You Are Here: Pisgah State Park - Dogwood Swamp Trail

I'm getting close to finishing Pisgah. I've enjoyed (and not enjoyed) my hikes here... the not enjoyed has primarily been because of mud and bugs, not the parks fault! I was in the mood for a long walk without anything technical. I drove in the couple of miles on Reservoir Road to park at the interior lot and was first car there. There was one upon my return that was a very low clearance vehicle. That must have been an interesting drive. The road isn't bad by any stretch, but there are some rocky sections that might have been hairy in a low clearance car. As I geared up, 2 ATVs came past. I was expecting to see a lot of ATV traffic today as it was gorgeous out.. finally! I started on Dogwood Swamp Trail, which despite the "Closed" signs at either end, is open to hikers, per a conversation I had with Park Manager Kim a couple months ago. The closed signs are for motorized vehicles as the trail needs a lot of maintenance before it will be safe enough for any of that type of traffic and they've had too many other projects happening to tackle it at the moment. So he said to me, by all means hikers can hike, just with the understanding it hasn't been swept or brushed in a year! I wasn't sure what to expect with that intel. The trail immediately begins a gentle climb that lasts about a mile. There was definitely a lot of small debris, which I was expecting.. as well as a lot of blowdowns. All but 2 were easy stepover, duck under or skooch arounds. There were 2 that were trickier as they were large and right near water/mud which made the skooch around a little more difficult. Both of those I just went for it and climbed through. After roughly a mile, the trail descends a little then has some rolling ups and downs for roughly another mile before descending down to meet up with Old Chesterfield Road. The trail itself is not technical in anyway, as is most of the park where the trail doubles as a snowmobile trail in Winter (when open) and isn't particularly scenic. In the middle you pass a marsh that can be seen through the trees and it skirts the end of a pond, otherwise it's just walking in the woods. I did find the first half of the trail to be particularly peaceful. The trees are starting to lose their leaves, there was some lush light filtering through and I saw no one the entire length of the trail. The second half was wetter, muddier and the bugs started to find me, so I enjoyed that part a lot less. Turning onto Old Chesterfield Road and for the remainder of the hike, was gravel road that allows ATV and dirt bike traffic in Summer. Old Chesterfield Road also allows cars as far as the Chestnut Hill Trailhead. I saw none on my walk today. I was able to make quicker time on the gravel roads which helped trying to keep the bugs at bay. They weren't horrendous based on my last few trips here, but just annoying enough that it made you not want to stop. I was on Old Chesterfield Road for about a mile passing a few trail junctions, and amazingly not seeing a single ATV. I turned onto Broad Brook Road and repeated the section to Doolittle Trail I had done over the Winter before continuing to the gate at the park boundary. The signs at the start of Broad Brook have conflicting mileage, my watch clocked it at 3.2 miles of long, relatively boring gravel road. You do pass a couple ponds and several historic markers which are interesting.. otherwise, I was just doing it as a check mark on my spreadsheet. I did pass several ATVs and dirt bikes on this section.. those dirt bikes sure do go fast, so be sure to step off the road when you hear them coming. Once I reached the gate, I backtracked a couple tenths to South Link Trail, which is a connector road between Broad Brook and Reservoir Road. It starts up a steep, short little climb then just continues a couple tenths over to Reservoir Road. There were a couple really muddy sections here, which a hiker can easily go around, but the ATVs and bikes were splashing right through them. Back on Reservoir Road, I had just over a mile back to the car. More of the same.. gravel road, bugs and a pond.. plus a couple more ATVs and dirt bikes. So overall, not the most exciting of hikes, but today I was able to check off 5 trails and nearly 10 miles off my spreadsheet! That sure felt good.

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