(This from the Pine Acre Drive entrance)
Hike Distance: 5.7 miles
Trails: Yellow, Red, Blue (parts)
Map:
Edit: Today is National Take A Hike Day, I knew about this in the past, but had forgotten when I set out today.
This was the first hike in a while, the hazards of hockey season. And what a day: 42 degrees, cloudy, and windy. I can’t remember where I heard of this park, but I was glad for a relatively close hike. I wanted to hike starting at the southern section and I drove down Bowman Road where I had seen a parking lot on the map, but I couldn’t find the pull-off/parking area. I didn’t know it was down Pine Acre Drive (pictures below.) In fact, the kiosk picture is from that entrance. Not finding the entrance, I drove to the Education Center (closed on a Sunday) and modified my hike.
There was one other car in the parking lot, and that gentleman was returning from a walk down the Sensory Trail. I started with the Yellow (Pine Acre) trail and headed off. Trails are wide, sandy, and at this time, covered with leaves and pine needles – super comfy to walk.
You have to keep your eyes open, horses can use the trail.
A couple of shots from the trail:
On a cold blustery day, this was the only color I saw:
Hunting is allowed in some areas, I did not see or hear any hunters, but I did see the following:
When I reached the southern entrance to the yellow trail, I took some pictures so I would know where to return to should I want to use this entrance. Pine Acre Drive is right next to two houses off of Bowman Road, it doesn’t look like much of a road and it is certainly overgrown.
The Yellow trail deposits you back in the parking lot, so I headed off to the Red trail which is named the Firewise trail. This path was crushed gravel and had numerous interpretive displays.
There were numerous Blue Bird houses with anti-squirrel baffles. The Blue Birds prey on some of the invasive insects in the area.
On a cold blustery day, this was a good hike, taking me about two hours. While the trails are well marked, there are other paint markings which I’m not sure what they were marking. Also, there are numerous forest roads and intersecting trails that are not marked. However, if you follow the blazes, you shouldn’t get lost. Bear in mind, the Yellow trail crosses Don Connor Boulevard a couple of times – the road could be busy, but was not on this Sunday. There was no road noise, and I did not hear any planes overhead either. I heard a couple of birds, but saw no other wildlife.
Ticks: 0
Blazes:
Hiked: 11/17/2019