The Wonderfully Fantastic and Sometimes Curious Life of John Patrick Rausch

"Motivated, dedicated, and a little bit dangerous"  Date: August 26th Location: Bell Mountain and Johnson Shut-ins Route: Bell Mountain Loop from Highway A & Johnson Shut-in Footpath Stats: 14 miles @ 2,000 ft elevation gain Weather: Overcast with a little showers, mid to upper 80s.       Unable to sleep due to the sheer excitement of another day spent hiking and swimming my body was excited out of bed by 3:30am. I went about my morning routines and around 4:40 the first intrepid adventurer showed up. A steady stream of people started rolling in until we reached critical mass at 5:30am and rolled out.      The group got on trail by 7:30 after a very very high energy drive down. Starting off with a trail rosary we ascended the first big pitch of the day. The trail then petered out as we got onto the main loop and we all settled into a variety of fun and serious conversations. Things went by very quickly in a way that could be described w...

 Date: July 22nd Location: Hawn State Park Route: White Oak and Whispering Pine Trail Double Loop (Figure 8)  Stats: 13.1 miles @ 1463 ft elevation gain Weather: Cool clear morning to hot mid day After making a rather pleasant hour and a half drive from my domicile, myself and a few other trepid hikers embarked on what would turn out to be a very diverse ~13 mile loop at Hawn State Park.  I was very excited to be checking out another new state park (three in as many months.) The trail we selected was two big loops with an additional small loop at the very far mid point. From start to finish we traversed steep rocky pitches, bluff lines, river side trails, hiked in the river bed for a while (off trail), some flat woodlands of both pine and oak, and a couple open spots. It was a mostly shaded trail which was much appreciated as the day aged and the cool morning gave way to sweltering heat.  The trail itself was very easy except for the last couple of miles (going coun...