Hiking companions Lynn Rush and Ken Johnson (center right) pause to enjoy a close peek at the Mohican River as it meanders below the Pleasant Hill Dam on the early part of its run to New Orleans. Here, the trail to Big Lyon’s Falls leaves the river and begins a cooperative ascent to that frozen geologic attraction.


THE MOHICAN STATE PARK—
Aglow in late winter sunshine

High up on the rock formation while hiking above the Pleasant Hill Lake outlet we peered at the near vertical fall from our trail position to the roaring water far below.

We had just concluded it would be a very unpleasant experience to tumble from here when my feet shot out from under me and I landed smack on my pack while my head snapped back into the loosely trampled snow.

Fortunately, my prone bones were parallel with the trail, safely away from the tumble and the only damage came in the form of mild embarrassment.

Earlier that morning we headed along the Big Lyon’s Trail from the covered bridge in Mohican State Park. The crystal-clear river sluiced along beside us, its gentle swish barely nudging the natural silence of the snow-clad, pine woods.

An uncommonly brilliant mid-winter sun was just clearing the ridge line behind us and spraying crisp shadows across the sparkling snow.

We flushed a blue heron from its breakfast fishing spot along the stream’s edge and he loped from our view in his slow-motion impersonation of a prehistoric Pterodactyl.

The trail contours along the river for about ½ mile then turns sharply left and ascends gently another half mile or so where it passes a sign announcing an intersection with the Stagecoach Trail, just before the falls arrives in view.

No matter how often I pass this “intersection” I cannot possibly imagine a stagecoach ever negotiating its way through this convoluted maze of sedimentary rock hills.

Over geologic time the falls has chiseled a vertical amphitheater in the sandstone formation and on that winter day was proudly sporting a crystal column frozen in the gentle flow of the creek over the far above rim.

You want to tip your hat and give Mother Nature a round of applause.

From there it was another ½ mile or so of ascent to Little Lyon’s Falls; ever more slippery as the sun splashed us with its welcome warmth. That formation looks like a large, pesky sinkhole in the process of collapsing into itself—but, I was thinking kind thoughts about its geology until I was safely past.

Somewhere along there I heard Ken share the tune, “Hey Diddle Diddle, I’m off into the trees for a Piddle,” (or words to that effect). Lynn and I enjoyed his merriment with a discrete pause as he went out of sight muttering something that sounded like “yellow snow”.

Somehow I missed the concluding words to that rhyme.

The ascent portion of our hike ended with a “U” turn on the Pleasant Hill Lake dam and a very careful descent along its slippery face, accomplished, in part, by Ken as he whizzed the last little bit of the way compliments of a nearly destroyed plastic slide which had been abandoned by its previous owner.

Hope I never grow too old to go outside and play.

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In the smaller photos above early morning sunshine coaxes delicate color from the evergreens along the Big Lyon’s Falls trail (top) while companions Ken and Lynn are dwarfed by the crystallized column where water has frozen below the fall’s rim.

In the lower photo Ken and Lynn are silhouetted by the covered bridge as we head back to the car—clearly the only one in the parking area that morning. The only person we encountered on the near 3 mile hike was a lone fisherman casting for Saugeye in the dam’s tailwaters.