Today we parked in P1 on the northeast corner of the intersection of Clinton Road and Van Orden Road. When we got there there were already three cars parked along the road and a white pickup truck circling back and forth trying to find a good place to park. When we encountered three mountain bikers within the first five minutes, we thought our tranquility from last week would not be duplicated. We were wrong! After those three, we didn't see another soul until we saw three other mountain bikers at least 90 minutes later, and then no one else after that.

We looped Hank's Pond today, first heading north along the eastern bank on the Hanks East trail, taking that all the way north to the Highlands Trail, which we then took west. Next we headed south on the Hanks West trail, skirting very closely the western bank of the pond. We took this all the way back to the car, first doing an out and back along the Blue connector trail a little less than halfway back to the car. We also stopped and had lunch on a huge volcanic rock at the very northern tip of the lake. There are no blazed trails that lead there, but we found a trodden path that took us to this amazing spot. The view, the breeze and the solitude were magnificent!

Total distance hiked today was 5.9 miles in three hours and 45 minutes. A permit is required for hiking in this area, which can be purchased at the office on Echo Lake Road.