Bracken's Loop

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Hike #5 of 2022.  8.5 miles / 22.0 miles YTD

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the day that Dan asked me on our first date so, of course, we would celebrate by going hiking!  We did the 8.5 mile Bracken's Loop, and it was a tough one!  It starts out on a hard packed sand road, that turns into a normal sand road until you take the turn-off onto the trail, and then it becomes deep sand for the entire trail, with some sections of decent elevation gain.  Summit loves sand and and her natural four wheel drive makes her really good at getting through it - much better than we are!

Summit engagine her natural four wheel drive.


When we pulled into the "trailhead" (which is a long parking area along a main road), it was full of cars and horse trailers.  So much so that we second guessed going for a little bit.  The first part of the trail (the hard packed sand portion) was actually quite busy - with hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders.  But then it got less busy as we reached the normal sand road and then we only saw two other groups on the actual trail - both on horseback - until we returned to the road and then there were some mountain bikers again.

Summit wore her Rex Specs goggles again today (no photos) but this time they had the rainbow sun lenses in them, instead of the clear ones.  As we were heading out on the busier section of trail, there were two horse riders galloping toward us (which I honestly thought was irresponsible on such a busy section of trail).  Well the lead horse stopped in it's tracks when it saw Summit in her sunglasses - it did not know what it was seeing!  The rider thought that was funny though.

This trail did have some really neat rock formations and some of the sections had really great views!  But it was a pretty hard hike.  We are used to putting on some big miles on hikes but this seemed a lot longer than 8.5 miles.  We talk a lot about what trail(s) we would recommend if someone wanted a "must do" recommendation.  This one would not be it.  Haha!

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