May 22, 2022
Brandy, Ash and I headed out for our second hike in two days and third in seven. It was a bit taxing but we made it out in one piece.
Read on for more!
We took our time getting ready this morning as we had nothing pressing to do today. By the time we each had breakfast and got ready to go, it was after 9:00.
Trail Stats
AllTrails lists this trail as an easy 2.5 mile loop trail with 239 feet of elevation gain. As with the trail last Sunday, the Field Campus Loop is actually two loops connected in the middle.
When we got to the trail, we decided to go right. As with the last two hikes we’ve been on, it was SUPER green, in stark contrast to the pictures I saw on AllTrails dated May 4, 18 days ago:
I guess those pictures were taken earlier but just posted a couple weeks ago because there’s no way it was that dead on May 4, and this lush on May 22.
Through the Green
We headed down the trail until we hit the split where we would head down the eastern loop. As we were about to head down that way, a woman came around the bend with her dog telling us that if we’d just head up the western loop, we’d come across a nice waterfall. We decided to do that. Once she passed, we headed up the western loop.
The trail followed several rolling hills, up and down, back up again, back down again.
We eventially dropped down to shore level of Lake Macbride, the water peeking through the trees.
We saw many people fishing on boats in this little inlet. Brandy thinks there may have been a fishing tournament or something going on.
We continued on, seemingly climbing to the sky when we finally got to the spur in the northwestern corner of the loop. Here there was a slight slope down to the top of a set of stairs. Perched at the top of these stairs, we could hear the waterfall we were told about at the beginning of the hike.
We started heading down and wound up at the top of a small stone landing, upon which a man sat with his child and dog. Ash saw the dog and started going bananas, he wanted to play so bad. We had to really work to hold him back. Brandy held Ash while I scampered down to snap a couple of pictures.
The Return
We sat for a while enjoying the scenery (and psyching ourselves up for the climb back up to the trail). We made it back to the top of the stairs and made our way back down the trail to the boundary of Lake Macbride State Park. The trail continues on through a campground that looks to have been closed for a while. There are a couple of picnic tables scattered about and a shelter with a couple more tables under it, but the sites are all grown over and are posted that they are closed. Such a shame, they look like they would have been great sites to camp at.
As we kept going, something caught Ash’s eye and he stopped, focused on something in the woods. I peered through the trees and found that we were being watched by a curious furry fella:
We stopped to see if our little woodland friend would scamper away but he just sat and watched us as we passed. I was surprised that Ash didn’t make more of a stink about our visitor.
After passing through the closed campground, we made it to the paved road that ultimately led us back to the car. As we walked along with the forest to our left, Ash suddenly spotted something else, and this time, he chased after it. Well, as far as the 10 foot leash would let him. As he barked and scampered after whatever it was, we heard the heavy crashing sound of something large bounding away from us. I looked up just in time to see the tail of another larger deer disappearing into the woods. By the time I saw it, it still wasn’t very far from us, meaning that we had to have been super close when Ash first spotted it.
We finished off the last of the hike and made it back to the car, almost an hour and a half after we’d set off.
We headed back into Coralville, stopping at Steak ‘n Shake for a post-hike lunch.
Conclusion
Considering Saturday’s hike was considered “moderate”, I’m surprised this hike would have been rated as “easy.” It was far more strenuous than Saturday’s jaunt, but that may have just been due to the stairs we had to climb down to then back up from the waterfall. Either way, we were both beat by the end of it, but I still had weekend chores that needed to be done. I got those done, made a trip to the grocery store, then fired up the grill before calling it a night.
I felt super accomplished this weekend. Not just because we took two hikes in two days, but we also got a lot done toward our lingering “to-do’s” around the house.
Next weekend will be a four day weekend for me, as I took Friday off for a couple of doctor appointments, and Memorial day on Monday. We will be having a garage sale on Saturday, then will be heading to Ottumwa for the remainder of the weekend. I may try to sneak away to Pella for part of that trip, but I’m not 100% sure of that yet.
Otherwise, see below for the pics I took from this hike, and, as always, thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate you!
-Phil
