Lake Shore Loop

We woke up to the pitter patter of rain on the Cruiser’s roof. The rain was gentle and rhythmic…signaling that it would not last long. Nor would it make a muddy mess of the trails that one can hike from the campground.

It was 9:30a before we got going … the rain over … the temp up to 53F from the 45F we woke up to. We chose to do the 1.4-mile Lake Shore Loop today … more a walk rather than a hike. The scenery along the way was beautiful … mountains; trees in every shade of green; a still lake that served as a mirror at times. We encountered very few people along the way … most fishing from the shoreline. It was a peaceful walk with frequent stops for photo ops.

We had some wildlife sightings along the way … Canada geese … a fox that was running around the tree line … hummingbirds buzzing around. Those sightings we enjoyed. What we didn’t enjoy were the bugs that were swarming … at times a black cloud that we had to walk through … so thick that we could hear the hum of their collective wings. The good news is that they weren’t biting, and they were mostly in the sunny areas … there was enough shade and breeze that we didn’t have to endure them for the entire length of the trail.

Despite the swarms, we really enjoyed our walk/hike … a great start to our three days of being unplugged here at Sylvan Lake State Park.Read more