7/31/14 Demeritt Forest

Another not far from home- I hesitate to drive very far and find too many deer flies to hike. Cloudy and 60's when we started but it cleared and got into the 70's

We started from the Logan Rd. entrance

There were a lot of deer flies and I was ready to give it up but Kelley was eager so I thought to just go a short distance.

Kelley soon found a small pool

The Blue Trail section was very wet- no problem for Kelley but the numbers of deer flies diminished so we carried on. By the time we got to the Yellow Trail there were few flies. The trails are mostly through woods so there were very few flowers or insects today.

There is a section of the White Trail that can be very wet but I thought we were past that section when we turned onto it. I was wrong and we soon came to an impassable ( for me) section. We turned back to take a side trail (not on the map)  I had seen, thinking it might take us around the bog. It turned out to be a network of unmarked trails and after several choices we ended up back on the White Trail.

Back to the Yellow. We had never done the section past the 11 marker-the map shows it just stopping at the forest boundary with no other trails.  We decided to check it out and just past the sign saying we were leaving the University property the trail ended at some kind of project.

Still trying to get to the Red Trail we found what looked like a seldom used trail and took it. We soon came to another very wet section and the trail just petered out and left us bushwhacking. But we did find the Red Trail, took it to the end, and then back by the route shown.

A tiny  pool of water

Back at the parking area we continued across  the road and went to the river to have our lunch- and a swim for Kelley

What seemed like a bad choice when we started turned into an interesting hike. The flies had ceased to be a problem, even when we were back near the start, lots of water for Kelley, and some parts we hadn't done before  2  1/2 hours