It was a bit cooler this weekend, but that was no reason not to hit the woods again - in fact, it made for a nice diversion from the stagnant, hot air of a couple weeks ago. This time we found ourselves at the Horine Reservation in Jefferson Memorial Forest, which is home to a nice campground as well as several miles of trails through some nice hilly woods.
The main bulk of the trails is divided in two - there’s a couple named trails, and then a couple called the Red and Orange trails - we chose the red since it was fairly long, and since we were a bit pressed for time we could opt to take a shortcut that decreased the distance from about five miles down to a little over three, which we ended up doing.
The walk started out nice and easy - a wide, smooth (albeit somewhat muddy), and slightly graded trail that was actually a road up to an old family cemetery plot. Once we came to the top of the hill, and to the cemetery, the trail cut off into the woods all properly trail-like. That’s when things changed.
The first bit was deceptive - the post-road trail became narrow, twisting, and climbing very quickly. While it wasn’t difficult in the strictest sense, anyone with an awkward dog (me), unhappy child or bad leg might want to take a different route. It was beautiful, however, and cut through the woods on the side of what could almost be called cliffs. The trail hugged the hill and dipped off sharply on the other side, then shot down hills while making hairpin turns.
After a while things mellowed out again, but the trail maintained a nice sense of being a proper trail, not the road that we started on. All the better, the markers in this part of the woods and the fact that we had a map made the trip a lot easier - they’re all numbered and correspond to the map nicely.
If you want to drive a little bit further to a good hike, check out the Horine Reservation - I’ll definitely hike it again, but next time I’m going to do the full loop.
Image Courtesy of Shutterstock.com/Dave Allen Photography
