Every Thursday our local paper posts a Hike of the Week, so I decided to try out the Thursday, March 4, hike, Eaglemont Loop Trail. I waited all day for the rain and wind to quit, and finally headed out about 4:00 PM. The newspaper article called the "hike" easy with minimal elevation gain. What the heck? I'm going to have to write to that columnist and have him do some explaining. Maybe for the avid hiker, this is considered easy, but not for one who is just 8 months out from a knee replacement. There is a 228 foot elevation gain in about the first 15 minutes of the walk. It starts out very nicely through a grove of old forest trees and crosses a couple of streams, and then the climb up to civilization begins. Only .33 of the trail is in the woods, the rest of the 2 mile trek is on sidewalks looping through the Eaglemont golf course residential area. It took me nearly an hour to just go the 2 miles today. Although I have been walking everyday, the majority of the time I stay on pretty level trails; this one had some pretty steep climbs and some steep descents. If you have driven in the is area, you know what I am talking about. If I had been paying any attention when I drove to the trailhead, I might have had a clue. Any way, it was a good test for my knee.
This area does offer some stunning views of the golf course and surrounding hills, and this is my favorite golf course in the area. The course is only accessible by golf cart, and you have to know your club selection quite well or you can lose a lot of golf balls here. Hopefully this spring I'll be ready to play the course again. I haven't golfed since last spring. As far as my walking goes, next time I will be more mentally prepared for this walk and perhaps a bit stronger. I'll be able to enjoy the scenery even more. My route can be found here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/642087
No comments:
Post a Comment