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| - A brisk, clear November morning. To me there's no better time to go hiking than on a fall morning when that bite is in the air! After a week's worth of concert going and bad for me dinners, my cousin Cindy and I headed out to Settler's Cabin Park for some reinvigorating hiking!
Settler's Cabin Park is named after, well, an 18th century cabin found by archaeologists from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Settler's Cabin Park has the busiest of the three wave pools operated by the county and also has tennis courts and a diving pool.
The park has about five miles of blazed trails. What is a blazed trail? A blaze is a paint mark on a tree next to the trail. That's how you find your way. You follow the blazes to follow the trail. A double blaze indicates
a trail intersection and turn or some other point that requires your attention. When you see a double blaze, stop and look for the next blaze.
We began our hike on the Blue Loop, which is right next to the tennis court parking lots. Then we headed south and picked up the Green Loop. It's too bad this was the middle segment. It has the best scenery in the park and it would have been great to save the best for last. This trail will get your blood pumpin' on a brisk morning. It's very steep in places and a spring drains into the trail, making it a stream after a particularly heavy rain. Your footing can be very difficult when it's wet. I STRONGLY recommend wearing a very sturdy hiking shoe or boot if you're going on this trail. There's also a small waterfall on the way down the hill.
Finally we did the Purple Loop, which the southernmost loop and a far gentler grade. If you walk in a counterclockwise direction, it's a downgrade. It's good for bringing your heart rate down a little after the last steep trail.
There are also a lot of other unblazed trails, and we used one as a shortcut on our way back. These trails are not well marked and I recommend you bring a map. All-in-all, that brisk morning hike woke me up better than my normal five cups of coffee.
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