Hidden Passage Loop - Pickett State Park

Date: 3/14/2015
Distance: 10

Today looked to be a rainy day, but I was anxious to get in the woods.  I checked out the radar when I got up and made the decision that I'd get less wet  if I went west instead of east, so I decided to check out the Hidden Passage Loop in Pickett State Park.  I left the house about 8:30 and arrived at 10:15 including a stop for gas.  The trailhead is located about 0.5 miles past the ranger station on the right as you drive on 157 through the park.   There is good signage marking the parking area. The parking will hold 5 or 6 cars off of the road.   My car was the only car in the lot.

It was barely drizzling when I started, so I wore the rain jacket and my normal hiking pants.  The trail is a lollipop trail.  After about 0.5 miles on the trail, you reach a sign indicating a side trail to the group camp.  As it turns out this is the return path of the loop.  I didn't know that when I started, so I spent quite a while looking for the return trail before deciding that I had missed it.

 The trail is loaded with interesting sights.  There are several rock houses along the way.  The one in the photo was one of the 1st ones.

This waterfall is in the 1st mile or so as well.

 The trail circles around to the top of the falls before continuing.

 About 2 miles into the hike, the environment changed drastically.  The trail winds through an area that was damaged by a forest fire a few years ago.  There are lots of green bushes and small trees, but all of the big ones are gone.

About 4 miles into the hike, a trail leaves off to the right which goes to double falls.  The sign indicates that it is about 1/2 mile to the falls.  This bit of the trail heads off of the cliffs and down to the river.  About 1/2 way to the falls, I wasn't so thrilled to run into a creek crossing.

I wondered around for 10 minutes or so looking for a place to cross and then trying to decide if I really wanted to see another waterfall.  In the end, I decided to strip down and wade.  The water was still really cold.  I walked a ways barefoot hoping it wasn't so far to the falls, but eventually put my boots back on.

 The falls was pretty.  As the name suggested it consisted of two drops.

After a few minutes at the falls, I headed back to the creek where I had to deboot again.  The hike back up to the cliffs provided about the only climbing on this day.  Shortly after the falls trail returns to the Loop trail, there is a nice overlook.  The clouds had lifted a bit, so there was a small view.

This trail was covered with blowdowns most of the way around.  I'd guess 5-10 times each mile it would be necessary to crawl through a tree, or fight my way through the thorns to circle around.

The last 1.5 miles of the trail circle by the group camp.  Part of the trail is actually on the road by the camp.  The last 1 mile is back in the woods though.

Most of the day was just misting which kept the jacket wet.  The pants were wet nearly all day as a result of fighting through the blowdowns.  I did hike without the jacket for about 1 hour, before a steady drizzle moved in for the last 1.5 miles.  Weather wasn't great, but a day in the woods is always good.