2024-07-16 42 -78

Location

The woods of Boston Forest County Park

Participants

Pedalpusher

Expedition

Didn't really have any plans after work, and while Downtown is closer, I knew I'd have to walk through the woods and would want better shoes for that stretch. I'm pretty sure I drove to work that day and likely it was threatening with rain or thunder showers through the day so I wouldn't chance it on the bike in that case. Either way, I went home first and asked J if she wanted to come with me, but she declined this time.

It was mostly highway driving to the park, but I was able to avoid most of the rush hour traffic and arriving, found the parking lot empty, as expected. I was happy to see they've made some improvements, starting with the info kiosk. There was a sign with a link to a survey, but when I got home and looked it up, the website was either really terrible, or the survey wasn't up yet. Walking down the trail, I also found a lot of the muddy, gross areas had been addressed and were now actually passable without having to walk on the sides or in the woods.

Once I was as close as I could get on the trail, I turned into the woods, but had to fight my way through some thick brush and swampy areas for a bit. Fortunately, it wasn't like that the whole way and it was easier going once the woods opened up. I had a decent signal on the phone so I was able to use the HashDroid app and it didn't take much of a GPS dance to get a good reading. Knowing the park well, I decided to keep walking South to hit the main loop trail to come back to the trail back to the parking lot. There was an EXTREMELY bad area close to the end and I wanted to see if they had fixed that area too. Very happy to see the ankle deep mud had been addressed with the trail now repaired and is walkable again. Being close to sunset, I didn't get the chance to walk the whole park again, so I just headed back to the car, but I still enjoyed the time in the woods.

Photos

New Kiosk at the parking lot.
Made it!
View East from the hash.
View North, toward the main road.
View West, with the Standard Stupid Grin. Also the direction of the trail I walked in from.
View South toward the main Loop trail.
View of the hash area before continuing on my way.