While passing through the park on the way to where I was planning to hike, as we were going by the boat ramp I saw this bird wading in the water. A great blue heron. Magnificent bird. I have seen them here before but never got a picture. He even let me stop and get the camera out of the back of the vehicle and take a few pictures of him. Here he is just standing in the water by the boat ramp.
Another picture of him zoomed out. You can see the ramp in the picture. I was no more than 100 feet away from him.
He decided to fly over to the boat dock behind the concession area.
This is where we started our hike. It's the same bridge over the creek where we saw the large dead fish a few weeks ago. The bridge and the gravel trail were put in just this year. There is another bridge over another drainage ditch/creek to the south 100 yards or so. I don't know if there is any intention to pave over the gravel or not.
The trail marker says "more difficult". Wilma wanted to head that way. I am not real sure where it goes. The trails are well marked with signs but the trail map does not show what the alpha-numerical designations on the trail markers mean. I have been meaning to email them and ask about that.
[update 10-4-10] I emailed them Sunday (10-3-10). I got a response this morning that some volunteers are marking them with GPS coordinates and that the work is expected to be completed by next summer and a map will be available then.
We went east across the road and up this incline. There are some good size timbers embedded in the dirt, probably to keep the dirt from washing away in a rainstorm. It's a moderate up grade from this point for quite some distance, maybe 10 minutes. Not taxing, but noticeable to me.
Much of the trail is initially like this. Kind of a tunnel through the forest.
This section of trail runs along the east edge of the park, only 50 yards or so from I90. There is a lot of traffic noise, and now and then you can see the tollway from the trail where it gets closer, or there is less foliage.
The trail widens and still has a bit of an up grade.
The trail joins the what the map refers to as the multi-purpose trail near Puri Crest. This is Puri Crest looking southwest from the multi-purpose trail.
Just north of this juncture we ran across a spur that headed back east. It did not appear to be used much so we thought it might be interesting. It goes back toward I90 to a place where they have bush hogged a large circular area in the woods. I wonder if it is planned as a future picnic area. I didn't take any pictures of this area.
We followed the multi-purpose trail going north. The trail eventually crosses the paved bike path (shown on the map as the path going due north/south.
We went north along the bike path to investigate a mowed path that goes out toward route 173. It appears to be some kind of maintenance gate that is accessed off 173. The path just stops at the gate.
Some nice flowers.
The trail spur that goes to the west is mostly like this. Lots of wild flowers.
Eventually the spur connects with the main park road near the 173 entrance.
This is the gate into the park from 173.
We followed the horse trail a little farther going west and then went south and looped back to the parking lot where my wife was waiting for us. About 2.5 miles according to my cell phone pedometer - 80 minutes or so.
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