Seip Earthworks

On my recent road trip, my last stop in Ohio was at Seip Earthworks, located just off US 50, about 15 miles west of Chillicothe.  This was very much a return visit, the third time I've been to the place.  Back in 2002, it was part of an archaeological tour that I went on.  In 2003, I decided to swing through Ohio on my way back to Maryland from a wedding in southern Indiana, and stopped in at Seip.  During those two trips, the site was called Seip Mound, after the artificial construction of the same name.  The area is now a unit of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, the ownership having been transferred from the Ohio History Connection to the National Park Service in 2014.  The NPS unit seems to be quite a bit larger in area than the old state-owned site.  Here is the north side of Seip Mound, reached by walking southward a few hundred yards from US 50.

This is the interpretive display just in front of the mound.

Here's the south side of Seip Mound, with some tall grass in the foreground.

The area that's been cleared of grass is the site of a house built long ago near the mound.  Each wooden peg indicates the location of a log that had been inserted into the ground.  I think that the modern structures in the background are part of a high school athletic field.

These two small mounds are part of the earthworks that surrounded the main mound.

After I took this last picture, it was time to hop back in the Bigfootmobile and drive on to the next stop, Serpent Mound, which had also been on my 2002 tour.  Unfortunately, as I arrived there, not only was it starting to rain, but I heard some thunder.  Rain is one thing, but thunder and lightning are another, especially since Serpent Mound is surrounded by trees, and has a metal observation platform.  Any return visit will therefore have wait until some future trip.

For more on Seip Earthworks, go to Ohio Exploration Society, TrekOhio(dot)com, ScienceViews, Touring Ohio and Ohio History Connection (the site's former owner).

Ohio Caves And Waterfalls - Part 2

After visiting Ash Cave and Cedar Falls, I continued northward on OH Route 374 to Old Man's Cave.  This cave is actually a large alcove on one side of a creek.  From the alcove, I got this shot of a bridge spanning the creek.  Not my best focus, but not as bad as in my first two pics from Ash Cave.

Here's another shot that includes the bridge.  The people in the foreground are walking on a trail from the alcove down to the bridge.

This shot looks back up into Old Man Cave.  I had taken the first two pictures from the walkway at the top.

I kept hiking, and the trail kept taking me up and down stone stairs.  I eventually got to Lower Falls.  Pretty soon I was feeling like the cave's namesake.

This is the bridge that I crossed just before reaching Lower Falls.  It's made of stone, bricks and mortar.

After Old Man's Cave, I went to one last natural area, Rock House.  This too, is on OH 374, about 8 miles further north.  This is the lower part of the front of the park's namesake formation, with some leaves in the upper left foreground.  I then crossed the bridge at the lower left.

Here's the front of the Rock House, looking further up, with more leaves in the upper foreground.  I eventually got pretty close to where the man was sitting.

This shot is from inside the Rock House, showing the bridge I had crossed a few minutes earlier.

The trail led away from the Rock House, and past some more rocks.

The Rock House was the last cave I hiked in, but I had one other place to explore, of a very different variety.  Stay tuned.

For more on Old Man Cave, go to HockingHills(dot)com and Hocking Hills State Park Travel Guide.

For more on Rock House, go to Inn & Spa At Cedar Falls and OnlyInYourState.

Some other things to note:  All the areas shown in these two posts are within Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio.  All except Rock House are connected to the others by trails going between them.  None of these places required an admission fee, so to all who pay Ohio state taxes, thank you very much.

Ohio Caves And Waterfalls - Part 1

Continuing my current road trip after passing through western Maryland and West Virginia, I went back to Ohio (apologies to Chrissie Hynde) to check out an area through which I had passed last summer.  During that trip, I stopped to see the Moonville Tunnel, which is on a then-under-construction rail trail.  A few miles east, along the same trail, is the King's Hollow Tunnel.  I first tried to see if I could reach this tunnel from Mineral, a small town at the intended east end of the Moonville Rail Trail, but I could only reach a creek that had no bridge.  If the old railroad had a bridge, it's now long gone.  Eventually I found a back road that took me west of the tunnel, from which I could walk several hundred yards to reach it.  It's a bit longer than the Moonville Tunnel, and has a different cross section.  This is the west end of the King's Hollow Tunnel.  I didn't try going all the way through, because it looked pretty wet.

While driving on Ohio Highway 56 last year, I passed by Ash Cave, but didn't bother to stop.  This time, I intended to visit the place, along with some other nearby attractions.  The walk from the parking lot was very east, about two tenths of mile.  My first pictures, sadly, weren't well focused.  The first one is of a large section of the cave, including a tree.

The second pic shows a waterfall in front of another part of the cave.

Here's the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.  I think I got a better focus with this one.

This shot looks outward from inside the cave.  The stream goes around a large rock.

Here's a shot into the cave from an overlook.  The man sitting on the rock gives you some idea of its size.  Looks like the woman to the right is taking his picture.

Ash cave is located about a mile from the intersection of Ohio Routes 56 and 374.  Going north from that intersection along OH 374 brings you to Cedar Falls.  This one took a bit of downward hiking, including some stone stairs.  Here are Cedar Falls and its rocky environs.

Here is a close-up of the falls.

This is a close-up of the alcove to the left of the falls.

For more on King's Hollow Tunnel, go to TrekOhio(dot)com, Ohio Exploration Society and Bridgehunter.

For more on Ash Cave, go to HockingHills(dot)com, Hocking Hills Travel Guide and Ohio History Central.

For more on Cedar Falls, go to Great Lakes Waterfalls and Hocking Hills State Park Travel Guide.

Casselman Bridge

To quote that noted travel guide Willie Nelson, I've gone out "on the road again".  The first place I stopped to see was Casselman Bridge in its namesake state park, in Grantsville, Maryland.  The bridge spans Casselman River, and is reached by turning off of U.S. Alternate 40, which goes through Grantsville.  Today, only pedestrians are allowed on the bridge.  In this picture, taken from an oblique angle, some idiots visitors sit or stand on the bridge's outer wall.

Here you can see bridge and the river, with the idiots visitors still on the wall.

Looking south from the Casselman Bridge, this is more of the river.  Alt-40 goes over the trestle bridge.

Here's a view from the east end of Casselman Bridge, looking westward.

Looking at this, can you guess when the bridge was built?

I later stopped in Ellenboro, West Virginia.  Here's a view of the North Bend Rail Trail going over West Virginia 16, just north of U.S. 50.

For more on Casselman Bridge, go to StateParks(dot)com, Spruce Forest Artisan Village, Bridge Browser, Bridgehunter(dot)com and WHILBR.

For more on the North Bend Rail Trail, go to TrailLink, Rails To Trails, Bike Washington and the trail's own website.

Van Hits Pedestrians On Bridge In London - Again

Different day, different bridge, same modus operandi.  Today on the London Bridge, a van plowed into about 20 pedestrians after mounting the bridge's curb.  There are also reports of a man, possibly someone other than the driver, leaving the van and attempting to stab people.  The incident has been called a terror attack.  There are no reports yet about how many people have been injured or killed.

Two months ago, pedestrians were struck buy a vehicle on the Westminster Bridge in London.  As with similar incidents, there will undoubtedly be updates as more information comes out.

Read more at the Express, the Mirror, BBC News, The Sun and the Daily Star.

UPDATE:  Depending on which story you read, there were either three or five attackers, two of whom were killed by police.  Up to seven victims of the attack may have been killed.  There are also reports of possibly related incidents in the areas of Borough Market and Vauxhall.  Let me add two more sources, the Daily Mail and The Telegraph.

UPDATE 2:  According to the Daily Mail and The Telegraph, the attackers shouted "This is for Allah."

UPDATE 3:  The links now indicate seven victims killed and 48 injured.  There were three attackers, all of whom were shot dead by police.  The terrorists reportedly wore fake bombs or gas canisters.

Saturday Links

Here are some things going on out there, during the first weekend of June:

From the Express, she misspoke.  (No, this is not about Hillary Clinton.)

From The Guardian, Bill Maher did more than misspeak.

From The Blaze, did Utah's new DUI legislation go too far?

From the Daily News, Kathy Griffin gets a new defender.

From Sky News, explosions go off at a funeral in Kabul.  (via Fox News)

From Military(dot)com, a Naval officer gets a six-year sentence for leaking military secrets.  (via The Daily Caller).

From American Thinker, despite their country's economic turmoil, Venezuela's elite are doing well.

From the Twitter feed of Jack Posobiec, CNN gets some harsh criticism.  (From where would the critic get such an idea?)

From Townhall, some negative reaction to President Trump's pullout from Paris.

From The New York Times, the Manchester suicide bomber allegedly met with ISIS in Libya.

From Breitbart London, police have made their 17th arrest in connection with the Manchester bombing.  (This fact might become useful the next time someone uses the term "lone wolf" to describe a terrorist.)

From Twitchy, some scenes from the #MarchForTruth.

From Bizpac Review, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal), like many politicians on both sides of the aisle, uses the Bible when it suits her.

From Fox News, Defense Secretary Mattis calls North Korea a "clear and present danger".

From PopZette, 10 surprising things about Marilyn Monroe.

From Yahoo News, Toyota cuts their ties with Tesla.

From The Daily Caller, meet the "Ottoman snowflake".

From CampusReform, students at the University of Maryland want stricter "hate speech" rules.

In National Review, Jonah Goldberg discusses the "lifestylization" of politics.

And from FoxSanAntonio, flag thieves wear fur.

Why Paris Won't Work

As everyone not living under a carbon-dioxide-heated rock knows, President Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement.  For some reaction, go to FrontpageMag and National Review.  But back in January, before The Donald took office, YouTube user PragerU came out with their reasons for opposing Paris.  Their message is basically "big cost, small result".

The video may also be viewed directly on YouTube.

UPDATE:  There's more positive reaction to Trump's decision from The Daily Signal.

Links For The End Of May

As May draws to a close, here are some things in the news:

Move over, Kek, Kermit and Hoppity Hooper, Nature World News presents a new species of frog.

From LifeNews, CNN has fired decapitation simulator Kathy Griffin.

As The American Mirror points out, Griffin's stunt was too much even for Satan worshipers.

On the other hand, an opinion writer in the Washington Examiner defends Griffin's right to do what she did.

It's very hard to get to what the New York Post calls "Mexico's most Instagrammed beach".

From the Daily Record, a Muslim convert flees Scotland while wondering why Muslims should care about Manchester.

As pointed out in FrontpageMag, sometimes revolutions eat their own.

Gatestone Institute asks, "Fleeing tyranny or bringing it with them?"

As National Review reports, Hillary keeps trying to be relevant.

According to an opinion writer in The Week, if you want universal health care, first look across the Pond.

According to an opinion writer from The Heritage Foundation, the real enemy of farmers is not capitalism.

From AhlulBayt News Agency, Israel is well aware of Hezbollah's missiles.

From CNN, a truck bomb in Kabul kills 90 people.

From Reuters, China and the EU will support the Paris climate agreement.

From the Independent, President Trump reportedly won't keep the U.S.in the Paris agreement.

Despite what we may have heard, according to The Daily Caller, the German ambassador to the U.S. says that President Trump and Chancellor Merkel get along quite well.

From ABC News, at the Orlando airport, police take into custody a man who was brandishing a fake gun.  (Pop quiz:  When are cops most likely able to determine whether a gun is real or fake?  Answer:  After they arrest the person with the gun.)

And from Fox News, please pass the covfefe.

Links For Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day and the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Kennedy.  Here are some things going on out there:

Memorial Day in a divided nation.

In combat, "political adversaries are brothers".

Macron meets Putin.

What is Kekistan?

In one writer's opinion, President Trump should say non to the Paris agreement.

Trump visits Arlington Cemetery's Section 60.

Trump allegedly accused Abbas of tricking him.

A famous golfer gets arrested in Jupiter.  (Perhaps he should have turned left at the Great Red Spot.)

Arrogant illegal aliens set forth their demands.

Israel will soon have an earthquake early warning system.

Meanwhile, California gets a very mild quake.

In Kashmir, Ramadan celebrators defy curfew.

Islam was present in America at its Founding, but was not part of it.  (intermediate source)

The Portland stabbing suspect doesn't like Muslims, Christians or Jews.

I'll just recite the title: "Sharia down under".

A Jewish family on a British beach are pelted with stones.

A controversial Mosque in Switzerland will be closed down.

Liberals, we're starting to reciprocate your hate.

Egypt transfers the security chief of the area where terrorists killed 29 Christians.

And to finish, a tight end texts his quarterback.

I Am The Hippo

Via Chicks On The Right and Pirate's Cove, from The Daily Caller:

A PhD student explained his "transpecies" hippopotamus identity and why he prefers being "transpecies" to transgender in a peer-reviewed paper published in May.

Florentin Félix Morin, a French PhD student who studied at the University of Arizona in the spring 2017 semester, published a paper discovered Saturday entitled "EGO HIPPO: The subject as metaphor," in which he explained "how his metaphorical hippo-self is collectively produced and performed."

John Lennon sang I Am The Walrus, but this guy opted for another large water-loving mammal.  Thankfully, Mr. (perhaps soon-to-be-Dr.) Morin has the sense to admit that his "hippo-self" is "metaphorical".  Read the full story.