Lord Hill Regional Park — Saturday, Apr. 20, 2019

I hiked a couple of new sections in the Lord Hill complex today.  I started from the lower parking lot and started out northwest on Lower Loop, taking this trail up along the river to where it intersects the Quarry Trail at the Beaver Pond.  Heading west just past the lookout is a hiking spur that departs and then rejoins the Quarry Trail.  I recommend the spur, as it is very pretty and has a nice bench that overlooks the Beaver Pond.  The Quarry Trail stays much lower and is a popular mountain biking trail as well, and so is not as peaceful.  I headed north on the Quarry Trail to the River Trail Cutoff, which I took to the west.  The Cutoff runs into a main road.  Take the main road to the left, and in a short while you will encounter Meat Cutter.  After a few short, steep switchbacks, the Meat Cutter Trail levels off.  I took Meat Cutter northeastwards until I reached Lower Springboard, the took Lower Springboard north and northwest to West View.  Both Meat Cutter and Lower Springboard are lovely trails for hiking, and I saw some very nice fungus and Trilliums along the Lower Springboard Trail.  West View is a main trail, and it is likely you will encounter people on it.  I took it northwards to Main Trail, and turned right on Main Trail until I got to Midway.  Midway is a hiking-only trail, and one of the prettiest and lesser travelled hiking trails in the park.  It crosses other trails a number of times, some of them very popular mountain biking trails, but there are no bikes or horses on Midway.  The Midway trail is marked on each side of the crossing about 10 ft in, so you will always have confidence that you are still on the trail.  Midway ends up back at the beaver pond, and there are many easy options to return to the lower parking lot from there.

So far, Meat Cutter and Midway are among my favorite trails in the park, as is the little spur west of the beaver pond.