10-11-10 Kinnikinnick Creek Conservation Area

After leaving Tuttle Clarkson, we got in the car and decided to go to another of their conservation areas (Kinnikinnick Creek) that is not far. A very nice place with a 3.5 mile horse trail that has been suggested to me by a co-worker. I had figured it was just too hot to take Wilma on a hike that far because while much of the horse trail is in the shade of wooded areas, there is also some big chunks out in the fields of weeds, and I didn't want to take any chances on it.

BTW, there does not appear to be any drinking water here either, at least I never found any, and none is shown on the trail map. So be aware of that if you come here. Bring your own water.

I drove right past the entrance the first time. The place sneaks up on you and the sign is well back of the road where you cannot see it until you are right up on it. We went down the road and turned around and came back. There are yellow diamond "park" signs on the road, but I just went by them and was going to fast to stop.

The horse trail will be closed for archery hunting a number of weekends in the coming months. The white paper in the upper RH side is the closed horse trail schedule.

So we drove around looking at as much as we could see.

We came across a creek crossing and Wilma got very excited. On our way back out we stopped at the creek crossing so she could have some quality creek time.

I had noticed on the trail map that the start of the horse trail leads to a horse creek crossing quite early on the trail, and it appeared to be all wooded area there, so plenty of shade. Wilma and I set off down the horse trail to find the creek. The horse trail parallels the creek for several hundred yards before the crossing. You can hear and smell it. Wilma was very excited.

The horse trail head is across the gravel road from the horse parking area.

It's a fairly typical horse trail that starts out in a field and then goes into a wooded area. It's uneven and rutty in spots, with exposed roots, rocks, etc. And quite a bit of up and down, but it's not real difficult. just interesting.

We got to the the crossing which is just a short distance from the creek car crossing we had visited earlier. The creek is only 6-8 inches deep here, and with my ICW boots on, I might be able to ford it, but I had shorter hiking boots on, and did not want to get my feet wet.

If you look closely, you can see a red pickup at the car crossing. A guy had brought his two dogs so they could play in the creek. 

There is a footpath along the creek bed between the horse and car crossings, so we walked over to the car crossing and Wilma played in the creek some more there.

Then we checked out the creek on the downstream side of the car crossing. Wilma really wanted to go downstream and tried to pull me in. I would have walked down downstream with her for a ways if I had my boots on that are taller, as it is not real deep there and is a pebble bottom that looked like it was walkable.

All good creeks have to come to an end though. She was one happy dog as we walked back to the car for the ride home. An older lady with a dachshund passed us on the gravel road back to where we had parked near the start of the horse trail. She asked if we were there for some dog training. I told her no, just some creek time. She replied that was why they were there as well.

It was too hot for Wilma to walk very far today, but we will be back some day to walk the horse trail and maybe the hiking trail too.