The parking lot is right next to a nice open field, playground, and basketball court. Just to the left of Mitch in the photo below is the trail head. Going in is always fun because of the forest tunnel! After getting through there, it opens up and the trail forks in several places.
Mitch and I decided to take the left trail and we continued into an area I'd never been before. We hiked the outer loop and came out in Minnewashta Regional Park, right by the lake! It was pretty windy and before long we started hiking back along shore. The sun even poked out once or twice! The wind continued to get stronger as we started searching for a place to hammock.
On our way back to the beginning of the trail, we came upon this amazing grove of pine trees right in the middle this deciduous forest. I've always loved pine trees and I wanted to hammock there, but the brush was overgrown. Always check your entire body for ticks when you're done hiking, ESPECIALLY if you're wearing shorts and/or walking through overgrowth! It's not a bad idea to occasionally check your shoes and legs during the hike, too.
We found more fungi on this trip than I have in a while! Although we only found three, they were all different types and each one was beautiful! They were pretty cool looking. I loved how bright the orange ones are, and how fuzzy the white ones are!
We had to search for a good 30 minutes before we found a decent spot to hammock. A lot of the places we thought looked promising from far away turned out not to be. Finally, we decided to climb up a hill to a group that looked like it had some good trees. We put up our hammocks there and chilled out for a little while. Mitch decided to try something I was afraid to do last week when Cat suggested it. Flipping over, cocoon style!
The forecast called from thunderstorms that day and as the wind picked up, we looked up with skepticism as we watched the trees we were attached to sway vigorously. Still, we stayed for a while in the cool wind. The view from the top of the hill was awesome, too. It looked over the path and open woods around us.
When the sky started getting dark we decided it was time to pack up and go home. It was a little difficult to get our hammocks down because the wind was so strong. The hike back to the car was short but no less enjoyable.
This wasn't a long hike but it was still fun! This is a nice park to spend a few hours at, and if you want, make a day of it over in the regional park. Hopefully we will be able to go for a longer hike this coming Saturday. Until next time, happy hunting!
~ Haley & Mitch
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