Once inside the park, you should stop at the "gate house" and pay the entrance fee -- I think it was two dollars, and no one was there the day we hiked so it was the "honor system." Continue on the road past the lake as far as you can go. The last parking area before the road is gated for hikers is the trailhead parking. If you continue straight through the gate in the direction you had been driving, you'll be hiking the loop clockwise, heading toward mile 47 (east). If you follow through the gate which would be to the right in the direction you had been driving, which is labeled with a state forest road marker, you'll be hiking the loop in the counterclockwise direction, heading toward mile 45 (west). Incidentally, the state forest road markers look very similar to KT mile markers -- flexible brown plastic posts -- with yellow numbers in the 700s rather than white numbers from 1 to 47.
We hiked clockwise heading toward 47 (east). I heartily recommend this direction as the difficult hiking is earliest, and the end of the hike is two miles of old woods road, flat except for a long gradual downhill on part of the common segment.
Let me try to explain the mile markers and the common segment. If you download the trail map JPEG from Oxley Memorial to Spurgeon Hollow and Delaney Park, found on the Indiana DNR site, you'll see what this is about. Unfortunately, the map is missing mile markers 47 (east) and 44 (west) which adds to the confusion factor. They are present on the trail.
The trail is linear from mile 0 (Deam Lake) to mile 40.7 (a few miles north of Oxley Memorial). At this point, the trail forks to begin making the Spurgeon Hollow loop. If you head left, basically west and north, you'll pass miles 41, 42, 43, the Spurgeon Hollow trailhead cutoff, and mile 44. Then you'll hit another fork where the Delaney Park loop cuts in, and heading left (plain white blazes), you'll pass mile 45 and reach Delaney Park trailhead through the state forest road labeled gate. This is what I mean by the (west) designation.
But if you fork right at mile 40.7, basically east cutting back northwest and eventually south, you'll follow the other side of the Spurgeon Hollow loop past miles 41, 42, and 43. Then you'll hit another fork where the Delaney Park loop comes in, and heading right (plain white blazes), you'll pass miles 44, 45, 46, and 47 before reaching Delaney Park through the gate that runs straight ahead into the park road. This is what I mean by the (east) designation.
Finally, if you take the right fork near mile 44.5 (west) or the left fork near mile 43.9 (east), you'll be on an approximately one and a half mile segment common to both loops. This segment has no mile markers at all, and it has the blue/white Spurgeon Hollow loop blazes.
On our clockwise hike, we began through the "straight ahead" gate with a short woods road segment that quickly turned left, ascended a ridge, then descended again into Mandy Hollow. Mile marker 47 was somewhere in this area. We then ascended again to a longer ridgetop which included mile marker 46, dropping again to an unnamed hollow, then ascending a third time to another ridge with most of the climb completed when we encountered mile 45. Another pair of hikers had just finished the climb ahead of us, and all of us stopped to catch our breath and chat a bit.
I believe the remaining segment to the junction of the Spurgeon Hollow loop at mile 43.9 was relatively flat on the ridgetop. We stopped for lunch on a log just after forking right on the common segment, as a few other hiking groups including a large scouting group passed by. After 3 1/2 miles of repeated climbs and drops, the after lunch segment was a breeze by comparison. All of it was woods road, most of it was flat, what wasn't flat was a long gradual downhill, and Maria walked the whole 2+ miles on her own two feet. After the first 1 1/2 miles, we hit the fork ending the common segment, turned right following the white blazes (left was blue and white), and shortly reached mile 45 (west) and paralleled Delaney Lake for about the last half mile back to the parking lot.
MARIA'S HIKING ON HER OWN TWO FEET: 2.2 miles on the KT, admittedly an easy segment, but she covered the distance in about 55 minutes. Some adults wouldn't hike a trail that fast -- not bad for a not quite 5 1/2 year old!
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| It's not too often that we get a family portrait while hiking, since one of us is usually behind the camera. We encountered a friendly pair of hikers just after ascending to the mile 45 (east) marker, and one of them took our photo there. We liked it so much we included it with our 2000 Christmas cards. |
 Here,
Maria is hiking the approximately 1 1/2 mile segment which is common to
the Delaney Park and Spurgeon Hollow loops. The white/blue double
blazing is used on the Spurgeon Hollow loop. Adding to the confusion
of the east and west loop mile numbering, this segment has no mile
posts
at all! |
 Maria
had hiked approximately 2 miles on her own feet after lunch when she
reached
the mile 45 (west) marker, our second milepost 45 of the day's hike.
This was on the flat segment which followed an old woods road, still
labeled
as a state forest road, along Clay Hill Hollow en route to Delaney Lake. |
 Maria
posing near mile 45.1 on the west Delaney Park loop, November 4, 2000.
Behind her is Delaney Lake. We hiked the Delaney Park loop,
approximately
six miles, and Maria hiked the last two miles on her own two feet in
record
time. The Spurgeon Hollow and Delaney Park loop mile markers are
numbered
in a somewhat confusing way -- one direction is numbered mile 41 to 45,
with the other direction numbered mile 41 to 47, and the approximately
1 1/2 mile segment common to both loops has no mile markers at all! |