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We last hike this area back in 2011, when we kept to the eastern bank of the lake, on the well-maintained Highlands trail. It hadn't been since way back in
2007 that we hiked along the western bank on an Audubon Society trail. So, we headed back today with the
intent of hiking north along the western bank, doing a loop in the Edison Bog area, and then returning back along the western bank. We parked at the large parking area
just south of the lake off Edison Road (the entrance road is filled with huge potholes), and headed north along the Audubon trail.
Within 20 minutes we knew that our plan wasn't going to work. During large expanses we were actually bushwhacking to get from one blaze to the next, through a lot of
overgrowth. The Audubon Society trail is not maintained.
With so much overgrowth on the western bank trail we decided to simply loop the lake, instead of taking it all the way to Edison Bog. But we had the toughest time getting over to the Highlands trail. Even though their map shows two trails connecting their western trail with the Highlands trail, they were basically non-existent. I recalled this being the case a decade ago. We attempted to cross along the beaver dam just north of the lake (the green connector trail on the map), but it was too wet. So, we moved about 20 yards south and were able to rock hop to the eastern side. We then took the HT back to the car, without any problems. The HT is well maintained. Total distance was 2.3 miles in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. The going was very slow because of all the bushwhacking. Sadly, I predict that this Audubon trail will be completely impassable in another decade or less.
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Photographs and content copyright © Dan Balogh Web design by Dan Balogh |