September 29, 2012 - Horse Creek Trail

Esther and I very much want to get back into our very long walks that we were doing up until around May of this year. The long walks are undeniably good for the two of us: we lose weight, we talk (to each other, not just at each other), we take pictures and we see new places and new things. It helps us work. At the height of our walks we hit 26 miles on the Richard-Martin trail and we were making 12 and 14 mile treks on a regular basis- all while taking short 4 and 6 mile loops on our local walking tracks during the week.

Today we explored a rails-to-trails segment that runs between Dora and Sumiton. Esther found this while we were both hunting down significant hikes in the area that were closer than two hours away and that we haven't done. The path is paved with the exception of northern most tip that runs under Old Highway 78 and into Sumiton that is not more than mowed tire tracks in the ground. This section of the trail could honestly be skipped as it's behind several houses and really feels more like your just walking through backyards with large barking dogs on chains.

There were Fall wild flowers on the embankment to the side of the trail. Esther doesn't know Autumn blooms as well as Spring ones and I certainly have no clue what they were, but I've made some bold guesses below:

A purple flower

A different purple flower

Not a purple flower

There were a couple of persimmon trees dropping over-ripe fruit on the trail. Esther found one that wasn't ker-splooshed on the asphalt. It was still a little gelatinous feeling and neither of us tried it. 

At a little more than the half-way point along the trail is a spur that climbs a steep hill. This spur looked nothing like the rest of the trail and although we passed it by the first time, on the way back we huffed and puffed up the hill to see what there was to see.

Steep is so hard to photograph

At the top of the hill is the Dora Municipal park to which the spur joins the circular walking track to the trail. It was a nice change of pace but we felt a little weird with our backpacks and sweaty hiking gear walking around the baseball field. My knee protested the slope on the way back down but I found that if I walk backwards (holding Esther's hand for balance) it's not bad at all.

In total the hike was a little over 6.5 miles (and two geocaches) long. I don't think it's at the top of our list, but it will be a good option to have as we get back into the habit of our long walks.

Tracklog- here.

Pictures- here.

I leave you with these two pictures from the day. One we found trying to locate the trail-head and found ourselves behind a local school near the dumpsters. The other we saw at a red light in Sumiton.

2 points for homeschooling