Chickakoo Lake is fast becoming a favorite evening destination! Out of work at 4:45 on a beautiful Friday evening and I couldn't think of a better place to walk the dog.
This time, I was determined to get on the Intermediate & Advanced trails that wander the perimeter of the Chickakoo Lake Recreation Area. I hadn't seen them before but ran into a couple of hikers coming off the Advanced trail who said it was ALL up and down hill. What fun! :)
Arrived at the upper parking lot at 6pm, leashed up the dog, and off we went. Here is the map again so you can follow along the trails. Jump below for the hike details and link to pictures.
The upper parking lot is the P surrounded by the grey lines. Ghiry and I got on the trail to the upper right of the P on the yellow/orange trail - Easy trail. We followed it until the point that it intersects with trail 2 - Intermediate trail - and heads south of Dog Leg Pond. This pond is full of PEEPERS ! Always a pleasant chorus to listen to on an evening hike. :D While I had seen only Greebs in the pond during the previous hike, there were a couple of green headed mallards last night as well.
Heading around Dog Leg Pond and continuing on the Red trail, we intersected with trail 4 - also intermediate. Here is where I have always chosen to go left and stay in trail 2. However, after a couple of pictures of a particular log I'd seen on my first hike, I headed off right onto trail 4 - Green line. This trail takes you around the end of Kettle Lake and onto the northeast side of the lake. Let me just say that with all of the ponds and lakes in the recreation area, you are never very far from a fabulous view!
Trail 4 intersects with trail 3 - Advanced! - with the option to take a right and head back to trail 2 or go left and around the rest of the park. A quick check of the clock indicated it was only 7:30pm, there was plenty of daylight left, and as Ghiry and I were both in great spirits, left we went!
This part of the hike was the most fun as it really was UP hill and DOWN hill, steeply! Lots of hills! On several of them, I let Ghiry off leash so that he could make his own way up the hill as his long doggy legs carry him more quickly than my short girl legs can take me up the hill. He was great, stopping and waiting at the top of each new hill. We enjoyed the scenery and found ourselves at the parking lot at 8:30pm with sunlight to burn.
I took a lot of photos this time and will definitely be back to do this hike again (TOMORROW!) & again & again! Next time I want to go the reverse direction, my only complaint being that the whole hike is not on terrain similar to the advanced trail. Perhaps 2 loops around the advanced trail, 1 in each direction, are in order...
Stay tuned!
