Sunday 4-1 Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Happy Easter. I hope everyone had a great Easter. We woke up to another gorgeous day with sunshine, the temperature was a little warmer than yesterday. For breakfast I baked the rest of the cinnamon rolls I made last night.

Choctaw Lake Campground is such a beautiful place we decided we would stay another day. After breakfast we went for another hike. While I thought we would just do a short hike we ended up hiking six miles. We started on the Lake Side Trail going the opposite way from yesterday. We hiked about a mile to the dam where we picked up the Splashing Dog Trail. This trail was two miles one way through the forest. We went up and down hills gradually and through the forest, at places the forest was dense with trees that looked like you were in the med-evil times. It wasn't scary just majestic and beautiful. We hiked along creeks and over them by bridges, or jumping where they weren't too wide. We were glad we waited until today to hike this trail because it gave it time to dry out some but at places we still had to walk around mushy areas. We hiked by a marshy area where we saw a huge beaver den. We crossed a couple of roads. After two miles Splashing Dog Trail merged with Beaver Lodge Trail, we hiked this trail back towards the lake. At the end of Beaver Lodge Trail we ended up on the other side of the lake in a parking lot where we sat on a concrete block to rest, we had hiked over four miles and had another two to go. The rest of the hike was the Lake Side Trail. The trails we hiked were part of a huge loop trail that goes for 22 miles. As we were hiking the Lake Side Trail back to the Minnie we met up with a hiker that was hiking the entire 22 miles, he had been hiking it for over a day and has hiked about half of it. We had seen him earlier sleeping in a hammock in the gazebo. We wished him luck on his hike. By the time we got back to the Minnie we were tired but we had an outstanding hike.

The hiking trails

Beaver den

 Dogwood trees in bloom

For lunch we had barbeque chicken wraps. We spent the rest of the day sitting in our chairs reading and enjoying this super spring day. The birds were chirping and we have a gorgeous dogwood in bloom.

When it was time for dinner I made pancakes. After dinner we went on a walk to the entrance to pay for another night. The hosts told us we could pay on the way out but we preferred to pay in advance. On the way back to the site we walked a nature trail that was called Cabin Lake Trail, it was about a mile long. It was a very easy trail that went around the lake and had signs along the way telling you what the different trees are in the forest and a little about each tree. It was a nice walk. We ended up walking a mile and a half. By the end of the day we had walked nine miles according to my Garmin, which keeps track of my steps, distance, calories, time and date. We had an outstanding Easter.