2/26/14 Little Long Pond

Odd weather day- lower 20's with a mix of sun, clouds, and light snow flurries but only a little wind. We had not been to the park for some time and did not know what trail conditions we would find. Decided on this hike because it offers several alternatives.

We parked in the parking lot- plowed- and walked down the Friends Path. It had not had a lot of use.

The pond

As walked across the large field near the start of the Westside Trail  Kelley spotted a man and his dog across the pond and got excited but wasn't about to get out on that ice.

This trail  hadn't had a lot of use and deep frozen footprints made it a bit rough. When we got to the Jordan Stream Trail those tracks stopped and we saw only occasional deer tracks. The walking wasn't bad as the crust below the surface snow mostly supported us and as the trail follows  the stream - easy to follow.

This bridge has never been a problem, but today she didn't like the ridges of snow left by the melting between the boards and found another way across.

More snow and ice in and along the stream

When we reached the bridge we decided to take the carriage road on the east side of the pond. It gets a fair amount of use and had a nice packed trail to walk

We met a woman and her two dogs but the pup was somewhat aggressive and Kelley wouldn't play with it. Soon  there were wide tracks made by some large machine which left a nice path down each side of the road. When we reached the end of the pond we took the carriage roads on the west side rather than return on the Friends Path. This section looked like it had been plowed.

 and then we came to the machine which had done the plowing and left  the tracks on the other side.

A very short distance from the parking lot is a stream still running. Kelley got in and I missed her laying down in the water but got her coming out.

Turned out to be a pretty nice hike- not the usual number of people and dogs, and I'm sure that disappointed Kelley, but she seemed to enjoy the hike anyway. 2  1/4 hours