We got up a little before six. I was awake and while I think Gabs would have stayed in the tent she was happy to break free when I opened the door. I told her she should sleep for another hour before the next adventure! She went in the house and went right to sleep. I got things ready for today’s last day of RAGBRAI which included zero biking. Originally I planned to go for a nice ride this morning to commemorate the last day and the route passing through my hometown, but when I had the chance to go hiking with a friend I decided to take her up in the offer.
My friend Diana and I were headed to Turkey Run State Park which is about 3 hrs from Muncie. We tried to go to this park last fall and we made the trip there and it RAINED...like pouring, lightning, wind RAIN. We tried to kill time for the rain to pass and after about 3 hours we decided the day was a bust and went back home. A 9 hour day and we hardly got out of the car. So we decided this was the weekend to make our return trip!! It wasn’t supposed to rain, it wasn’t going to be super hot, so we went for it.
I told Gabby that she needed to rally because we were going to have another full day hiking. Well little did I know when I said that what we would be in for. Turkey Run has lots of canyons and is deemed famous for “Indiana’s most ruggedly beautiful hiking trails”. Well had I known that before we got the trail map that would have been helpful!! I would have actually worn my hiking boots inside of my tennis shoes. It was beautiful and it was rugged! We started on the suspension bridge and Gabby handled it really well. She seemed mostly unfazed that it swayed a bit.
We ended up getting on the most difficult trail first. Not planned but we were in it and there was no turning back. Gabby did awesome traipsing through water, on slick sand stone, up muddy banks and steep inclines. She was a champ and definitely rallied!
There are 11 different trails in this park and we did all but 4 of them. After about 3 hours and a little over 5.5 miles we had been on all the “very rugged”, “rugged”, and moderate trails. There were some very steep climbs and slippery descents! We went walked down boulder canyon and I’m not sure Gabby likes boulders but she did it! Here’s a pic of Diana and I with the boulders in the back. The picture doesn’t really show the steepness. Oh well! 
We then took Gabby down to the river for some swimming. Well on the way there she got in a lot of mud so it was perfectly timed for a little wash off. She was getting tired and appreciated the cooling off period. The river was packed with people on tubes, kayaks, and canoes. Honestly too packed for my liking. It was so loud and there were people everywhere. It would be a great place to kayak in the fall when people aren’t so crazy. We had to take the suspension bridge back to get to the other side of the river. Well now there were so many people that the bridge swayed a LOT! We were about a quarter of the way across when Gabby put in the breaks and was like “I’m not liking this”. With some encouragement from Diana and the cheers of strangers she made it. We took a break to get water, eat our snacks and give Gabs some rest.
After our break we decided to hit up a couple shorter trails and then we’d call it a day. Gabby was getting tired and it was starting to get hot. We found some really cool views and some steep hard climbs.
When we finished up for the day we put in over 7 miles in some very tough terrain. It was by far the hardest hike Gabby has ever done and she did amazing! I was so impressed that she handle it all so well. In addition to handling the rigors of the hike, she also was amazing when she met other dogs. Not a single bark! She also met lots of other people and she was extremely polite all the time. After about 30 min into our day I realized I had made a big mistake. I didn’t charge people for every time they said “beautiful dog” or “that’s an amazing German Shepherd”! Seriously by the end of the day I could have been rich. She got soooo many compliments all day. There’s one part of the park that has ladders to climb down into the canyon. We had already decided we couldn’t do that because of Gabby, but when we got there this one guy said, “ I thought for sure when I came around the corner she’d be on the ladder! She’s been so good!” Even others were impressed with her hiking skills!!
We grabbed some lunch at a restaurant near by. We sat out side with Gabby and everyone that walked past her just smiled because she was being so good!! She makes people happy!! I think she was being so good because she was soooooo tired! She didn’t want to get out of the car at the restaurant...I think she thought she was going to have to walk more! Here’s a pic of the ladders we skipped!
After lunch we headed back home! I can tell you I’m tired, Gabby is tired, and Diana is tired! It was the perfect trip. I can’t wait to go back and try to cover the 4 trails we didn’t do. And to see the park in the fall as I bet it would beautiful!!
I think this pic sums up how Gabby felt about the day! Fun but tiring!! 
So this brings the week that was supposed to be RAGBRAI to an end. It wasn’t what I had planned but I made the best of the situation! I think that’s something we all can do these days. There is a lot of uncertainty and divisiveness right now, but you can wake up each day and make the most of the situation. Smile, be kind, and help one another...if you do that it’s going to be a great day!
So this brings the week that was supposed to be RAGBRAI to an end. It wasn’t what I had planned but I made the best of the situation! I think that’s something we all can do these days. There is a lot of uncertainty and divisiveness right now, but you can wake up each day and make the most of the situation. Smile, be kind, and help one another...if you do that it’s going to be a great day!
Here’s hoping that next year I’ll be back on the bike and riding through Iowa!! Thanks for reading and joining along in this adventure of life. Hopefully next year the blog will be less about work and more about biking! Until then...I have leftover pie to finish!
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