Tuesday 4-5 Beautiful Spring Day

 

Beautiful Spring Day

It rained all day yesterday and finally stopped sometime after midnight. When we woke up the power was out and it did not come back until after lunch time. Today was beautiful with lots of sunshine and a high in the 70s.

We didn't have any power but our refrigerator works on either electricity or propane and our oven works on propane. For breakfast we had cinnamon french toast sticks which are cooked in the oven. After breakfast we went on a walk for an hour and a half. We walked to the trailhead at the end of our loop, it looked pretty wet, maybe tomorrow. Instead we walked the park roads. We walked to the Visitor Center and to the trailhead sign for the Boston Mountain Trail. Larry read the sign and looked at the trail, it is a two loop trail, A & B for 5.4 miles. From the sign we walked the road to the Black Bear Dining Hall, the Wild Turkey Lodge and Kingfisher Lodge. We took part of the Warren Hollow trail to the cabins. We walked around the cabin area and looked at the cabins. We climbed a few steps to get back on the Warren Hollow trail, the trail took us through the trees and over a big wooden bridge that went over a creek. While hiking we had to watch out for rocks. Warren Hollow met up with the multi-use trail, we continued hiking Warren Hollow to the lake. Then we walked over a dike back to the main road. The dike is a small fishing area. Then we walked back to the visitor center. We walked around the center and read a couple of signs about the history of the lake. There actually were two lakes that were combined to make one. In 1936 Lake Fort Smith was made by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. As the population grew in 1956 Lake Shepherd Springs was built two miles upstream. In 2002 they started working on combining the two lakes, the project was finished in 2006. 

The creek flowing through the campground

 

Back of the visitor center

 

The bridge we took over the creek

 

The observation point at the visitor center

We hung around the site the rest of the day. I did two walks to get my steps done. The first one was for two hours I did the same route we did in the morning except I added the day area and boat ramp. I did the whole Warren Hollow trail of 1.5 miles. I also walked around the camping area a couple of times. After dinner I walked around for a half hour to complete 29,600 steps, which put me in 5th place. 

While I did my walks Larry sat outside and enjoyed the campsite with a book. When I wasn't walking I read. When the power came on I played my computer games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. I ended the Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 49 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group.