Saving Time in a Bottle

relishing the life God has given us

Easter Weekend 2021

At the beginning of April, we traveled back home for a weekend to celebrate Easter and spring birthdays with my family. Curtis had just returned from a short work trip and was able to take a long weekend, so we left Omaha on Thursday morning. To change things up, we drove East on IA-92 all the way to Indianola, then North on US-65, East on IA-330, and US-30 to Cedar Rapids. By doing so, we were easily able to see the Adair county courthouse in Greenfield, IA.

Along the way, we also stopped to see one of the covered bridges in Madison County. This time, we saw the Cedar Bridge which was a short drive from IA-92, just Northwest of Winterset. We’re sort of participating in the Iowa Scenic Byway Passport challenge/sweepstakes this year, and all of the covered bridges are stops on the passport. We checked in using the phone app there, took our pictures, let Charlotte lead us around on a little walk, and then continued on.

We intended to stop in Indianola and get a picture of the courthouse there, but unfortunately we found that it was currently under construction — it appears they may have taken the old building down. Bummer! We decided to forgo taking a picture of the construction site hoping that a finished building will be completed sooner than later, and instead finished up our drive home.

While visiting with my family, I was able to go to my sister’s first tennis match of the season and we went for several walks with the dogs. We were especially excited and fortunate to see my grandparents who are now vaccinated, and had a good time catching up with them.

On our last afternoon together, we heard about a local “attraction” reopening that we had never visited before, and decided to go check it out. The attraction is called Mount Trashmore — the former city landfill from the years 1965-2012. After capping the landfill following the 2008 flood, the city and Waste Management created a park out of the mound. You can now walk up the trails to a scenic viewpoint of the downtown area and Cedar River. That’s right, our flat, midwestern hometown built themselves a mountain out of trash! Anything is possible! 😉 There was only one trail open that day, so we made the short climb up to the overlook (then a little further to the true highest point) and back. As we strolled up the mountain, we wondered how much of our own trash we contributed to the mound. If you’re interested in visiting Mt. Trashmore, you can learn about park hours and more here.

Easter Sunday was our last day together, so after one more walk around Wikiup Hills we packed up, said our goodbyes, and made a relatively late drive straight home (i.e. without any courthouses).

Wabash Trace Trail / Mineola to Dumfries

Section Hiking the Wabash Trace Trail | Mineola to Dumfries | March 2021

The day after we hiked our first stretch of the West Papio trail, we decided to try out another long distance bike trail in Iowa. The Wabash Trace Trail is a rail trail following the old Wabash Rail Line which used to connect Council Bluffs, IA to St. Louis, MO. It’s now a bike/walking path that goes from outside Council Bluffs to the IA/MO border near Blanchard, IA. We aren’t really interested in backpacking it, but like the Papio Trail (and other bike trails around Omaha) we plan on section hiking it when we get the chance.

On the last Saturday of March, we decided to hike our first section of the trail, so we crossed the Missouri River into Iowa. The first 5 miles of the trail seem to mostly go through residential areas outside of Council Bluffs, so we chose the next section over in order to enjoy walking in the countryside. We planned to start near the site of the old town of Dumfries, but when we arrived at the trail crossing we found that there was nowhere to park. Instead, we continued driving to Mineola, where we found a small parking area for the trail and did our walk in reverse.

It was another overcast day, yet perfectly comfortable for hiking. We strapped on our giant backpacks and began heading Northwest. The main differences between this trail and the Omaha bike trail system are that this one is gravel, not paved, and that instead of being around a city and its suburbs, you’re walking through the beautiful, peaceful Iowa fields and farms. This early in the season, we only saw 3-4 pairs of people enjoying the trail as well.

Some points of interest on the stretch of trail we walked today were walking through Cowboy’s Pass, the Old Goat overlook, and ‘Margaritaville’; a stop presumably for biker gatherings. Another highlight along this trail are all the wooden trestle bridges going over the many creeks.

We ended up walking to where the trail cuts under Dumfries Ave, which is where the old town of Dumfries used to be. Now, there’s only a small plaque along the trail to remember the town, though there was still quite a few houses nearby, at least relative to the rest of the trail we had walked. We turned around here and began our trek back to Mineola. Altogether, today’s walk was 8 miles long round-trip – only 59 more miles to go!

West Papio Trail / 36th to 72nd

Walking the Papio Trail | 36th to 72nd Street | Omaha, NE | March 2021

As the temperature is warming up and summer is quickly approaching, we are getting more serious about training and preparing for our hiking plans this year. At home, that looks like dehydrating fruit and preparing other healthy and space-efficient trail snacks. And now when we go for walks, we carry our backpacks filled with camping and hiking supplies to get accustomed to their weight.

We’ve enjoyed visiting our favorite lake parks over the winter, but lately we’ve been looking for a change of scenery without having to drive too far. Fortunately, Omaha has extensive bike trails all over the city that connect many of the parks. Since we’re training to walk for long distances, we’ve taken to walking these trails small sections at a time while carrying our backpacks. I wouldn’t say we feel the need to hike the entirety of these trails, but I’m sure as time goes along we’ll end up covering a good amount.

We began today’s walk on the West Papio Trail at the lot off of 36th Street in Bellevue. It was chilly enough to need jackets, but not uncomfortably cold. We’ve realized that this fleeting time of year is possibly the best time for outdoor adventures, especially for Charlotte’s sake. She did a great job in the cool air with cloud covered skies, but just one week later we tried again on a sunny day and she was not a fan. (The entire trail is exposed to the sun, so in hindsight it wasn’t our best idea to subject her to that.)

Altogether, the walk was just over 6 miles between the two roads. It was far enough from the major roads so that we weren’t hearing traffic the entire time, and we even spotted a bald eagle on a high voltage tower on our walk back. The most interesting thing we passed on this stretch were grounds for a renaissance fair/pumpkin patch fun park. While walking by, we heard what we can only assume was the loud call from a peacock which had Charlotte very concerned.

The real highlight for this stretch of trail is that the trailhead is right next to a Culver’s! We obviously had to stop and treat ourselves for all our hard work today.

Cottonmill Park / Kearney to Omaha

Hiking in Cottonmill Park | County Counting & Courthouses from Kearney to Omaha | March 2021

Our night camping by the Platte was temperate weather wise, but extremely windy. Gusts of wind were constantly blowing through, shaking the tent. Charlotte got up a few times and used her new ‘trick’ of opening the tent door by sticking her head through the zippers, so that kept us alert trying to make sure she didn’t sneak out. We managed to get some sleep somehow between all that, and were wide awake at dawn.

We had planned on going back to the pedestrian bridge to watch the cranes fly out from their nightly roosts, but decided standing on the exposed bridge in this much wind didn’t sound enjoyable at all. Instead, we watched and listened as the cranes flew out above our tent. Once we were ready to face the wind, we got up and quickly packed everything away, then set off on today’s adventure. As we drove down the empty highway, we had a front row seat of the cranes that were leaving the Platte and flying to the nearby fields.

We decided to start our day off with a hike so that Charlotte could use up some energy before our long drive. We drove to Cottonmill Park on the West side of Kearney where Curtis had noted there was a letterbox hidden. The park was nearly empty when we arrived. We parked on the East side near a pavilion, and started on the trail right across the road.

The letterbox turned out to be missing, of course, but we still enjoyed our walk through the prairie landscape. The sunrise gave the area a light pastel look, and the brisk morning air felt so refreshing. We made a big loop through the whole hiking area which ended up being just over 2 miles long — if you’re interested, view our trail recording here.

It was time to get on the road — but instead of heading East, we went West on US-30 to US-183, then South to Holdredge. This was, of course, in pursuit of a new county and county courthouse. We figured the more we could knock out on this trip, the less we’ll have to stop on future trips out West. The courthouse in Holdredge was pretty unique, and we liked that while they had clearly expanded on the original building, they did so in the same style so it still looked nice.

From here, we began our long drive East on US-34/6. Our next courthouse was in Minden, Kearney county. The first thing we noticed was that they still had Christmas lights up — but it wasn’t until we were driving away that we noticed a sign proclaiming that this is actually called “the Christmas city” for some reason, so I guess that was intentional. Also, we arrived right at 11 when the church or courthouse bells were playing some hymn, but then after the hymn was finished the bells continued right into the Star Wars theme. Both of these factors would have made our visit to Minden interesting enough, but to top it all off the courthouse was also appealing.

Our next stop was in Hastings, which was not quite as enjoyable as Minden and the courthouse wasn’t as interesting. It was also the busiest city we visited this morning, so Charlotte and I stayed in the car while Curtis got out and quickly snapped some pictures.

After this, we began driving on US-6, then took NE-14 South to Clay Center. This was the smallest and quietest county seat for today’s drive. From here, we started driving East on NE-41, and inadvertently ended up driving it all the way to its end at NE-50. The stretch between Clay Center and Geneva was probably the quietest highway we’ve driven in a while; we saw only 3 other cars in that 25 mile stretch.

Our final two counties for the day were Fillmore and Saline. We stopped for each of the courthouses and took short walks around each one. As we drove, Curtis and I reflected on the history of the region. At the Fillmore Courthouse, the epitaph on the history sign said ‘Honor To Pioneers Who Broke the Sod That Men to Come Might Live’. What was interesting to us is that those pioneers didn’t break the sod until the 1860’s, barely 150 years ago. Before them, the American frontier explorers were in the early 1800’s, and then an enormous gap of almost 250 years before the Coronado Expedition explored the great plains. How quickly things have advanced in the past century that not so long ago, this entire state was almost completely covered in prairie. Curtis loves talking about generation of humans and the collective memory of history.

Finally, we made it to NE-50 which we took back into the Omaha area. The drive certainly took longer than if we had taken I-80, but was 100% more enjoyable and relaxing for us to take the empty highways. We felt we were able to accomplish a lot for our county goal, and crossed off a big item on our Nebraska bucket list — though we wouldn’t be against going to see the cranes again next year!

Sandhill Crane Migration in Kearney

Weekend Trip to Kearney | Fort Kearny State Recreation Area & Historic Site | Sandhill Crane Migration | March 2021

Almost exactly a year ago, we found out that we would be moving to Nebraska. After the initial freak out and call my family, I googled “things to do in Nebraska,” and one of the first things to pop up was “watch the spring migration of the sandhill cranes.” At this point, I was all alone on an island and navigating those early days of the pandemic, and the idea of just road tripping to the middle of nowhere with Curtis and Charlotte to look at birds sounded perfect. Now here we are, one year later, and we were able to make that trip happen!

The sandhill crane migration in Nebraska takes place every year from around February until April, with mid-to-late March usually being the peak. Cranes spending the winter spread across the South of the US and Northern Mexico (including as far West as Arizona) and then migrate North in what is considered one of the last ‘Great American Migrations’ funneling through Central Nebraska due to the abundance of water and food on their way to Northern Canada, Alaska, and even Eastern Siberia.

We did a little research to make sure this year wasn’t completely off, and then planned a little weekend road trip to central Nebraska. We read that the cranes typically spend the days feeding in the fields, and then make their way over to the Platte river for the night around sunset. With this in mind, we decided to take our time driving out and back from Kearney, set up camp near the Platte river, and spend the sunset and sunrise watching the cranes.

We left Omaha on Saturday morning, driving West on I-80. We took the interstate to York, then exited and stuck to highways for the rest of the trip. Our first courthouse of the day was in York, for York County. This was the least exciting building for this weekend, but we still gave it the courtesy of a walk-around (mostly for Charlotte’s sake because we had been in the car for over an hour).

Next up, we took US-34 to Aurora and stopped to see the Hamilton county courthouse. We took another walk around the block, then continued to Grand Island. Here we saw what was probably our favorite courthouse of the day, however the sun was right behind it so I don’t have great pictures to prove it. At this point, we began taking US-30 to Kearney. When we were driving from Iowa to Arizona back in 2015 we had taken US-30 from Cedar Rapids all the way to Grand Island, and today we clinched another stretch from Grand Island to Kearney. The best part about avoiding the interstate today was that we were able to see some flocks of sandhill cranes feeding in the fields along the highway!

Once we made it to Kearney, we drove South to our intended campsite for the night in Fort Kearny State Recreation Area. We were fortunate to have such temperate weather for camping in mid-March, however this meant that the campsite was quite full — mostly full of RV’s, because we’ve learned that camping in state parks and recreation areas just means “see how many RVs we can pack into this small space for profit.” Case in point, almost every ‘primitive’ (read: without an electric hookup) was converted to an electric site over the fall/winter, a point commiserated by both the park staff and us. Oh well, we were just happy to have a $20 spot to set up our tent.

Since we were tired of driving at this point and just wanted to walk, we decided to walk a mile to Fort Kearny State Historical Park. We took a trail that ran along the border of the recreation area to a dirt road, which then led us to the fort. Along the way, we saw many more cranes in the fields on either side of us, and watched from a distance while they flew in small groups from one side of the road to the other. We became familiar with their cry, one that we would be hearing a lot more of throughout the night and the next morning.

Curtis: In the 1840’s, during the peak trans-continental migration of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails (very few people cared to settle Nebraska then), the Government took a vested interested in defending and assisting settlers on their move West and established Fort Kearny (the ‘e’ in the town name was added later) in 1848. The fort became a major stop along the trail with small communities built up nearby and other, later trails deliberately making stops. The fort’s role was so much on the supportive side that a palisade wasn’t even constructed until the end of the Civil War and the beginning of hostilities with the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and other Plains tribes during the Colorado War. And while the fort supplied and supported some of the cavalry fighting further West in Colorado and Wyoming, and provided a place of refuge for occasionally displaced settlers, it itself never saw action. Completion of the Union Pacific Railroad on the North Side of the Platte and a lull in hostilities against the Plains Tribes signaled the end of the Fort which was dismantled and closed in 1871. Today, under the Nebraska State Parks system, the land is platted out to show where the foundations of buildings were, and a mock palisade is built on the earthworks of the old palisade.

Jess: Back at the campsite, it was shaping up to be a rather windy evening. We made plans for how we’d view the cranes — we decided we’d stay close and walk over to the nearby pedestrian bridge over the Platte River for sunset. But because we didn’t know what to expect, we thought we’d get there over a half hour early in case the cranes came early, and to get a spot in case there were a lot of people. We made some canned soup for dinner, then hung out playing games in the tent until 6.

Up until this point, we were unsure of how we’d handle Charlotte while around the cranes. We weren’t concerned about how she’d react, because unlike us she doesn’t seem to care much about birds, but worried that the professional bird watchers would judge us for brining our dog. In the tent, she was sleeping all curled up in a ball on our pillows and we thought we could just sneak out, but as soon as she caught on to the fact that we were preparing to leave she got excited. It was then that she discovered, for the first time in her 5 ½ years of camping, that she could stick her head through the zippers and open the door. That’s when we decided we’d bring her — we could always bring her back if things didn’t work out.

We walked through the campsite to the pedestrian bridge, and confirmed that dogs were allowed on the ‘bird etiquette’ info board. We walked a ways down the bridge passed other people who were starting to gather here as well, and found a spot where we could be on our own. We sat here together for over a half an hour, waiting for something to happen.

Honestly, we didn’t know what to expect, we imagined that we were here to see the cranes fly over to the Platte and settle in for the night. We waited and waited, but the official time for sunset arrived and not much had happened. We could see large flocks of cranes far off in the distance to the East, but it didn’t look like they’d be coming any closer. We were starting to question whether we had made the right decision. Some people who seemed like locals pontificated to no one in particular that ‘Sometimes the birds just don’t come anywhere near you’. Sensible enough. So we left our chosen spot and walked a bit more of the bridge.

But shortly after sunset, flocks of cranes started flying over us. First it was small groups here and there, then more, and soon it was almost constant. We stood in awe and listened to their cry, over and over. In the end, that was probably a better crane experience than what we had expected — to watch the cranes flying over us with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop. We watched until it was nearly dark, then hurried back to our tent for a blustery night.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Charlotte did amazing while we were out there. She waited very patiently while we sat on the bridge, and as expected she did nothing that would have bothered the cranes or any other bird or bird watchers around us. My favorite moment was looking down as the cranes were flying over us, and seeing her alert with her paws against a railing, watching intently along with us. I’m so happy we were able to share this experience with her!

Summit Lake State Recreation Area

Hiking around Summit Lake SRA | Tekamah and Fremont NE | March 2021

As expected, our ‘false spring’ lasted a couple weeks before cold and dreary weather moved back in. On this weekend, it was predicted to start raining in the afternoon, so we decided to get out early and go for a hike. Curtis had noticed a listing on AllTrails that described a 5 mile loop hike around a lake, and since that’s been our go-to for Midwest hiking lately, we went with that. Today’s focus was Summit Lake State Recreation Area, a half hour North of Omaha, just West of Tekamah, Nebraska.

While we’ve enjoyed all the lake hikes we’ve done up to this point, this one unfortunately turned out to be somewhat of a bust. When Curtis first looked at the loop trail, he thought it would be mostly trail with a little bit of road walking, but it turned out to be the opposite. There were trails that meandered around the hills in the park, but there wasn’t actually a trail that went around the lake. However, we didn’t want to give up having driven up here for a 5 mile hike, so we decided to just go with it. We had brought our big backpacking packs in order to train for future hiking trips which gave a little additional challenge to our road walk.

Thankfully there were only a few fishermen here so we were basically all alone on our trek (read: less people to judge us for looking like a couple of lost backpackers wandering around). And the whole thing wasn’t a complete bust because the views of the peaceful lake and surrounding hills were quite nice. Really, we enjoyed most of our quiet walk, right up until the end where we ended up outside the park walking on a dirt road where the AllTrails “official” trail was telling us to cut through someone’s private property to get back into the park. Rather than be arrested for trespassing, we continued until we came to a road leading into the park. Overall we still got to do the 5+ mile hike that we came for, so that was good enough for us. Still, we wondered how this trail was listed as an “official trail” online, while other listings such as Iron Horse Lake and Willow Lake are not, and recommended changes to AllTrails as appropriate (always important in a crowd sourced database).

After our walk, we took NE-32 West to US77 to change up our drive home, and stopped in Fremont to see the Dodge county courthouse. We made it back home before the rain and had a cozy rest of the weekend home together.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Northeastern Kansas Road Trip | Hiking in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve | Cottonwood Falls, Marion, Junction City, Clay Center, Washington, and Marysville, KS | March 2021

On day 2 of our mini Kansas road trip, we awoke to the brisk morning air and a colorful sunrise over the lake. Curtis made dinosaur oatmeal on our camp stove (the Breakfast of Champions) and we packed up our tent, ready for another day of driving, courthouses, and some hiking.

We began today’s adventure by driving back through Cottonwood Falls, which is the county seat for Chase county. The experience we had here on this early Sunday morning was truly a county counter’s dream: empty streets, charming main road, a nearby park with a pedestrian bridge over the river with a small waterfall in view, and best of all, the cutest courthouse we’d ever seen. Experiences like this are exactly why we love our county-counting hobbies; how else would we have stumbled across this adorable little town?!

After our walk around Cottonwood Falls, we drove to our main focus of today, and the reason why this area had been on our radar: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Throughout the last 7 months in the Omaha area, we have learned about prairie ecosystems and how the majority of the Midwest used to be made up of tallgrass prairie. Most of that land has turned to farms since the mid-19th century, but this area of the Flint Hills in Kansas is preserved and protected, giving a glimpse of how this country once looked.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve has almost 11,000 acres of prairie, with plenty of hiking trails to enjoy. Since we had Charlotte with us we were limited to the dog-friendly trails, but even then there were plenty of miles to explore. We hiked the 3 mile Fox Creek Trail loop in the East side of the park, and then another 2 miles through a recent prairie burn area. The latter half also took us past historic barns and a schoolhouse.

Walking through the burned area with the blackened ground surrounding us gave me flashbacks of backpacking Mauna Loa…though it was much windier here (which is ironic considering the trail to Mauna Loa was closed due to high wind while we were there). Despite the harsh winds, the weather was really quite pleasant. I think this was the best time of year for us to hike here with Charlotte, as I’m sure the summer months are much hotter with hardly any shade, though likely significantly more green. Without Charlotte, we would have been able to take other trails that had the potential to see bison, but we were happy with the hiking we were able to do this morning.

After spending most of the morning here, it was time for our long trip back to Omaha…made even longer by first driving further West to bag the next county over and see the Marion county courthouse. Following that, we began heading generally North and saw courthouses in Junction City, Clay Center, Washington, and Marysville before taking US 77 back into Nebraska. Each of the courthouses were more visually appealing than yesterday’s and we enjoyed each one, but once we returned home and looked at each of the pictures we realized that several of them looked almost exactly the same, to the point where I was second guessing which ones were different courthouses and which were just different views of the same courthouse. Oh well, that’s still better than plain old office buildings!

Thanks to this weekend’s trip, our Kansas county map is looking more full in the Northeastern corner, with only one ‘hole’ which belongs to Pottawatomie county. Of course, that one hole is now exactly what my focus goes to when looking at our maps, so I guess that means we’ll have to return sometime soon!

Topeka / Chase Lake

Northeastern Kansas Road Trip | Holton, Topeka, Lyndon, & Emporia, KS | Camping at Chase Lake | March 2021

The beginning of March brought warmer temperatures day after day, each day nicer than the next. Being born and raised midwesterners, we know that this is likely a ‘false spring’ and that we’ll still have some colder days and possible snow showers ahead. But we decided that while the weather was so beautiful, why not go on our first camping trip of the year to celebrate?!

Back in January we had actually thought about taking a trip to the Ozarks or somewhere further South over Curtis’ spring break (the gap week between his Masters classes), but gave up when his work schedule didn’t support that. As it turned out, we didn’t even need to travel that far South for pleasant camping temperatures! We instead turned to a trip itinerary we had planned for a weekend road trip around Northeastern Kansas.

We left home early on Saturday morning taking US-75 South. Because of this, we have now driven the entirety of US 75 through Nebraska! Our first stop was in Holton, KS, to see the Jackson County courthouse. We took a short walk around the town square. Usually it’s not hard to see which side of a courthouse could be considered the ‘front,’ but that wasn’t the case here. I snapped a few pictures of each side hoping something would suffice, then we got back on the road.

Our next stop was in Topeka. We parked a block away from the Kansas capitol building and went for another walk around the city. We’ve found that early weekend mornings are the best time to see capitol buildings and downtown districts. There’s plenty of open parking nearby, and there are hardly any people out so we’re able to get good pictures of the buildings. We took our time walking around and admiring the capitol from all sides, and then headed over to the county courthouse building a few blocks away.

At this point, the temperature was only in the lower 60’s, but Charlotte was already acting tired and slowing down. We accommodated for her slower pace and gave her water, but hopefully she’ll adjust to the heat quickly — she’s been going everywhere with us and has gotten so much exercise over the last 6 months, I hate to think of having to leave her home when we go for walks this summer.

Next, we made the short drive over to Brown Vs. Board National Historic Site. Unfortunately, the school/museum was still closed because of COVID-19, but the grounds were still open so we did another short walk to read the informational signs outside. The park centers around the building of Monroe Elementary School, a Blacks only school in Topeka during the years of segregation. And, in 1951, 13 parents from this school, under guidance, encouragement, and representation of the NAACP, filed a lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education, filing under the name Oliver Brown. Unlike the other 4 cases that would be joined together with B. vs. B. at the Supreme Court, instead of revolving around the fact that Black schools were inherently inferior in facilities, pay, supplies, etc. (as was the case in the former Confederate States), B. vs. B. ran on the platform that segregation itself was a detriment to school children. And, in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in its entirety.

After walking and reading, we ended our short stay in Topeka and continued heading further South on 75 stopping briefly in Lyndon, KS for the Osage County Courthouse. Across the horizon and in the air you could see evidence of prairie fires, with even a couple visible from the road. Heading further South we finally started heading West on I-35 but got off shortly to see the Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge. We thought that, because it was approaching peak migration season for Sandhill Cranes in Nebraska (something we still intend to see later this month), perhaps we could get an early glimpse now. But, maybe because it was mid-day, maybe because we didn’t know where to go specifically, or maybe because we were dead wrong on the migration cycle, we didn’t see any wildlife to speak of as we drove around.

We returned to I-35 and continued heading west a few miles before getting off yet again to drive through Emporia, KS for our fourth and final courthouse for the day; this one for Lyon County.

We continued further West on US-50, by which time it was approaching late afternoon, and, since Charlie had been suffering the heat already, we figured we’d find a place to camp and just relax for the rest of the evening. We found a spot just South of the highway and West of Cottonwood Falls at Chase County Lake Park, a free use recreation area. We set up our camp, replete with four sleeping bags in case the thermometer dropped below freezing (we don’t think it did, but it was quite cozy).

With two or so hours left of sunlight we decided to walk the access road and cross the dam that formed the lake. Overall, the lake was pretty quiet, though enough people had the same idea as us on camping that someone was passing us by every so often. After crossing the dam, we followed a foot path to the spill way and found a natural spring and very mediocre waterfall (I’m sure it’s better after a rain).

On our way back to camp, we noticed a foot path leading off the road and up a hill. Still having plenty of time left, we followed it to the top and got a fantastic view of the prairie. The whole region is part of the Flint Hills, a prairie ecosystem known for its flint, shale, and rolling landscape (insert flat Kansas joke here). Because of this, except in certain areas, it is very difficult to farm, so the prairie is allowed to grow more freely than elsewhere in the great plains. The view from the top of the hill was incredibly open and stark. It’s hard to think of or believe that once, almost all the Midwest looked like this or something similar.

We returned to camp for some soup and games before calling it a night, listening to the neighborhood owl, Canada Geese, coyotes in the distance, and campground partiers (they called it a night by 8pm, thank goodness).

Lake of Three Fires State Park

Hiking in Lake of Three Fires State Park | Corning, Bedford, and Clarinda, Iowa | February 2021

After a brutally cold month, the last weekend of February was absolutely beautiful. We celebrated by checking out a new-to-us state park. It had been over a month since we’d gone somewhere new or worked on our county counting goals. Honestly, I’m thankful the weather gave us a reason to stay put and rest — summer will come soon enough and we’ll have plenty of time to pursue our goals!

For this weekend, we found another trail that would take us around a lake, and we planned a driving route that would take us to three new courthouses as well as a couple places of interest. We started off this Saturday morning by driving East on US-34 into Iowa, all the way to Corning which is the county seat of Adams county.

The streets of Corning were quiet when we pulled up to the courthouse. Charlotte took Curtis on a walk around the building while I took some pictures. Once they returned, we walked around the town park across from the courthouse. We then hopped in the car and drove to the birthplace of variety host Johnny Carson, and Curtis found a letterbox here.

Next we drove South on IA-148 to Bedford for our main focus of today’s trip: Lake of Three Fires State Park. We had seen on AllTrails that there was a 5 mile loop trail that circled the lake that would satisfy our craving to hike somewhere new.

Our only concern was that all the snow melt would make this trail a muddy mess, but that turned out not to be the case — the majority of the trail was still snow-packed while the ground around it was mostly clear, and we encountered minimal muddy sections. Other than that, it was a perfect day with blue skies and comfortable hiking weather. We didn’t see any other people until the end of our hike. We did see lots of animal tracks though — mostly deer and raccoon. If you’re interested, you can check out our trail recording here.

We then drove into Bedford for our second courthouse of the day. The courthouse was located in a cute town square with brick roads and colorful murals on the nearby buildings. At this point, we were both hungry and decided that ice cream sounded great. We saw a local place on Google maps that looked good, but it turned out to still be closed for the season — I guess not everyone believes in celebrating the first 60 degree day of the year with ice cream. What a shame!

Our last courthouse for the day was in Clarinda, in Page County bringing us up to 33% complete for courthouses in Iowa. This town was much busier, but we were still able to get a few good pictures and do a short walk around the courthouse. While leaving town, we made one last stop at the birthplace of famed Big Band Bandmaster Glen Miller for a letterbox. The museum was closed, so we just admired the house from the outside. We wrapped up the day by driving East on IA-2, then North on US-59 up to US-34 for the sake of a new stretch of highway.

Chalco Hills Recreation Area

February 2021

The month of February has been relatively uneventful for us. While December and January were fairly temperate (20-30 degrees) with a decent ratio of snowy-to-sunny days, this month has tested our “anything is possible when the roads are clear and you wear enough layers” attitude. We spent a good couple weeks struggling to even reach single digits above 0. Our lowest point was on Tuesday, February 16, when Omaha was apparently the “coldest in the nation” at -34 degrees (before windchill). Needless to say, our outdoors time that week was rather brief!

I will say that even with that weather, we didn’t reach the point of missing Hawaii. I mean, I’m starting to understand the appeal, but I wouldn’t trade the cozy and relaxing days spent inside our warm apartment, or the feeling of excitement when the temps finally make it back up to 30. Seasons, even in their extreme, are beautiful in their own way and I’m happy to experience each of them!

To make up for the lack of new adventures, today I’m sharing one of our favorite spots around the Omaha area to go for hikes. We’ve enjoyed it in both the fall and winter and are now eagerly anticipating enjoying it in the spring as well!

Hiking in Chalco Hills Recreation Area | Omaha, Nebraska

Chalco Hills Recreation Area is located on the Southwest side of Omaha. It’s a popular spot for hiking, jogging, biking, fishing, boating, camping, and more. We’ve enjoyed it mostly by walking the paved trail around Wehrspann Lake — depending on how we’re feeling, we either make a ~3 mile loop around the South end, or a 7 mile loop around the entire thing. The entire trail around the lake is paved and is plowed promptly after snowfalls so we don’t really have to worry about ice. And now that ‘mud season’ is upon us, we’re even more thankful for the pavement to keep us dry!

Out of all the lake trails we frequent, we’ve seen the most wildlife at Chalco Hills — mostly consisting of white tail deer, but also the occasional hawk, and once a bald eagle. Charlotte couldn’t care less about the deer as they run across the trail right in front of us. However, the first time we visited we came across a praying mantis on the path and she had some harsh words for it.

There’s so much that we enjoy about our life here in Nebraska, but our frequent walks around Chalco Hills and Walnut Creek are definitely the highlights of our weeks.

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