by Phillip Obermiller

During my rides on the trail I’ll sometimes meander off the beaten path, curious about what stories might be found down a crossroad. Here’s a recent discovery.

In 1876 James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was playing poker in a saloon in the Dakota Territory after returning from his honeymoon in Cincinnati. According to legend he had just been dealt two black aces and two black eights (with a jack down) when Jack McCall, who Hickok had recently outplayed at the same table, walked in and shot Hickok dead. Since then, black aces and eights have been known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

The dealer in that game was a young man from Loveland, Charlie Henry Rich. It is not clear whether Hickok and Rich were trying to make their fortunes at the poker table or in the surrounding Black Hills gold rush, but Rich eventually returned to Ohio where he married and raised a family.

Charlie Rich is buried in Miamiville’s Evergreen Cemetery just a few hundred yards from where Center Street crosses the trail near mile marker 47. There, his family has celebrated the aces and eights legend with a historical marker along with an elaborate tombstone over Rich’s grave, inscribed on the back with the fanciful scene of the shooting shown above.

Historian Marshall Trimble frames the story differently: “During the chaos after the shooting, the cards were scattered. The aces and eights story did not surface until Frank J. Wilstach published it in his 1926 book, Wild Bill Hickok: The Prince of Pistoleers. I don’t think we will ever know what hand Hickok was holding.”

But it could have been black aces and eights.

Phillip Obermiller is a trail sentinel for the Friends of the Little Miami State Park.

by Erick Wikum

Last year’s Tour de France bicycle race occurred during a severe heat wave in Europe with temperatures in the high 90s. According to the NBC Sports Network telecast, while teams typically provide riders with one water bottle per hour, during the heatwave, teams provided riders with triple that amount. This example clearly illustrates that heat, humidity, intensity and duration can have a drastic impact on the amount of fluids needed during exercise.
According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, symptoms of dehydration include extreme thirst, less frequent or dark urination, fatigue, dizziness and confusion. Insufficient fluids can lead to cramps, exhaustion or potentially life-threatening heatstroke. See this link for more information.

Next time you are preparing for an outing on the Little Miami Scenic Trail, whether to walk, run or bike, carefully consider your hydration needs. Err on the side of bringing more fluids than you need in case conditions or the duration of your outing differ from what you expect. Having additional fluid will also allow you to come to the aid of a fellow trail user in distress.

Fortunately, the marketplace offers a wide variety of hydration solutions, including the following:

Bottle: Plastic bottles come in various sizes. Some are insulated to keep your beverage cool. Some are equipped with hand straps for easy carrying. Properly dispose of (recycle) disposable plastic bottles.
Cage: Water bottle cages can be attached to bicycle frames, seats or handlebars.
Hydration belt or vest: Hydration belts and vests include slots to hold one or two water bottles along with pockets to carry snacks, keys, etc.
Hydration backpack: Hydration backpacks include fluid reservoirs of various sizes, a drinking tube, and pockets to carry other items.

Good old-fashioned water can go a long way towards meeting hydration needs. A wide array of sports drinks, which replace electrolytes lost during sweating, are available in bottles or powder or tablet form. No matter which type of fluid you choose, bring enough. Stay hydrated, stay safe and enjoy your trail outing.

September 2020

Have you ever wondered how many people use the trail every year or any particular day? The Friends group has been monitoring trail use for many years through the use of counters that beam across the trail. As technology advances and data becomes more important for justifying grants and survival of the park, so does our need to adapt.

On a beautiful Wednesday morning, Rick Forrester (FLMSP) and Wade Johnston of the Tri-State Trails Green Umbrella Organization met at the site of our current counter to install a state-of-the-art infrared counter with WiFi capability, superior to the current counter.
Selecting a spot near the current fence, two holes were needed. One fits the wooden pressure-treated post containing the sensors embedded in a chamber inside the post. The second hole houses a heavy-duty plastic chamber connected to the sensor post via an underground cable. Wade provided additional protection for the cable via plastic conduit.

Installation was generally straightforward although digging in the railroad bed rubble is always challenging. Rick had brought a five-foot iron straight pry bar that greatly sped the process. The electronics package is quite robust (weather protected) and, after a mistake of not threading the cable through the proper hole in the plastic chamber, all went well. Installation took about two hours.

After a short call to the support team at the manufacturer’s website to register the serial number and get the wifi talking properly, the counter fired right up. We could watch the counter work right on-site with a laptop Wade had brought. Tri-State Trails will coordinate the ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and data analysis on a per-year cost basis.

The original counter and the new counter will be run side-by-side for about a month to compare data.

Editor's Note: Last year, our counters recorded 1.3 million trail uses. This year has seen greatly increased trail use due to the coronavirus.

August 2020