Easter Hike at Oak Mtn.

The weather was perfect, the dogs were anxious, and I was even more eager to get out and get on the trails over the weekend. So, below is the recap of the day's hike on Sunday.

Gear: Camelback Rim Runner 100oz, shorts, LS shirt, map, gaitors, camera, headlamp, dog leashes

The weather was in the mid 50s to low 60s with a slight breeze coming though occasionally; perfect for an afternoon out. I decided to take the two dogs, Java and Red, out for an afternoon day hike around Oak Mountain State Park’s backpacking trails.

The three of us arrived at the North Trailhead right around 4:15 for some quick hiking. We decided to hike the Red bike trail out past some of the interesting points, and then return back via the yellow trail. The total loop would be right around 6miles. Hopefully this would be completed within the three hours of remaining daylight.

As soon as we started along the trails, we noticed that the recent rains had helped out the drought and there was now water along the trail; unlike the last hike a few months back. The dogs, anxious to be outside, were walking shoulder to shoulder out in front as we pushed on. At the creek crossings, they would wade in the water, cool off, and drink freely. However, the water was still just a tad cold for them. They wouldn’t stay in it very long! Afterwards, they’d leash up and we’d move on along.

Following along on the Red, we approached the old Chimney’s within the park. I’m unsure what once was there, but now it’s simply one complete standing chimney and what looks like a building foundation. It was quite neat to see it them standing. It was a neat attraction along the trail.

As we pushed on, we approached the halfway mark in a little over an hour. Good, I had almost two full hours to make it back up the yellow, through Maggie’s Glen, and home. All of this, hopefully before dark.

We finally ran into some bikers making their way north toward the trailhead. At their pace, they were sure to beat us back. It was nice seeing someone out on the trails, but even nicer to know me and the dogs were alone and had the peace and quiet to ourselves. We began North on the yellow intersection heading for home. Within the first few miles we starting noticing more and more water in the side ditches and the sounds were ever increasing. The closer we came to the lake, the louder the water became. Shortly, we came upon the backside of the Lake Tranquility dam. The most interesting part was the flat bottomed jon boat at the bottom.

After scaling the sides to the top of the dam, we learned that we were to stay off of the dam. To the right of the trail, up the hill, overlooking the lake is a series of old abandoned cabins that sit pretty empty now. Not too much worth looking at, but neat to explore.

Further on, we started our long climb up the ridge toward Maggie’s Glen. With the temperature dropping some, we decided to pick up the pace to make sure we got out before dark. I was a little unprepared to spend the night out without a shelter.

Most of the trail from this point is easily distinguished with a well worn path and hard packed ground. Lots of pine needles scatter the ground and very little blooms are showing right now. This made for some easy traveling as we moved toward Maggie’s Glen.

Once we approached the glen, I unleashed the dogs, and they took their time cooling off in the water while I traded the batteries out in the camera. Before I had finished, they were walking around waiting for me to lead them back to the car.

From here, it was a mere 1.5 miles to the trailhead, however, most of it was uphill, until we came within eyesight of the trailhead. We pushed on up, through a long string of blowdowns which looked fairly recent. Someone has recently cleaned the trail out though and it was not a hard travel. This made for a pretty quick hike back to beat the nightfall. Not too bad.

Once seeing the car, the dogs went into overdrive to get us back and they too realized we were right there. All in all, we made it back to the car nearing 6:45. We finished the trails and covered the 6mi with nearly 30mins of daylight remaining. We did well. One we got to the car, the dogs jumped into the back and were ready to get home.

It was definitely a great day for getting outside.