Friday 1-14 Hiking Bonham State Park Trails

Grab your hiking gear and let's go

We woke up to the temperature in the high 40s and overcast skies. It got up to 68 degrees. There was a little breeze. Perfect temperature for a hike or two. Tomorrow it's not suppose to get out of the 30s. We hiked about 8 miles together, I hiked about 11 miles.

After having breakfast we went on a 5 mile hike. The hike was very challenging, not physically, the challenge was understanding where the trails were, they had trails within each other and the signage was poor, mostly there was no signage. The trail sign had a green arrow when you go one direction and a blue arrow if you're going the opposite direction. I'll stop complaining. Using the trail map and an App. called All Trails Larry was able to figure it out so we didn't get lost. Overall the hike was very good. We climbed up small hills, through ravines, through trees and climbed over roots. We started the hike across the street from the camping area. We hiked the Bois d' Arc Trail. The trail took us through the group camping area. It had nice cabins and a dining cabin. We picked the trail back up by the park boundary fence. Then we went up a hill and through trees. As we hiked we saw some CCC picnic areas with picnic tables, stone seating areas and a place where the grill was. This is a guess because there were no signs. We hiked to the tent camping area. It looked like the picnic tables were built by the CCC because of the stone that was used. We walked over a small bridge built by the CCC. We finished the trail at the main road. We then followed the road to the Armadillo Trail, which was 1.5 miles long. We finished this at the main road by the Lake Trail which we hiked for about a mile to the dam. We picked up the Gnarly Trail and hiked it to the boathouse and ramp. We walked around the area. There was a playground with swings, a boat ramp, a boathouse, where you can rent paddle boats, a fishing dock and the park headquarter. Then we went back to the Minnie. We had a very nice hike.

A couple cabins in the group camping area

One of the picnic tables built by the CCC

 

A group get together built by the CCC

 

Boathouse built by the CCC

 

Paddle boats for rent

 

The park headquarter building

By the time we got back it was lunchtime. After lunch we rested. Larry read and I did my Solitaire Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 10 minutes and 39 seconds, which put me in 7th place in my group.

About 2:00 we went on another hike. This hike was for 2.5 miles for an hour. In the morning we missed some of the Bois d' Arc Trail so we hiked the pieces we missed and more. When we finished doing what we missed we took the Lake Trail back to the camping area. While we were hiking one of the sections we had to cut through the trees because two guys were chainsawing a fallen tree so they could remove it from the trail.

 

The park workers removing a downed tree

Larry has a hiking trail program called All Trails, that has trails people have entered into the database form all over the place. We were grateful to this application because Larry would never have figured out the trail system here.

 When we got back we rested. While resting I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges. When I finished I went on an hour walk. I did the Lake Trail and the Lake Loop Trail. When I got to the dam I hiked the piece of the Gnarly Trail we did this morning. I wanted to walk around another half hour. I checked in with Larry and told him what I was doing. When I walk the trails by myself Larry will worry if I'm late getting back. 

By doing this hour and a half walk I did my step goal. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

For dinner I barbecued hamburgers. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing with a book. I made chocolate chip cookies.