Saturday 4-12-25 Hiking 5 Miles, Camping, Reading & More

 

Hiking with friends

 

We had a beautiful day with sunshine and wind. We woke up to 37 degrees with a lite breeze. About noon the clouds rolled in and the wind got stronger. The high was 73 degrees.

I slept in until 7:30 am. I got dressed and then made apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast I put the hiking pouch together with a couple of bottles of water. 

Then we went on a 5 mile hike. The hike was on two trails, The Redbud trail had orange markers (1.5 mile loop) and River Forks had blue markers (2.90 mile loop). The trail experiences on both were 2) natural surface with rocks, gravel, dirt and mud, 3) rocks, roots and/or other downed vegetation on trail and 7) steep grades and includes over 10%.

The weather was perfect for a hike. We started the hike from the campground by the bathroom with showers at the trailhead for Redbud Trail. We hiked about a half mile of the loop, where it Y's off. Then we continued straight to the park road. We crossed the road and walked through the day area. The day area was at the lake and had a big pavilion, pit toilets, playground, parking and a rental building with kayaks. Then we picked up River Forks Trailhead. The trail took us up hill for a ways, which got your heart beating. Once on top of the hill it flatten out. The trail weaved through the trees. We climbed up and down the hillside. We saw a beautiful field of Henbit (read below for more information). We saw the river forks. It wasn't the prettiest river I've seen but it was nice. We were almost done with the loop when we saw a family hiking the trail, they happened to be our neighbors in the campground. We said our hellos and continued our hike. The loop started at the day area and ended there. We sat down in the pavilion to rest before heading back to the campground. It's a very nice day area. Once rested we took the park road back across the road to Redbud trail. The trail took us up a steep hill to the group campground. Larry checked his GPS to make sure we were still on the trail. We walked through the site to where the trail was. It went around the campground. We saw a young guy hiking and said hello. The trail took us around a few sites in the campground. We were almost done when Larry saw a tiny snake on the trail. We exited the trail by a full hook-up site with a bull dog. I said hello to it. I said you're making sure everyone gets back safe after their hike. The master said yes he is. The dog didn't even bark. We had a super hike.

 

Snake on the trail

 

Lake at the day area

 

Hiking trail through the trees

 

The river

Henbit is a weed, which comes out every spring. It turns the fields purple. It helps the farmers because it's a natural cover crop. Henbit protects the fields between planting and helps prevent erosion, improving organic matter and add biomass to the soil.

 

 Field of Henbit

 

This is a great campground. The families kept us entertained by throwing footballs, skate boarding, bicycling and other activities. The kids are very friendly and not afraid of strangers. They say hi to us when we walk around the campground and are very well behaved.   

After our hike we relaxed in the Minnie. 

I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 11 minutes and 3 seconds to complete, which put me in 7th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

After dinner I walked around for an hour for 2 miles. Larry walked 15 minutes of the walk. By the end of the day I had gotten 19,300 steps. 

While I played games and walked Larry read and finished his book. I've lost track of how many books Larry has read so far on the trip. After doing my walk I continued reading How the Light Gets In by Joyce Maynard.