LaTourette Mill Pond Park

LaTourette Mill Pond Park, Gillette & Columbia Trails (5/30/2015)

Today we had intended on walking a segment of the Columbia trail, a rail trail that we hadn't walked in years. Five years ago we parked south of Schooley's Mountain on Fairview Avenue and took the rail trail east. My plan for today was to park in the same spot and head west until we were tired of walking and then turn back. But while driving there, we passed the trailhead for the Gillette trail on East Mill Road (CR 513). Having never done this trail before I decided to start there. So, using this map, we headed north on Gillette, then west on the Columbia Trail. Within minutes, we saw what appeared to be a new network of trails in an area south of the rail trail (before reaching Fairview Avenue). We later passed the kiosk and I took a photo of the trail map (it's in the collection). You can easily walk all the trails in 30 minutes, but it was a nice little discovery. We first did the Frying Pan trail, then continued west on the Columbia Trail all the way to Middle Valley Road where we turned around and headed back. On the return we did the two other trails in LaTourette Mill Pond Park, the Mill Pond Trail, with a nice view of the old mill (currently undergoing restoration), and the Trestle trail. We then headed back to the car.

Total distance hiked today was 10 miles in 4 hours.

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