It was a beautiful but cold day. There were lots of people out on the trail. There was also some mud and running water on the trail, but nothing terribly difficult to hop across.

I HAD to get out of the house today and with the iffy forecast in the foothills, Lord Hill Park fit the bill. Today my route included the Main Trail to the cutoff, up to the viewpoint, then back to the cutoff trail. I followed the cutoff trail to the Pipeline Trail, then proceeded east to the Temple Pond Loop. Completing the Temple Pond Loop, I then headed east to the Beaver Lake Trail and back to the parking lot. I believe this is about a 5 mile loop. All of the trails are in good shape and there are no obstacles save for some mud and stnding water here and there. There are trail renovation projects going on near the intersection of the Pipeline and Beaver Lake Trails and nesr the eastern entrance of the Beaver Pond Loop. All of the fall foliage is off the trees and on the trail at this point. Surprisingly, I had the park nearly to myself today as there were only a couple of other groups out hiking.

Lord Hill Regional Park offers a rather extensive trail system for the size of the park. With many intersecting trails (and not all of them signed), be sure to pick up a map at the parking area to carry with you. For this trip, I followed the directions for "Snohomish River" in Romano's Day Hiking: Central Cascades book (Main Trail to River Trail, returning via River Trail Cutoff to Pipeline to Beaver Lake Trail to Main Trail). All trails were dry and clear, with the exception of one downed tree to step over on the River Trail Cutoff. Other than that, the only obstacle was horse droppings. Except for the Pipeline Trail, all of the other trails were nicely shaded.

This was my third trip to Lord Hill Park this year but the first for my son and he loved it. There is always something different to see here. Today we decided to start out along the Main Trail to the Temple Pond Loop to take in Temple Pond. We then proceeded south along the Pipeline Trail to the Main Trail Cutoff. From there we found the spur trail up to the viewpoint at 620'. We then made our way back to the Main Trail Cutoff to the Main Trail and down to the River Trail. We snacked along the Snohomish River and made our way back to the parking ares along the Main Trail. All of the trails were in good shape and passable although the River Trail and Temple Pond Loops are starting to get a bit overgrown. There are benches with park maps at most every intersection but it is still easy to get confused if you don't have a trail map with you. We only found one blowdown and that was along the Pipeline Trail. We observed lots of little critters in action, including woodpeckers, chipmunks, and dragonflies while out today. We also saw lots of ripe berries and wildflowers along the trail.

Arrived at the park at 2:10pm on Sunday 7/22/2012. The weather was overcast with a temperature of about 66 degrees. The parking lot was nearly full when we arrived. We hiked on the main trail from the park entrance all the way to the Tester Rd. parking lot on the other end of the park. The roundtrip was about 3 hours, and I think we covered 5-6 miles. When we arrived at the park we could hear people shooting handguns and rifles nearby. I found these recreational shooters when I passed the quarry. Unfortunately they weren't using a very safe backdrop and I was a bit nervous to proceed past them. I did continue when the last volley of gunfire stopped. As I continued down the main trail towards Tester Rd. the Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies were arriving. Apparently some other hikers had called them about the shooters. (Signs at the trailhead clearly indicate that shooting is prohibited in the park.) The trails were a bit muddy and there was a fair amount of horse poop strewn about. My dog Turbo got a chance to meet a few new equine friends and didn't seem too nervous around them. I personally was amazed that the horses could navigate some of the steep and narrow side trails. Lord Hill Regional Park seems like a great place to spend a few hours with nature and still be back home by dinner time. (And speaking of dinner, we stopped at the BBQ Shack in Snohomish on our way back. Quite tasty!)