This trail has come up a number of times when trying to pick where to hike but always got set aside. I had a really busy week though, with being away Monday I was behind on everything. I really wanted a hike that was close to the city so I'd have more time to get things done around the house. This trail was only supposed to be about an hour away but actually took closer to 45 minutes to get to. It also shares the parking lot with a super popular biking trail so we got to scope that out for a possible adventure.
The day was quite warm but thankfully the trail was well shaded. It started off quite uphill which was not much fun. I've been hiking pretty much every Saturday for 6 months but I still find the uphills exhausting.
We weren't totally paying attention to the signs and maps and ended up taking a different route than we had first planned but it was fun. Shane mostly picked which fork in the road looked flatter until we decided to find our way out.
The trail was definitely popular, especially with trail runners. As the time went on we kept encountering more and more people. There was one point on the way out that we got in line with a bunch of other groups going downhill and there were jokes made about the front guy being our tour guide.
The trail was pretty scenic, lots of little ponds and signs of beaver activity. We even got to see some deer! There were lots of signs about nesting falcons but we didn't see any. It wasn't a super long hike but the day was getting hot so that worked out. I think next week we'll pick a trail with a lake so we can take a dip to cool off.