Adena Trace Trail/ Brookville Lake

Hike Name: Adena Trace Trail/ Brookville Lake Location: southeast IN Length: 24 Submitted by: Randall Date Submitted: 0/0/00 Rating:	more Indiana trail reviews Indiana national parks Indiana state parks
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Description
The Adena Trail is single use 24-mile loop hiking trail located at Brookville Lake State Park, 30 miles south of Richmond, Indiana and 30 miles north of Cincinnati. The Hoosier Hiking (HHC) Council was invited to design and build the Adena Trail. However, it should be noted that the majority of the west side of this trail existed in the form of pioneer roads and deer paths. I hiked the west t route many times in the early and late eighties. The HHC has done a wonderful job with the improvements. They cut switchbacks and laid out a much more enjoyable route that the original. They deserve a lot of credit here!!! This is a very good trail and one you should check out. Many features of the trail make it one of Indiana's greatest trails. The exposed rock strata are among the oldest in the state: 600-million year old Ordovician fossils are exposed at every tiny draw the trail crosses. Contours are severe and the soil is poor, so the trail winds and changes grades frequently to avoid impassably steep slopes. This results in some magnificent views of the reservoir from on high as well as some memorable dips to the shoreline.
The fishing is sometimes good, but takes some local knowledge to expect a catch. Catfish and Walleye are good chances, but don’t count on largemouth here!! Best spots are close to the dam and the south side of Wolf Creek.
Views are, of course, best in winter and early spring, before trees leaf out. Two big stream valleys add interest and miles of additional trail to the backcountry trail. Spring wildflower displays here are especially noteworthy.(wild onions too!) The trail continuously crosses slopes, allowing the hiker to look both down and up at whole hillsides of color. camping or hiking late, night skies are notable for their vividness and absence of light pollution, due to the area's remoteness from population centers. The moonlight effect is very beautiful here when coming through the trees, it reminds one of gothic cathedrals.
A cautionary note: in warm weather, motor noise from boating on the reservoir can be intrusive as well as the float planes that have become increasingly numerous here. In cold weather, however, the day-long gabbling of waterfowl gathering on the lake or in the evening, turkeys settling in to roost along the bluffs can provide amusing and enjoyable background noises. Coyotes are here as well and you can expect visits from critters most every night. The Great horned owl, the hoot owl make a lot of noise at night and you can see the bald and fish (Egret???) eagle on this trail. Oh yeah, some Beaver as well. Just be sure not to hike during Deer gun season as the area is a favorite of many hunters and the amount of gunshots on opening day can be unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!.
The trail consists of 11 miles of challenging new trail in the road less, backcountry area on the west side of Brookville Lake. This area has a lot of blow downs on the trail and can be weedy down by the creeks in mid summer. Large mature hardwoods are found in quantity and cedars dot the hillsides where ever they can find a hold. Expect Deer flies, ticks and chiggers May through mid July, but hardly any misquotes ever!!
There are many trail heads that you can access, but most locals will not even know that the trail exists, (That is so cool!!!!!!) so don’t ask anyone except reservoir personnel for directions. My personnel favorite is the west side of Fairfield Causeway. The trail head is just to the south of the parking lot. (50 feet or so)There is another on the east side of this causeway as well. The entire trail is south of the causeway and requires the hiker to cross that dam at the most southern part. The east side is a 10-mile mixture of established and new trails connecting campgrounds, beach, and natural attractions of Mounds State Park (Actual Pre Native American Mounds there, but they are all dug up). Expect to cross roads and walk corn fields for a small distance on this section of the trail. This can also be very weedy in mid summer and most of the trees here are 40 year old scrub, but getting better all the time.
One of the greatest features of this trail is that you can there in about 1 1/2 hours from Indy, much sooner if you live southeast or east of there.

Directions to Hike
Take I-70 east to State Road 1. Head south on State Road 1 to Fairfield Causeway Road. Head east to The causeway. There are two trailheads there, one on the west side of the causeway and the other on the east side. There are parking lots at both trailheads.

Contact Information
P.O. Box 100
Brookville, IN 47012
(765) 647-2657
(765) 647-2658

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