2020 11 05 - State Park, Wild River

If you prefer a mostly flat trail, this one is and it is paved. It's listed as the old logging trail.

We decided to walk down by the St Croix River and knew when we went down the hill that it would be a climb later to get back up. It was.

No work again today so we decided to take a longer walk and a longer drive. Wild River is about an hour from our house on the 2 lane highways. For us it is 20 miles further and 5 minutes longer to take the freeway. We did heading home.

We drove past Wild Mountain today. They are open. 60 degrees and people are out skiing.

We've been to this state park before, but i can't remember which trails we walked. I did remember the history and then later today read it at one of our stops. This area had been dammed, 1st for the saw mills and then for the power company. But people down stream didn't like the dam and when a storm destroyed it, it was never rebuilt.

My wife had picked out a route by looking online. But online does not show hills.

We decided to take the 'hiking club trail.' But when we got to the 1st turn there was a tree across the trail. It must have just recently fallen and hadn't been cleared yet. We paused a second before stepping over it and heading down hill.

We knew going down we would have to be coming back up. In a few minutes we were down just above water level. The next mile was flat as the river.

Part of the trail was only feet from the river and at other points it would curve inland. I think everywhere we walked today was wide enough for a four wheeler and most places twice that wide. So no tromping through the bushes and the stickers.

Even walking on the flat was taking a toll on my wife today. We/she stopped a couple of times before we were half done. When we were about to the halfway point we were at the overlook where the old dam had been and there was a picnic table to sit at.

She sat there a few minutes and after that she was better. Not quite a 2nd wind but better.

From there we went inland, and up. We did stop again at a bench half way up the hill. That part of the trail was paved going up hill. High traffic on a hill, so I'm guessing erosion was a factor.

Once we were to the top of the hill we were on the logging trail and it was as flat as a rail trail (which it may have been at one point)

The only thing we saw when we were walking was squirrels. It was like the computer game Oregon Trail. Squirrel's everywhere.

Some people were wearing masks. Some people would stand off the trail while we went past. (And a couple of people using the bathrooms just pulled their shirts up to cover their faces ... until they were inside a stall?)

Over a three mile walk today. Might have been OK if it were all on the flat. We will likely do something differently next time.

This place does have three miles of paved trails. Very flat. Not sure if they are cleared in the winter or used for cross country skiing.

Then we drove through the camp ground before we left. Still a few campers.

Here we saw a few blue birds and one deer.