Tag: Wildwood Trail

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Exploring new trails in Forest Park

The middle section of Forest Park has a maze of trails and firelanes. I have not fully explored this section of the Park so I started today with my first hike to discover what is here. I started at the, never visited before, Springville parking lot. I head down Firelane 7 to the Trillion Trail. The Trillion Trail is a short steep rugged that drop quickly down to the Wildwood Trail. I headed South down the Wildwood trail to Saltzman Rd. I saw several bike riders heading up Saltzman Rd. as I was heading down. Where Saltzman meets Leif Erikson Dr. I headed down Quarry Trail, a little used and brushy trail that took me to the Maple trail and my lowest elevation point. I took the Maple Trail back up to meet the Leif Erikson Dr. and on over to Firelane 7a. The last stretch was Firelane 7a to Firelane 7 and back to my car.

I hike 7.5 miles with 450 ft. elevation gain.

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Wildwood Trail North

It was going to be a hot day so Lori, Jeanette and I decide to make this outing short and easy. We started from Newberry Rd. trailhead and did about a 4 mile out and back on the Wildwood Trail. The north end of Forest Park has more of feel that you are out in the woods. Afterwards we went for lunch at Rock Creek Tavern and enjoyed sitting out on the patio having drinks and food.

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Exploring some trails in Forest Park

My original plan was to start at the Tolinda Trail head and hike up but bridge traffic was so bad I could not make the turn. So going to plan B I went up to the Leaf Erikson Parking lot and started there. I have no memory of hiking the Tolinda Trail or the Waterline Trail before so those were the main objective of this outing. So I was going to have hike down the Tolinda trail first to get my plan back on track.

The Tolinda trail starts on an old road bed that climbs up to a flat area that was planed to be for housing that was never built. Form there it converts to a dirt trail that clearing has been altered for mountain bikes to sail down even though it is mark for no mountain bike. After getting back to Leaf Erickson walked a short ways and started up the Waterline trail. I was surprise find towers and a large grass meadow at the end of it. After exploring these new trail I head on some standard trail to get some mileage in. The hike was 8.3 miles with 1150 total elevation gain in 3 1/2 hours.

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Full Hole in the Park hike

I was on the trail before 6 am to take another crack at doing the full Hole in the Park hike. I was wearing my regular hiking boots with wool soaks to not have a blister problem this time. Today the weather forecast was for clouds, no rain and mild temperatures. The trail had some muddy patches after all the rain we had had but I was really enjoying all of the fresh green along the trail. I got the whole route in at 10.5 miles and a little over 2000 ft. elevation gain. It took longer then when I was younger at a little under five hours.

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Hole in the Park hike

I went for a conditioning hike in Forest Park and started out just a little before day break. I was going to do a longer hike but I am still not getting my boots and socks matched up right so I cut it short before getting blisters. I did about 9 miles, 1700 ft. gain in a little under 4 hrs. On the BPA road section of the hike I had many flowers blooming.