Friday 4-12-24 Stockton State Park New Trail

 

Awesome Day

We woke up to 42 degrees. There was wind but not as strong as yesterday. The sun was shining and no clouds in the sky. It's an awesome day for a hike.

I crawled out of bed at 7:15 and got dressed. Then I made pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast we got ready to go on a hike. 

Stockton State Park has an 8 mile loop called Lakeview Trail. The trail goes through the forest and at times you can see a view of Stockton Lake. We started from our campsite.,We walked the road to the bathrooms and a wide utility road. We hiked to the trailhead and hiked the trail to the white connector cutoff trail, we hiked the white connector cutoff trail back to the Lakeview Trail. The trail weaved through the forest, at one spot we saw the highway bridge, that goes over the lake. The trail was well maintained and used. We saw a gentleman riding a bike, he warned us he was coming around. It was a moderate/easy trail. The terrain wasn't too steep, there were a few muddy places, loose rocks, gravel, roots, drops over the side of the trail and road crossings. While hiking we saw birds, a beautiful forest and the lake. We didn't see any deer but we saw a couple meadows, that would be a great place for them. We were near the end of the trail when we saw a deep hole. We weren't sure what it was. We thought maybe an old well or an old mine or just a sinkhole. There was no signs. By the time we got back to the Minnie we had hiked 6 miles. We had a super hike.

Hiking trail 

 

A view of the lake and the bridge

 

A beautiful day in the forest

 

The deep hole

One nice thing about Stockton State Park hiking trail map is that each trail is color coordinated with trail markers. We hiked the Lakeview Trail, which was orange and moderate. Natural surface (2), rocks, roots, and/or vegetation on trail (3), bluffs or drop-offs next to trail (8), occasional water over trail (11), and road/highway crossing (12). This is great because then you know what to expect while hiking so there's no surprises.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing with a book. I played my Daily Challenge in Solitaire and the event. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 34 minutes and 40 seconds, which put me in 21st place in my group.

After dinner I walked around for a half hour, which was both campgrounds. I ended up doing 19,000 steps, which put me in 7th place in my group.