Oregon Trail

On Monday the 4th, Kathy, Gail, Randy and I and Mokie the dog, went hiking on the Oregon trail. The trailhead is on Rt 8, the same one that leads to Cod Pond. None of us know why the trail is called the Oregon trail. It actually leads to Baldwin Springs.

At any rate, the day was sunny and very pleasant. It was also warmer than the weather forecast had predicted, mid-60s or more. We started off about 10am and at the trail register, instead of proceeding straight ahead to Cod Pond, we went left. The trail, a snowmobile trail in the winter, was well marked, wide and pretty dry.


Mokie, a purebred Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (yes, really!) loves to lie down in water. Mud pits, swamp, no matter. Randy took several pictures of her, in the various pits, puddles, streams and swamps she decided to take a dip in.

About a mile in, we came to a very pretty little water fall on Spencer creek. Randy and I climbed down to a shelf next to the waterfall so Kathy could take our picture. We then proceeded on until we got to a big swamp.
We could see the snow mobile trail sign way out in the middle but it was too deep for hikers. Returning back along the trail about 200 feet, the foot path veers left and a little uphill to go around the swamp.

We kept on till nearly noon and made our lunch stop at a stream. There were lots of good sized boulders to sit on right next to the stream. Of course, it's now black fly season and they swarmed our heads as soon as we stopped. Not biting yet, thank goodness. Also, someone had nailed short cross boards to a fallen tree and rigged up a thin hand line so people could cross the stream. None of us felt up to the challenge.

After lunch, we headed back the way we came and got out to the cars about 1:30pm. Fortunately, a stream was next to the trailhead and Gail coaxed Mokie into the stream to wash the majority of the mud off before getting her into the car. I think we hiked 4 or so miles and had a pretty good day out.