Dow Lake – Page 2 – Suffering The Benz

The route for my ride as recorded by the Trails app.

I’ve been using the Cyclemeter app to track my rides, but a recent Wall Street Journal story listed several other activity apps that are worth a look, including Trails. I like Cyclemeter, but it’s just for cycling; Trails tracks a range of activities, including hiking.

So I downloaded Trails (it costs about $5/year) and set off on my bike to check it out. Overall, I was happy with it. It gives me pretty much what I was getting with Cyclemeter and allows me to use it for hiking and kayaking, too. For the ride, I headed out toward the Eclipse Company Town at The Plains. It was a great afternoon for a ride, though some ominous clouds were circling. No rain on this parade, though.

Highlight of the ride was north of Eclipse when a yearling doe jumped onto the bike path about 100 yards ahead of me and turned north when she saw me. I followed her for about a minute or two. I kept pace with her but didn’t want to gain on her for fear of scaring her into doing something that would result in an injury. After running along for a bit, she veered off the trail and into the woods. On the way back, I came up on a four-foot blacksnake crossing the path. He was completely unfazed as I steered into the grass to avoid running him over …

The bike ride was about 16 miles roundtrip and left me pretty happy with Trails so I decided to try it out for paddling.

I got to Stroud’s Run at about 11 a.m. just as the kayak rental place was opening. For $10/hour I got the largest non-tandem kayak I could find (an Old Town Heron XT that looked to be about 12 feet and definitely had seen better days). I put the boat in near the beach, started the Trails app and started paddling around Dow Lake, essentially circumnavigating it during the next couple of hours.

After three or four strokes I was reminded how much I miss paddling. Saw a couple of herons while I was out and a river otter, which is always a treat. The otter went under as soon as he saw me but then surfaced and hung around near the riverbank for a while as I watched from 10 or so feet away.

For the most part, I had the lake to myself. A couple was out in a paddleboat and an angler was working the area near the dam, but I didn’t see anyone else on the water till I paddled back to the boat rental area, where a small navy of kayaks and canoes was heading out for an after lunch paddle. All in, I paddled 5 miles, which wasn’t bad for the first time I’ve been out in about a year.

After these two tryouts I decided to switch to Trails. While it sacrifices some of the granularity that Cyclemeter has, I really like being able to use it for multiple activities. And I’m not so hardcore that I need to go big data here. I’m mostly looking for info on distance traveled, average speed and area covered, all of which Trails provides.

After hiking Hickory Trail, which hugs the southern shore of Dow Lake, I set off yesterday to try Lakeview Trail, which tracks the northern shore, including a long leg that circumnavigates Pine Cove.

What a contrast.

While Hickory Trail was in great shape, Lakeview was pretty much of a mess. Several stretches of it were more creek than trail and parts are already getting overgrown with weeds. But I still loved it.

I biked to the dam and set off on Lakeview from there. I must have missed the formal trailhead because the path I took in was closer to bushwhacking than hiking. After a bit of a slog, I found the trail’s thread but things grew only nominally better. The trail is in rough shape all the way to Whitesel Junction, where Groundpine Run feeds into Pine Cove. I set off at about noon, so the woods were quite. Everyone was hunkered down for siesta. Even the omnipresent chipmunks were unusually quiet. I did startle a black vulture along the shoreline, the whoosh of his wings echoing through the piney cove as his ominous shadow lumbered across the water.

At Whitesel Junction, the trail grew noticeably better but it still tended to meander around a bit. I walked all the way to the parking lot at the swimming area, stopped to eat a few apples, drink water and marvel at the day. During the return trip, I diverted to Amoretto Trail, a horse trail that cuts up the hill to a ridgeline trail called Lake Hill Trail. From there I picked up Indian Mound Trail, taking me back down to the dam. (Not sure if I spotted an actual Indian mound along the trail, though there was one hill that I suspected could be it.)

A few tidbits I picked up along the way:

Watching Roscoe the dog splash around in Dow Lake, oblivious to his owner’s shouts to return to shore.
Listening to a couple shout and giggle as the paddle-splashed each other in a canoe out on the lake.
Taking a call to discuss details of the closing for the house we’re selling while I was standing out in the woods, listening to birds sing.
Two women riding horses down Hank Trail. They were talking so loudly it was if they were riding Harleys instead of horses.

Distance: About 8 miles RT hiking Lakeview Trail out and diverting to the Amoretto Trail and Indian Mound Trail to loop back to the dam during my return; 8.9 miles RT biking to the trail head and back.
Bike route: Route details from Cyclometer.
Highlight: The wind picked up as I returned to the dam, creating crazy-beautiful patterns in the tall grasses that carpet the dam.
Link: Athens Trails
Critters: A mountain biker, a few squirrels and chipmunks, a black vulture, two swimming dogs, assorted songbirds, a pair of horses ridden by very loud women.
Song: I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke, a nasty earworm that infected me the previous night while watching the Mad Men finale on DVR.