Hike #24 - Hidden Diversity

We are really enjoying Hobbs State Park Conservation Area.  We have already done the Pigeon Roost trail and the Shaddox Hollow trail.  Today we got some hiking in, but what drew us here was the Fall Festival that they have on the first Sunday of October each year.

The fall festival follows the Historical Van Winkle trail.  This trail is only about a mile long and either paved or hard packed gravel the whole way.  It winds through the homestead of the Van Winkle family.  You can see the foundation ruins of several of their buildings including the blacksmith shop, mill, and spring house.  For the festival today the had tall tale tellers, animal furs, blacksmith demonstrations, apple cider making, dutch oven cooking (very good!), and pioneer games.  Without the festivities, this short trail has some small but pretty bluffs, a clear creek, and open spaces for running and playing.

Since this trail only got us a mile, we went from here to the Hidden Diversity multi-use trail.  This trail is hike, bike, and horse friendly.  The trail is actually big enough that various sections are named separately.  We started from the Townsend Ridge trailhead (it is closest to where we were already) and did part of the War Eagle Valley trail.  This trail is a six mile loop.  We headed east at fork where the two sides of the loop come together.  This forest seems much more foresty than most of the other trails we have hiked on.  It's not that the trail is lightly used, because the path is very clear, but there seems to be a lot growing all around.  There are a lot ferns and mushrooms that to me feel more alive than just trees.  This is one of the best marked trails we have done with good signs at all the splits and white blazes at least every fifty feet. They are even appropriately slanted for trail turns, which I am snobby about.  It is a pretty strenuous trail with long steady climbs and long steady descents, but it is never very steep.  About a mile and half in there is an overlook with a bench, but there are three huge trees that block most of the view.  It would be much nicer in leaf-off which is coming soon.  At the two mile point we came to a view of the War Eagle Creek.  There are two benches here and a sign warning you of the sheer drop off to the creek probably forty feet below.  The dirt to the edge looks pretty loose too, so definitely be careful.  We told the kids they were required to sit on the benches, and that I would take them closer to the edge for a picture.  However, at this point things got interesting.

As we were sitting having a snack, our one-year-old grabbed a bug that was crawling on his arm,
tried to eat it, and then started screaming.  I swatted the black and yellow bug out of his mouth but was afraid it might have stung him.  Instead of pictures at the prettiest spot on the trail, we picked up and headed back to the van. About half a mile back, my daughter told me that the baby's mouth was crooked.  The picture speaks for itself.  We have a child with severe food allergies, so we always bring an EpiPen with us.  For some reason we did not have it with us, so if his swelling continued we were two miles away from the medicine he needed.  On top of this, because we have the food allergy we have prepped our big kids that face swelling is potentially life-threatening, so at this point they began to get a bit hysterical.  Good times!  We continued hiking out, the swelling never got bigger than this, and everyone lives to see another day.  Another first in the family hiking adventures.

We will definitely be back for more Hidden Diversity.

Travel time from home: 45 minutes
Today's miles: 4.94
Remaining miles: 14.41