Day 4 – Clifty Falls to after Lexington, IN

Have I mentioned that it’s hot? Everybody’s first comment to me as I arrive in a new location, sweat-drenched, is that I picked a hell of a time to walk here. I heard on the news last night that the hottest temperatures of the year are sweeping through the area. It’s been around 90 pretty much every day, with plenty of humidity. Surprisingly, it felt worst first thing this morning, as I hiked through Clifty Falls; it seemed like the trees had held the humid air closely overnight, and now it was mixed with a million spiderwebs. I brushed five or six large spiders off of me over the walk, which leaves me wondering how many I missed.

During the walk, this translated into some combination of generosity and pity (it’s hard to know where that line gets drawn). I had a particularly nice time at the Chelsea General Store (in Chelsea, Indiana), talking with the cashier about her hopes to travel once she gets her son off to college. (He’s about to start sixth grade.) At the end of our conversation, she told me that my lunch was on the house and she wished me well. A couple of hours later, I found myself in another corner store / fast food joint, Leroy’s Food Mart in Lexington. As I waited to order, the lady working on the grocery side sprinted over to insist that I remove my pack first, to be more relaxed. Later, the lady making my pizza shared the internal wifi password with me, despite it not being for public use. And finally, as I prepared to leave, no less than six people wished me well and implored me to be safe.

Leaving Lexington, the plan was to find a willing homeowner to let me pitch my tent in the corner of their yard. To be clear, yards here are not like yards in Portland. Yards here put city parks to shame. Even moderately nice houses routinely come equipped with their own fishing pond. But the lawns? The lawns could accommodate football games and they are, almost without fail, immaculately maintained and lush. My days have been an endless parade of corn, lawns, and porches–that may be how I remember Indiana (and maybe a few other states before I’m done).

Anyway, other ADT vets have made this process sound straight-forward enough. Indeed, in many cases the story is lovely: a) find an appropriate house, b) have the family jump at the opportunity to host, c) after a moment’s pause, the family even invites the hiker in for a shower, or dinner, or maybe even to sleep in a guest room inside. It sounds awesome.

After walking for a bit and not seeing anyone outside, I finally goaded myself into knocking on a door at a likely house. (What made me determine a place to be a likely house? Not a decrepit trailer, but not a palace. Evidence of kids–a trampoline, bikes, etc. A “welcome” sign or at least the absence of multiple, insistent “no trespassing” signs. My ideal goal is to only ask at places where people are already outside, but that has been unattainable so far.) 

That was a long parenthetical aside–let’s reset. I knocked at my first house. No answer. Next house: no answer.” I kept walking. I felt really good about the fifth house. I could hear someone inside. No answer. As I left, someone pulled into the driveway on the other side of the road–perfect. I walked halfway up their driveway. The woman stayed in her car, not looking at me. I waited half a minute, figuring she was finishing a phone call or a song, but then I took the hint and backtracked, continuing down the road. About a minute later, BANG! I turned around–birds exploded outward from every nearby tree. And back up the hill behind me, I saw the woman, staring directly at me from her deck. I wasn’t close enough to see what was in her hand; I can’t say for a fact that she was making a statement. But I sure took it that way and kept moving forward.

In an area where signs are common that read “Due to the rising cost of ammo, don’t expect a warning shot,” I guess courtesy isn’t entirely dead!

A few minutes later, a police officer pulled me over. He said he got a call that someone in the neighborhood saw me knocking on the home of an elderly resident, and they were concerned that I might be scamming the person. I explained what I was doing and expressed remorse for potentially disturbing an elder, and he rolled his eyes and said “it’s not illegal to knock on someone’s door.” He started brainstorming places I could crash for the night, mentioning that I should feel comfortable sleeping at any church or in any memorial, and noting that there was one such place a few miles down the road. He went on his way.

15 minutes after that, I took another chance, catching an older man on the phone in front of his house–a lovely brick building with a half-dozen cars out front. He introduced himself as Randy, a disabled veteran. He immediately pointed me to an ideal spot to sleep overnight–by a bee hut overlooking his fishing pond, with a picnic bench next to it. “There are no bees there; I just have it there to keep my neighbor away, who’s allergic to bees.” He then grabbed a couple bottles of cold water for me and asked if I had food. “I imagine your goal’s to walk, but I’m headed west tomorrow morning and I’m happy to give you a ride.” I turned down that offer, we shook hands, and he went inside while I got in my tent.

See, it really is easy to find a place to camp on the ADT!

Technical Notes

• No ADT waymarks today
• The ADT follows the paved road through Clifty Falls, primarily, I imagine, to route past the campground. A more direct approach through the park is to follow trail 1 to the lookout tower, which offers nice views of the Ohio River below, then trail 8 through the rest of the park. I thought this was clever, until the views of the falls that seemed prominent on the map proved to be largely obscured. (Not that there’s much to see of the falls this time of the year.) Thus, despite its directness (and precious off-road quality), I don’t recommend it
• Surprise offroad stretch! Nearly three miles of River Road after Hanover is unpaved, dirt road
• The grocery stores in Chelsea and Lexington are both surprisingly good. The latter has a solid selection of groceries and medication, while both have solid menus. Leroy’s in Lexington even has Friday night karaoke…