Lake Louise State Park: May 24th, 2015

When we began plotting out our hikes for the summer, we knew that we would have just one shot at many of them.  For example, odds were slim that we'd be by Lake Louise State Park and it's 1.3 mile Hiking Club Trail again anytime soon.  We had just the one morning to hike it, and so we did - in the pouring rain.

Our first intention for the weekend was to hike Myre-Big Island as well, but the thought of hiking 1.3 miles and THEN hiking 6.2 miles in the rain...well, we figured we'd just get the one out of the way.  Myre-Big Island is long enough to justify a trip of its own.

We're not shy about the ponchos.

Clad in our ponchos, we started off on the hike.  Like I said, it is 1.3 miles but at one point it was much longer.  My old State Park book (1995...I should get a more updated one) says that the trail was once 3.5 miles long.  The current trail is a loop from the picnic area and goes alongside the river and through the forest.  Lake Louise is the result of a dam at the confluence of the Upper Iowa and the Little Iowa rivers.  It was a pleasant little park. The trail wasn't very long, and we thought that it could have been longer and gone alongside the lake.

Brother Joe: High Cleric of the Secret Brotherhood of Forest Defenders

We weren't alone in the woods.  There were a few other people out there - a family, also in ponchos, were hiking the trail backwards so we encountered them twice.  They looked like they were having fun.  We also chatted a bit with the ranger at the station: when we told her that we were hiking the Hiking Club Trail, she looked at us like we were nuts.  Not nuts, just determined.

I should put in a picture of scenery.  Note the beautiful raindrops rippling in the river!

This was, by far, the most expensive Hiking Club Trail that we have hiked so far.  We could have driven home from Kilen Woods on the evening before.  But instead, we drove two hours to Austin, spent the night in a hotel, drove to the park, hiked 1.3 miles in the rain, and then got on the road home.  There are a few really out-of-the-way and inconvenient parks like this, but they can't all be right in my backyard or truly amazing enough to support a weekend trip.  What can I say?  We are determined completists.

The password is...a secret.
We work hard to get these passwords.

Total miles hiked today: 1.3
Total miles hiked in 2015: 9.3
Total ticks today: Joe - 0; Elly - 0
Total ticks in 2015: 8

Countdown to All Miles: 34.4 to go