Cook Forest - Part 2 / Day 1
Sunday, June 20, 2010
I'm not sure when most people plan their summer vacations. I think I started a bit early but by the time I had anything figured out I heard quite a few people had theirs planned as well. After quite a bit of discussion, we decided to stay within driving distance, preferably within 5 hours driving distance, of home. Maybe it's surprising, but this actually gives us quite a huge number of places to choose from here in Ohio. We narrowed it down further to something "outdoorsy" and still had plenty of options. I really wanted a beach trip but thanks to BP that's wasn't a gamble I wanted to take. We decided on Lake Erie (I mean it's 'pret near' St. John in almost - ah - well - zero ways). The lake is relatively shallow but we wanted to give the water time to warm-up a bit and pushed that to August. After plans for a family vacation (on both sides) never materialized, I took advantage of the fact my mom was sitting my niece and nephew somewhat last-minute in June for a week. I suggested Cook Forest and it all came together wonderfully.
We rented a 1-bedroom state cabin in the grouping called the Indian Cabins. These are organized in a circle around the shower facilities. I gotta say my largest concern was the shower because in the 80s those things were grimy spider homes! But they've been completely redone and they were really, really nice! Really! Even with the lil spider living in #3 it was spacious and clean and made the excursion that much easier. My mom even implied she would consider staying there now. This time they got a motel about 10 miles outside the park because my mom said she no longer wanted to "rough it." I'm pretty sure we weren't roughing it. We didn't have running water but it was about 20 yards away. That was as rough as it got.
We planned only to stay 2-nights (3-days) as we thought that would be plenty of time with a toddler in the woods. I regret we could not have planned a longer stay. We jammed a lot into that time though we started off slow. We arrived just before nap time so we unpacked, ate lunch, and put J down. Thankfully he fell asleep quickly. The kids were bored though so Caine headed off to the Children's Fishing pond while my mom & I took Alana on a short hike.
As you enter the Indian Cabins area you cross a bridge where Tom's Run has been dammed and the little pond it creates is the Children's Fishing Pond. It's kept stocked with trout and no one over age 12 is supposed to be fishing there. We saw that was not always followed that well but for the most part the pond was always swarmed with kids. Caine caught a total of 15 fish over three days. His first 3 were during J's nap and ended up accompanying dinner that night.
After J's nap we did the same hike again but with the entire group. This is the BIG hike - big in anticipation and excitement. It was the hike to the swinging bridge, always a crowd-pleaser. If you saw my previous post you saw one of many photos on the swinging bridge when I was a kid. It's a suspension bridge that swings and sways and bounces too depending on how gently (or crazy) you cross it. I didn't like taking J across. Funny that earlier that day the bridge seemed to be in fine shape and completely safe for J. Once he was actually on it though I noticed all sorts of hazards and was totally freaking out. I put D in charge of bridge crossings as he was clearly less obsessive than I.
Earlier that day, we had spotted what looked like a large koi in the stream, under the bridge , and my dad said it was a palomino trout. Very pretty. Caine wanted to catch it but my mother and I simultaneously nixed that idea with "What?!? Why?!?! No!" After splashing in the water, and a rescue mission for a lost sandal in the stream, we continued on the path to a waterfall. The stream makes an S-turn at the waterfall and the water has room to spread out and slow down with the help of a little rock dam. This has always been a favorite place to splash and wade in the water. This year the water was nice and deep but also icy cold. Though we all waded in the water a few seconds, Alana was the only one able to brave the cold for long; she left soaked.
We got back just in time to make dinner - fresh caught trout and veggie dogs over the fire and of course smores. So far that day J was gaining confidence on the trails and in the water - and he was loving having his cousins to play with. We had packed cars and balls and some other toys that seemed to entertain every age group including my husband. An essential that night was an early bedtime due to sheer exhaustion on everyone's part. We had stayed at my mom's the night before and J had a hard time sleeping. Since we were sharing a room with him we probably made it worse and hence lost a lot of sleep ourselves. I don't drink coffee, but even if I did I still would have been draggin' by sunset.
posted by Shannon @ 20.6.10,
