Limberlost Swamp, Loblolly Marsh
September 8, 2009

Departing under the threat of rain after a drippy early morning, we enjoyed a day outdoors with temps in the 70s and clouds gradually dissipating.

What a great hike we had in Limberlost Swamp and Loblolly Marsh, beautiful but insectful. I’m wondering what it is about marsh equals mosquitoes that I don’t understand. At any rate, the little whiner/biters were a problem only for a part of our time out there.

It’s a fascinating area, diverse with prairie, woods and swamps. We lingered long at a good-sized pond rich with bird life and turtles, lots of leopard frogs - green and black - hopping across our path. In fact, one landed on top of my foot, inspiring Chris to make some remark about “Rita shrieks with frogs”.

Everywhere we went today we heard many bird calls that were unknown to us. When all was said and done, though, we got only two new birds for the trip: a gray catbird and a yellow-shafted northern flicker.

Acres and acres of goldenrod were in full bloom, many types of head-high prairie grass waved sunlit seed heads in the soft breath of wind, thistles and myriad botanicals I’ve never encountered: it was lush and rich.

At every turn, we saw critters and creatures and flowers of all kinds and puffballs of a gargantuan size, impressive fungi of many kinds.

Which reminds me: did you hear about the mushroom that walked into the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender replied, “We don’t serve your kind here.” “Why not?” asked the mushroom. “I’m a fun-guy.”

After wandering trails throughout Loblolly, we explored wandering back roads through Amish country and the small town of Geneva, encountering horse and buggy travelers often. Chris had read about a covered bridge he wanted to see nearby. It is called the Ceylon Bridge for reasons I know not, and was constructed in 1860 - amazing that it stands still. Oddly, it no longer spans the Wabash River because the Wabash was channelized long ago to straighten out a meander and to accommodate shipping traffic.

It’s hard to imagine the Wabash at that point being navigable. When I see it now, I wonder about the ability to get even our kayaks any distance along it. We are told it was named for the Indian words meaning pure white water, but it is now a sluggish green slimy waterway. I can’t think this is the result of low water only because it has obviously flooded very recently, but still scarcely moves, and bears zero resemblance to its ages-ago characteristic of clear water flowing over white limestone.

Nevertheless, I’d love to fish the Wabash waters. When we hiked out into what’s called the Rainbow Bottoms, prairie land adjacent to the current channel within the area of its previous meander, we found little access to the river itself, but later spotted a river trail in the opposite direction that not only provided many places to get to the water, but also led us through deep quiet hardwood forest.

I really wanted to continue along the river; each turn of the watercourse beckoned me on, unfortunately, further exploration will have to wait until another trip here.

My puniness prevented us from doing all we wanted, but under any circumstances, we could not have done all we would like to here. Our journeying today took us to a place called Amishville, which includes an RV park that might be good to use for the next trip, which would put us in closer proximity to the Wabash and Limberlost.

Supper tonight was cornbread-stuffed tomatoes (the vegetables fresh from Jeff & Deb’s garden), a recipe I found in an annual "Southern Living" cook book, a gift from Melissa. It was delicious, made more so undoubtedly by the estimated four miles we hiked today.