Fox State Forest - Part 5

 I called an audible mid commute to my hike today. Had been heading for something else and decided to do Fox State Forest instead. I have 2 planned hikes left of the area and felt like knocking one of them off today. Was hoping with some warmer temps that some of the snow may have melted. Knowing that several trails on the West Side have been closed for logging, I had spied a gate on Center Road at St Marys Cemetery that was at an intersection of Proctor Road and Hurricane Road in the forest. This spot was along my intended hike, so I hoped parking here might be an option. When I arrived I actually found 2 gates, one for each road, no signs saying no parking, just not to block the gates.. there was a large enough area, I could park safely without blocking anything. I thought to myself, I'm going to leave my snowshoes behind, which means I'll need them... isn't that always the way?! It also turned out to be somewhat true. I started out on Hurricane Road, heading back to Ledges Trail. It was a mess. Debris, snow, ice, a few bare patches.. I figured if it continued like this, I would cut it short and come back another day.. as it turns out, the deeper into the park I got, the less snowy it became.. I turned onto Ledges Trail and this was where I encountered some of the deepest snow of the day. Some knee deep snow was still on this section, making my going slow. In what felt like hours, I made it to Ridge Trail and headed down to Swamp Trail, where I needed to grab the section over to White Cross Trail. This passed by Black Gum Swamp, which was marked with a sign. Doubling back to Ridge Trail, I continued on to Chestnut Corner Road and took a right onto White Tail Pass. It was here the snow finally started letting up and I decided to continue on my intended route instead of cutting it short. Harvey Road was a real mess with trees down, thankfully I only needed the short section to Proctor Road. Proctor Road was snowy and wet. Back at the intersection with Ridge Trail and just about a tenth of a mile from my car, I contemplated finishing up, grabbing snowshoes or just continuing. Looking down Ridge Trail it looked less snowy, so I just said to myself "I'm here, let's do it" the trail descended down to a very wet, flooded area which took some careful navigation to try and keep my feet dry. Then it gently ascended and was well packed down. At the area where a side trail heads into a neighborhood and towards Hillsboro-Deering HS is where the well traveled path ended, and from here back to Harvey Road on Ridge Trail was snowy again, and slushy as the temps started to warm up. Back on Harvey Road, I followed to Proctor Road again and retracted my steps back to the car. Overall, it wasn't a super fun day.. as has been my trend at Fox Forest, I keep choosing days with less than ideal conditions! But I was outside, the weather was nice and I saw no one! One more hike left at Fox Forest!

Strava Activity

Gates where I parked

Harvey Road was a mess