Thursday, June 17, 2021 Lake Carlos State Park: Melting Deer and Bridge Trolls

We had another overnight at a park before doing the hike at Lake Carlos State Park. This time we stayed at Chippewa Park in Douglas County near Brandon, Minnesota. It was pretty full by the time we got there, but our campsite, because there was no electric hook-up, was in another section, which we had to ourselves (fist bump!). The park is situated between two lakes, Devils Lake and Little Chippewa Lake. We loved the location right by the lakeside.

Previous occupants had kindly left some firewood for us, so we had another campfire that night – absolutely perfect. I hated to put it out and retire for the night.

In the morning, we went out to the dock to read our Psalms O’ Day.

I saw a snowy egret “hiding” near the shore in some high grasses and when we showed up, it took flight. The photos I took turned out so well, I gasped when I saw them. All credit goes to the camera – it happened so fast I literally just pointed, took the photos and hoped for the best.

I need to digress a moment to talk about pit toilets. Don’t skip this part – it’s important or I wouldn’t bring it up! I’m a little bit squeamish about using them and they generally stink to high heaven, so I wasn’t thrilled to see that the bathroom at Chippewa Park had these instead of flush toilets. However, the kind they were using were called “Phoenix Composting Toilets,” and I want to bring testimony that they were amazing (as pit toilets go). There was no smell whatsoever, and there was a rather pleasant light breeze around your nether regions as you sat. TMI? I’d still prefer a flush toilet, but want to give the PCT’s a thumbs up. Research that produces an improvement in the pit toilet experience is research I can get behind – pun intended!

Okay, I’m done with that little commercial. Lake Carlos State Park was about a half hour’s drive from the campground and we arrived around 9:15 a.m. for the 2.9 mile hike.

As we arrived at the parking lot, we saw a deer running through and although we reached the point where we’d seen it just seconds after it had run into an area of very light brush, it was gone. Kris opined that deer are made out of forest butter, which allows them to melt away into the scenery. I thought that was rather poetic, don’t you?

Now you see it, now you don’t
A deer runs into the brush
It melts away before your eyes
And the rustling branches hush

You see, when God created the deer,
He left out the noise and clutter
But added in a goodly dose
Of silence and forest butter.

The morning dew was still on the grass and it was 61 degrees – all systems were go.

A grassy path beckoned us and led us away from Lake Carlos, which soon became the dirt path called Hidden Lake Trail.

You will not be surprised to learn that this trail went by a small lake. I suppose there’s a sense in which you could call it “hidden” – let’s just throw ourselves into the romance of this idea, even though it could be plainly seen. It’s part of the poetry of the place!

We came around a bend at one point and I saw a red-winged blackbird relatively close and it was the kind of bird who likes attention and doesn’t shy away. I got some nice pics, but the autofocus on my camera failed me on the one of him with his mouth wide open in song. Remembering the glorious egret-in-flight pictures, I can’t complain. It was probably my fault anyway.

Before long, we veered away from Hidden Lake Trail and onto Red Oak Trail, which had enough up and downhill action that I regretted leaving my hiking poles in the car. We passed a little fern forest – such beautiful plants!

We also saw some of what Kris called “scouring brush,”a segmented reed with rough parts that he said they used to use for scouring pots and pans while he was at Camp Icogawan as a youth. It just goes to show you that everything that we invent, God thought up first.

We got to the top of a hill and glory be, there was a nice bench which we took advantage of to have a little Clif bar break. Kris said it was a “sag bench,” a joke which was wasted on me until he explained about sag wagons placed at intervals on runs to give water to the runners and allow them a rest if needed.

After continuing on for awhile, we came to a bridge that had a troll on it. It was pretty handsome as trolls go, and demanded a kiss for safe passage on the bridge. I paid. 🙂

What with one thing and another, we finished the Red Oak Trail loop and got back onto the last part of the Hidden Lake Trail which took us right by Lake Carlos on our right and before long, we were back at the parking lot. This hike of 2.9 miles put us over 100 miles! We have 97 miles left to go on our Hiking Club journey. It’s been a grand experience so far (even with all my griping about parks with difficult terrain).

Knee score: 5 out of 10 with 10 being the most difficult. We climbed an equivalent of 9 flights of stairs.

We’re really on fire with our hiking schedule this year, visiting 7 state parks before the end of May. We prefer spring and fall hiking to mid-summer hikes anyway – too hot.

I have neglected to mention that we still take our state park sign photos separately and depend on help from my photo gurus to put them together seamlessly so that you can’t tell. The Kilen Woods trio were done by BIL Karl, and the set from the three parks we went to on this trip were done by BIL Rich. Thanks, guys!

I’ll probably delete this in the morning, rejoicing that my readers will no longer have to see ads on my posts. (I ran out of storage room for my photos on the free version and had to upgrade to a paid one.)

Next hike: William O’Brien State Park