February Hike #1

Day/Time: Friday, February 3rd - 1:30pm

Trail: A little bit of Section 17 and half of Section 16 of the Falls Lake Trail

Distance from home: 8.0 miles

Location and/or Map: Falls Lake Trail map

Weather: 58 degrees

Hiking Friends: Rob, me, Eliza and both of our dogs (bluetick Gunnie, beagle Taylor)

How to get to the trailhead: Click here for a general map of the location. See where it says "B" - that's where you'll find a giant parking lot. That unknown-to-Google-maps road you take off of Redwood road is actually the Hickory Hill Boat Ramp access road. There's a big sign on the side of Redwood Rd. You won't miss it. There are 2 access points to the trail, one on the north side of the parking area, and one on the south side.

We started out our hike on the north side of the parking area, but we didn't get far. Recently, there's been some logging out here and it has obliterated the trail. Obliterated! Which is sad, because this section 17 is one of my favorites in the area. It's fun because you can hike it all the way to E. Geer Rd and I-85, and there's a private airport right there and sometimes you can watch small planes taking off or landing. Here's a couple pictures that show this section of the trail, and how there's not even a trail to be found anymore! So sad :( I hope they rebuild soon.

Hello...trail, where are you?

Crunch, crunch, crunch (the sound of our hiking shoes over the rough terrain of sticks, fallen trees, branches...

So we gave up on this section of trail and continued on to the other trailhead, south of the parking area. Here's a view of the trailhead:

This section is nice and short and before you know it, you've reached Redwood Rd.

To continue on Section 16, you must walk alongside Redwood Rd and cross the lake. Then you'll see the trail branch off to the left. There are some beautiful views along this part of the trail. We stopped to take our first official family hiking picture:

The terrain is hilly, but not steep by any means. We took the trail all the way out to Hereford Rd. and then walked the roads for a while back toward the parking area. Hey, don't laugh! We were tired! I'm still out of shape and hiking with a 25 pound baby on your back makes it that much more strenuous! So we walked along Hereford Rd, and then turned right on Redwood Rd, and we had fun counting how many pickup trucks we saw go past us. I forget the count now, but it was a lot. We picked up Section 17 again, you know, the one we hiked earlier, but now we were hiking it in the opposite direction (going north, towards the Hickory Hill Boat Ramp parking area)

Some more general views along the trail:

Awww, poor beagle Taylor got too tired to keep on walking, so Rob carried her for a while:

Eliza fell asleep for part of this hike, but then awoke and enjoyed looking around in the woods (notice her sun shade, the coolest part of the Deuter KidComfort III pack we have):

At the end of our hike, we changed Eliza's diaper in the back of the minivan. I shudder at the thought of if, and when, we'll have to change her diaper when out on the trail hiking! Eeek. I do pack our folding changing pad from our diaper bag when we hike, but it's not that big (either that or Eliza's too big!) and part of her body would be touching the ground during a change. Maybe I should invest in a bigger changing pad? Hmmm. Something to think about.

I don't know our total mileage on this hike, but if I had to guess, hmmm, I guess I'd say 3 miles. It was a very nice hike overall.