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For just the second time this year, I was joined by a friend for this nice 5.8 mile trek through the woods on my year anniversary of getting back into hiking. I can say, without a doubt, this went much better than my trip this time last year, which left me contemplating why I had ever liked hiking in the first place. Of course, I reevaluated that, got better prepared, and have started on this new journey since then.
This trail system in the Proud Lake Recreation Area offered a lot of options for our day and was very hit or miss on if it was well marked or not. If it had not been for my AllTrails app, I would have been lost in the first quarter mile of the hike, but there were good maps once we got about half a mile in. It was relatively easy terrain to traverse and there were points of great beauty, including the bridge about halfway through that let us watch canoe and kayak launches and a plethora of water fun in the area.
At about the halfway point, we did have to traverse a road for about half a mile, but both trail portions were marked way, which has not been my usual experience in those situations. The boardwalks were also continuously questionable, but it did appear that they are being fixed up throughout the trail, just be a little caution on them, as some are loose and some just sway precariously.
AllTrails marks this trail more accurately as the “Marsh Trail, River, Red, and Blue Trails Loop,” but there are so many options here to make the hike both longer and shorter. It was very well traversed, offers hike in campsites, and seems to be extremely dog friendly. We met lots of good boys on the trail! This was also a nice reintroduction to something I love after a very long month away from the trails.
Raven K 