Adena Trace Hiking Weekend
Mounds State Recreation Area, IN
April 12-14, 2024
Co-Trip Leaders: Nancy Myers and Wendy Brinson
Type of Trip: Hiking/Camping
Trip Cost/Deposit: $100/$50
Cancellation Date and full payment: March 12, 2024
Wilderness Level: 2
Trip Difficulty: Moderate to Rugged - 3000 ft total elevation/1800 ft per day; up to 14 miles per day
Policy on Fitness Self-Assessment
Level 3: Applies to backpacking trips in which we hike with 25-35 pound backpacks. In one day, we can hike up to 7 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain on maintained trails, or up to 5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain on more rugged trails. For a Level 3 trip you should be comfortable hiking 6-8 miles in a day in hilly or mountainous terrain with a 25-pound backpack.
Group Size: 10/7 Maximum/Minimum
Adults Only
***Before registering***
While considering your participation in CIWC trips, be aware that some trips will involve shared transportation, lodging, and other activities. Each participant is encouraged to evaluate your comfort level with such arrangements based on your health condition, vaccination status, and unknown COVID positivity rates at the time of the trip. Members are encouraged to review the COVID waiver as a part of this evaluation.
Adena Trace is a 28-mile loop trail around the southern half of Brookville Lake. Although often listed as a backpacking trail, camping is allowed only in the designated drive-in campground located on the east side of the lake.
We will base camp at the Mounds State Recreation Area campground and stage vehicles so that we can hike the Adena Trace in 3-day hikes. This should be a good training weekend for future hiking and backpacking trips. The many ravines that we will cross will provide us with some good elevation changes for Indiana and you can test out your camping setup with the luxury of being able to bring extra equipment along in case you want or need to change things up. We will have electricity at the campsites. The use of modern restrooms will be determined by the spring weather and how early the water will be turned on for the season.
To complete the 28-mile loop, we will have back-to-back day hikes of 14 and 10 miles. We will do a short 4-mile section on Friday afternoon. The Wolf Creek Trail on the west side of Brookville Lake does not cross any roads and there are no buildings, so it has a very remote feel. The Hoosiers Hikers Council gives 11 miles for Wolf Creek. The Brookville DNR brochure says 16.5. We estimate it is 14 miles – or you could say it is 11 miles, feels like 16 miles. For the entire loop, there will be stream crossings and probably some fallen trees that we need to hike over or around. At least in the spring, the briers and undergrowth should not be a problem and we may have a nice display of spring flowers.
Camping reservations, firewood, and fuel/stove use are included in the trip price. We will do our own shuttling to stage vehicles for each day. Shuttle drivers will be reimbursed for the mileage. All meals, snacks, and park entrance fees are the participants’ responsibility.
Questions may be submitted to ciwcinfo@gmail.com.
All trip participants must fill out and submit a CIWC Medical Form and Long Waiver Form.
Effective on all trips, there will be a $50 non refundable registration fee. This fee will be assessed to those who sign up for a trip, get on the roster and then later cancel. Even cancelling before the cancel date. Those who never make the active roster (i.e. those who stay on the waitlist) will NOT be charged the $50 cancellation fee.
