Bridle Trails State Park — Monday, Dec. 16, 2024

I joined a large NSSC group for a walk / hike through Bridle Trails State Park today.  We meet at the main entrance at 10:00AM and we were the only cars in the lot.  It was 48 degrees with clearing skies.  The park bathrooms were open and sparkling clean. A SP ranger noticed our group queueing up and he mentioned they were still doing work to clear downed trees in the park after the bomb cyclone. Also, signs were clearly posted with hazard conditions on some trails. Our 5.6 mile loop route followed the Raven and Coyote Perimeter Loop with a pop out loop in Bridlewood Circle homes.  The entire trail was saturated wet soil, with many super muddy areas.  I was glad to have worn my knee high gaiters. They have done a terrific job of clearing 95% of all the downed trees in the park, on our route it was entirely clear.  There were still some smaller evergreen fronds and branches all throughout the trail.  We did our job, tossing branch debris off the trail along the way.  Trail traffic was fairly light; two people on horses (one scared of people) so we yielded by stepping off the trail as space was available.  The few other folks were neighborhood locals out for run or dog walk.  We stopped at the horse barn and petted a few horses.  Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.