Thursday, August 31, 2017

Walk in Baker Park Reserve

I had this patch of being jobless coming up. And a few days when family was going to be out of town. And I had always wanted to use this kind of day for a long, very long trail hike kind of thing.

I spent many days, researching on which route would be best for me ? And kept aiming for an ambitious 20+ mile day. Eventually I chistled it down, but I picked a route I had never been to -  Bakers Park Reserve. After a few mis-tries thanks to messed up Goggle directions, I reached there.


Since I did not get hold of a clearcut trail map yet, I spent wandering by the lake. Once I found an arrow towards some trail, I did complete a loop, which was a disappointing 2 mile. And which turned out to be around a campground.

Before I could groan more and give up, I found a paper map, in a office building by the campground. And that pointed me to a 6.2 loop. Now that looked promising (which is why I came here) and challenging (because it was almost noon and I was hungry for lunch). Btw Baker Park Reserve Trail map is here.

More maps were there in a box at the entrance of this 6.2 loop. The path to the start of this 6.2 mile loop was about a mile. So overall I got 9 miles of walk in the unknown, that day. This was in addition to my morning 5 mile run. I had to really control myself from breaking out in a  run, because my aim was a long wlk here.

Here is the start point of the 6.2 mile loop.


The entire stretch had varied geography. Parts were woodsy scary.


Then came the spreadout prairie valleys.



I had  left home at 10 & knew I would be in the middle of woods at noon. So I had packed some basic supplies. Didn't want hunger pangs to derail me. Plus as usual I had huge chances of getting lost. I did not stop any specific place for lunch. Kept munching on (1) pretzel and apples I had packed. I also added (2) water, (3) an emergency contact list and (4) a whistle in the lightweight bag.


This was the most fascinating exciting sign I found. And I looked around for my kids or someone to chit-chat this with, but ahem no one around.


Here, the Baker Reserve loop crosses path with Luce Line.



By walk 6.2 loop seemed endless. I crossed path with 2 bikers, 2 skaters and 1 runner who started from the opposite side. Thats about all the people who were out here on a warm August weekday afternoon.



All in all, a lovely day spent conquering the unknown (for me).

No comments:

Post a Comment