Kohnkes' Little Pine Creek
Location: From West Lafayette, travel south on South River Road, which later becomes Division Road. Follow until you come to the edge of Greenhill, then turn left and follow this road thruogh a pair of ninety-degree turns about a mile down the road; you'll continue on straight south until the road takes another ninety degree turn to the right, which you follow, with the parking lot down the road just before it jogs left again. This is actually the parking lot for Weiler-Leopold Nature Reserve; park here and follow the road as it jogs to the left. Start up the the private driveway and turn off to your left before reaching the private property sign, down an abandoned road back in the trees; follow this road down and you're in the preserve.
Description: Okay, I have an unreasonable fondness for this preserve. Many years ago I spent a good deal of time exploring the High Bridge area, which was sort of open at that time and has some of the prettiest places in the state. My wife and I have even travelled the length of the Little Pine from High Bridge down to the Wabash in a cheap (and not air-tight) rubber raft, wading a good deal of the way; this was when we were still quite young and it looms large in our memories. I can still remember the feeling when we floated around a bend into what was one of the largest roosts of turkey buzzards I've ever seen - a couple of hundred of them hit the air at once, and the turkey buzzard is a huge bird. The High Bridge area is now soldily in private ownership and closed to visitors, although I understand that some of it is in a conservation easement. I'd really like to visit it again, and this reserve is as close as I can get for now. And it really is a pleasant little area, with 33 acres around the Little Pine Creek, which is not a very robust stream most of the time, but still nice to hang around. It needs to be pointed out that as of this writing the preserve is not marked in any way, there are no developed trails, and what you are getting is mostly a very abandoned homestead. Restoration and improvement are still in the future.
Nearby Points of Interest: Fall Creek Gorge, Weiler-Leopold NR/Black Rock Barrens, Portland Arch.
Cautions: The most ticks I've ever had a group of hikers pick up. (I didn't get any, though).
Ownership: Niches
National Forest