You Are Here: Fox State Forest/ Monroe Hill Tower

I had my Laura with me today, and as she is still rehabbing after some medical issues, we decided to keep it shorter and simpler today.. back to Fox Forest to grab the last section I needed. We parked at the headquarters and headed down Ridge Trail on the East Side trails. We noticed a large group of trailwrights assembled that were preparing to head out. After my last trip there, I wasn't surprised. As we headed down Ridge Trail, we quickly realized they have a large job ahead of them. Ridge Trail was a mess from the Winter storms that hit this area. Whole trees, limbs and lots of mud. Once on Concord End Road, it was better. Ridge Trail turns off Concord End Road after a short distance and climbs moderately up to meet Spring Road. More trees down in this short section. It was here I also discovered my pre-planned route was missing a section of Ridge Trail I would need to complete the forest. Some quick scrambling and planning and we had a slightly different route in place. We turned left onto Spring Road and did an out and back to the property boundary. The trail was drier, but still had lots of debris to step over, under or around. Thankfully nothing impassable and we tried to move as much as we could off the trail. Back at Ridge Trail and we headed up the side of the South Peak of Monroe Hill. This was all new trail for me now and I was enjoying the snow free trails. Every other hike I've done in Fox Forest has had snow cover of some type. It was amazing how different it all looked with that gone. I think I must have said that at least 1000 times. At the intersection of Ridge Trail and Monroe Hill Trail is a very small outlook tower, that appears on the 100+ Standing, Former and Proposed Fire Towers list, so I was able to check that off as well. Peakaboo views from the tower as the trees have grown and restricted much of anything else. We started a figure 8 lap of Monroe Hill Trail, then left onto Molly Jackson Road (also Ridge Trail), which gently descended down the side of the hill. A very short out and back to the end of Molly Jackson Road before getting back on Ridge Trail and climbing back up to the tower. This was a short, but really quite steep climb! Back on Monroe Hill Trail, and this time right onto Ridge Trail. This was the section I had originally forgotten to include, so I was very grateful to have realized. It would have been so frustrating to get home and discover I still had this little piece left. This whole area was much nicer as far as debris. At the intersection with Spring Road, I completed my quest to hike every trail in Fox State Forest! We took Spring Road back to the short section of Ridge Trail to Concord End Road. This time instead of taking messy Ridge Trail back to the car, we stayed on Concord End Road, which leaves the forest boundary, but has a gate right at the end that connects to the parking lot at headquarters. This was dirt road and a much better option that all the mud and debris on Ridge Trail.

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