Hiking

[Catrin]

Very interesting. Where I prefer to hike is inside a very large, remote state park in southern Indiana with at least 50 miles of trails (both hiking & mtb) that are physically connected with external (mtb) trail systems in surrounding national forests. There are also horse trails but they are separate systems.

There is a lot of old growth forest, and while there is undergrowth of course, it isn't very tall - which I think differs from down south which may explain the lack of flies and webbing. I've heard terrible stories about black flies in Michigan during certain months so they must favor certain conditions that we don't have. Some trails are heavily used by hikers and mountain bikers, some may only see a couple a day or less - especially the double black diamond trail - I used to be crazy enough to hike that one solo There is a part of THAT trail that is actually more dangerous to walk than to ride and it's dangerous to ride. Beautiful trail though, but I can no longer risk it.

Rattlesnakes are protected in this state park and campers are warned about them when they check in. Park staff will remove them from a campsite when reported but the rattler is released back to the same location when the camper checks out. As much as I've been there I've yet to see any snake outside of periodic rescued snakes in the nature center - usually a rattler or two. I make a lot of noise if I leave the trail for any reason, just in case. Someone lost a pet in the campground a couple years ago because they decided the rules didn't apply to them and didn't leash their little dog. They tried to sue but couldn't get it off the ground as the rules are quite clear - and everyone is told why.

[emily_in_nc]

Yikes, Catrin, did not know there were rattlesnakes in Indiana!

I think you're probably right about the height and density of vegetation having something to do with the spiderwebs. Also, the width of a trail plays into it. The wider the trail, the fewer spiders can spin a web across it!

I just published a blog post about our last, longest hike in Hot Springs NP if you are interested. This is the one where we ran into a lot of spider webs in the first few miles, which were a part of the trail that gets little use and had definitely not been used that day. Once we passed Jack's Pond, we got to more well-used and wider parts of the trail and didn't have any more issues with webs. No flies that day either. This hike was on June 5, and it was quite hot, but a beautiful hike.

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...-national-park

I don't think we've hiked since then, actually, though we've done plenty of walking.

[Catrin]

Interesting link, thanks! I do suspect that walking trails may sometimes be more narrow than mountain bike trails - and that's what I usually hike. Around here, even in my favorite park, it tends to be the opposite - hiking trails are quite often wider and rarely more narrow but I'm sure that isn't a general rule everywhere.

[Aromig]

As much as I've been there I've yet to see any snake outside of periodic rescued snakes in the nature center - usually a rattler or two. I make a lot of noise if I leave the trail for any reason, just in case.

That's exactly what I do -- I make lots of noise and trust that they don't want to see me anymore than I want to see them :-) I've yet to see a rattlesnake in Brown County State Park. My husband, however, came very close to a rattlesnake on the Nebo Ridge Trail in the Hoosier National Forest while geocaching two years ago, and I've had friends see them in Morgan-Monroe State Forest for about the past six or seven years. Although endangered, the Timber Rattlesnake population has certainly grown a lot in the past few years in Indiana and I'm hearing about more and more sightings (although my herpetologist friend who desperately wants to see one in Indiana has failed to find one yet although he's been actively looking!)