This is a photo essay about a hiking trip my wife and I took on a very hot third and fourth of July, 2003.  We began by hiking about 6 miles to a campsite in Zalinski State Forest, on the backpacking loop.  The campsite was our private playground for the night.  During the day, we talked a little about trail names.  My wife is quite bright when it comes to understanding people and events.  Her full name is Eloise Diane.  It did not take long to see both those facts in the same name:  EllieD.  At the first stream, she was christened.

EllieD on the trail.

And her faithful companion Risk.

The bugs were none too good at Zalinski.  We took a page out of Earl Schaffer's book and tried sasafrass leaves in our hat or hair.  It did seem to scare them away one way or another.

You can see why for yourself.

At the campsite, we put up the hammocks.

And then put them up again a little closer  EllieD worked on her nursing continuing education while Risk puttered around the campsite.

It began to cloud up a little, and putting up a tarp seemed like a good idea.  We were able to put up a 10x10 ft tarp over both hammocks.

Risk had a little testing to do of the Mama's Kitchen pots and Svea 123 stove that ended in dinner.

The next morning, we finished the 10 mile backpacking loop.

The cross connector trail has some beautiful rock formations on it.  

Then we drove about 20 minutes north to Cedar Falls.  The cliffs here are very large and quite beautiful.

The falls themselves were a great place to cool off, but there were a lot of weekend water players around.

We decided to walk a 6 mile loop up to Old Man's Cave and back..

Old Man's Cave is a BIG rock house .

It takes some people in the foreground to see how large it really is.

Below is the profile that is meant to be the old man himself.

These cliffs are about as tall as the 100 year old trees that grow at their openings.

Trees can be quite persistent in growing where they are unlikely to find water right away.  Christ said some of the seed landed on rocky soil.  It is good to see that some of it still grew.

We really enjoyed the trip.  It was EllieD's first backpacking in 25 years.  She is not quite sure she needs to beg me to go hiking right away, but not sure she will not.

Secretary for the Expedition,

Risk

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