Tons of twisty, windy paths to choose from!

Creek crossing
At the first creek crossing I came to
User: heatharcadia - 1/30/2016

Location: Thumper

Rating: 3point5stars
Difficulty: 4stars  Solitude: 4point5stars
Miles Hiked: 3.31 Miles  Elapsed Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Comments:

I ended up here because I was originally going to hike at St. Edwards Park but on a nice day such as this it was packed and I wanted more solitude.

Wow, there are so many paths to follow here! Many were quite steep and made more difficult by the fallen leaves (made it hard to get/find good footholds). The odd part was I could often see another trail and would think "Okay, after this bend I'll be on THAT part of the trail," but then the trail I was on would take another turn and I'd never made it to the trail I saw (or if I eventually did it would be a lot later in my hike).

I made it down to the creek and crossed it, hiked on the other side of the creek, and then crossed it again. Both crossings had rocks in the creek so my feet didn't get wet at all.

I saw only a handful of others while I was on the trail. One trail runner, one other hiker, and two mountain bikers are all who passed me (I saw two or three other bikers on different paths, but our trails never crossed).

I had to knock some points from how enjoyable this was only because I got frustrated and couldn't find my way out easily. There were signs on trees and arrows pointing every which way, but I couldn't make sense of it at all. Every so often I'd pass a map tacked to a tree but there was nothing on the map indicating where exactly I was. At one point I was certain I was heading in the direction of where I parked my car-- certainly not on a trail I had been on-- when I passed the same tree where someone had hung a water bottle that I had passed fifteen minutes early, only going in a different direction. I have no idea how I managed to loop around and get back on that section of the trail, only heading in a different direction.

I'm plan to come back to this place with more water so I can stay out on the trails longer.



Log Photos
An example of some of the signage
Creek crossing
Creek crossing
Unexpected chairs
Dry creek
Moss on tree
Sun in a clearing