Old Mill State Park was about an hour’s drive from Red River SRA. I employed the time usefully by trying to get caught up on the many newspapers I haven’t been reading at home. I brought eight of them with me: four down, four to go.
This park was quite a contrast from the previous one. It was in a much more remote area and we didn’t see another human being the whole time we were on the hike. It was still pretty hot by the time we started out, but this hike would be shorter: 1.4 miles. Should be a piece of cake, right?
The trail was a nice wide mown grass trail, the first part of which was in the shade with a little breeze occasionally wafting by. We saw a sign early on warning of poison ivy. I’m wickedly allergic to the stuff and in spite of seeing photos of it many times, I can never really remember what it looks like. “Leaves of three, let them be,” is completely unhelpful. The last time poison ivy and I met, my face got so swollen, I could have given young children nightmares. I stuck to the middle of the path.
The trail was called “Agassiz Self-Guided Trail” and there were plaques along the way giving interesting information about the area and what we might expect to see. This was all quite lovely – I stopped at each one to read it…until the path came out into the sun.
After that, it was every man to himself. I left Kris way behind me as I hurried through this part which felt hotter than H-E-Double Toothpicks. I didn’t so much as glance at the informative placards as I went by. As for the fauna and flora, it all starts looking the same after awhile. I stopped a couple times to take photos, but in general, my eye was on the prize: re-entry into a shaded area.
I saw one up ahead – yay! It wasn’t so much of a cruel mirage as it was an illusion. When we got up to a fork in the road, I looked wistfully at the path on the right which led into the shade, but our path was to the left, a continuing walk through the furnace.
Well by now, you should know that I have a dramatic streak. It wasn’t all that bad, and shortly after that fateful fork in the road, our faithful blue steed appeared ahead of us, calling out, “Come, enter my home. I have air conditioning!”
Old Mill park is so named because it is “the original site of a water-powered mill built by the Larson family in 1886, as well as a settler’s cabin.” Sadly, you you cannot look forward to seeing photos of these historic sites because although Kris suggested we could drive over to see the buildings, I was really exhausted after two hikes in the hot sun, and certain this would involve more walking, I nixed it. Every party needs a pooper…
Nice park, but kind of tough in the heat of the day. If you are less wimpy than I, (and you most likely are), you’ll enjoy it. As for me, my hip was decidedly unhappy and I wondered if I’d be able to do the remaining 5 hikes.
Knee score: 2 out of 10. Mostly level path.
I’ll prolly delete this in the heat o’ the day tomorrow.
Next hike: Lake Bronson State Park
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