miles away by WildCat Mountain State Park.

Jason also studies water flow in the area, so he was an excellent source of even more learning!

We stepped over it. The tiny stream at that point is so inconsequential that I never thought to take a photo of it. [I will next time!]

Billings Creek from a mile away just south of County F looks like this.

This portion of the creek is considered a great trout stream.

We turned around yet again before we reached the stream crossing. That's okay, Jason's foot hurt and I didn't want him to try and get through all the downfalls that were waiting just a 100 or so yards away. We walked on the footpath all the way back to the Winchell Valley Road and leashed up the dogs.

While we were gone it looked like 4 other vehicles had parked by us. We started to walk past a big red truck and being friendly we said hello.

The guys were putting on waders and what looked like trout fishing stuff. I was curious. 

"Fly fishing the Kickapoo?" I asked.

"Nope," one guy said, "We will be fishing Billings Creek!"

I glanced at Jason and tipped my head. "Oh, well, wouldn't you want to be on County F where Billings Creek is really flowing?"

The other guy spoke up as he adjusted his waders. "Nope," he said, "we only have to walk along the Kickapoo right over to those pines." He pointed towards the bluffs we'd just been hiking on.

He then hiked up his waders and asked Jason why we'd just come out of the woods. 

Jason shrugged, "We were hiking an old trail up there. It follows the river to Billings Creek."

The other dude stretched and picked up his gear. 

"We drove in from Indiana to fish Billings Creek. We'll either take the trail or just walk along the river here."

I nodded slowly and glanced at Jason once more.

Jason remained expressionless and said, "Good luck!"

We turned and walked away with the dogs in tow. 

"Jason, those guys are not getting to any place they can trout/fly fish on Billings Creek from here!"

Jason smiled, "But they also know better than we do. Let them find out on their own."

In conclusion? For those fisher-people dudes, perhaps they should listen to the locals? But their body language and tone of voice were that of  

~~ We know better than you do~~. 

Our hike together was fun and very educational. I learned things about sand that I never even knew. The dogs had a great time, and we promised to keep in touch for some more winter hiking and some Off the Map trails I still know about.

I even made it home before we had company arrive.