Week 69 Dec. 24 - Beaver Creek and Lookout Mountain

Total Distance: Approximately 3 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Weather: Cool with cloudy skies.

My parents, my sister, her fiancé, and I are spending the Christmas holiday in a cabin near Broken Bow, OK.  It is a beautiful cabin, less than 10 minutes from Beaver Bend State Park, where there is a ton of trails to hike.  This afternoon my sister, her fiancé, my parents' dog, and I took off to do a little 3 mile loop that took us over the top of Lookout Mountain.

We left the cabin at 12:08 pm,  drove to the wrong visitor's center, found a map, turned around, got to the right trailhead, checked in without the rangers, and were walking by 12:32.  This was by far the shortest commute to a trailhead I have had in the last 69 weeks.

We took off on the Forest Heritage Tree Trail, and soon we were walking next to Beaver Creek.  The creek was flowing over these crazy fin like rock formations.  Abby, my parents' dog, was loving the creek and being outside.  The trail was easy enough to follow; the trees were marked with a small, red medal circle hammered into the trees.  After about 30 minutes, we hit a T intersection with a sign indicting we had walked a mile.  The sign read that the Lookout Mountain Trail started to the right.  It was 0.7 miles to the summit and the sign cautioned that it was a "very steep climb." 

We began the climb, and I felt like I was back in the great state of Washington.  A pine forest climb up a decent hill.  All of us began to feel the work that is climbing a steep hillside.  Within a few minutes I was sweating and was ready to take a layer off.  We took a little break near the summit.  We drank some water and de-layered.  The push to the top past the break was more gradual, and the summit was not treeless but had good views between the trees.  The decent was steep and quick, and soon we were at another creek.  The trail continued up another hill and skirted around the east side of the ridge until it finally hit the road we came in on.  The last half mile of the trail followed the road, and we were at the parking lot by 2 pm.

Orchid: Christmas eve hiking with my sister, soon-to be brother-in-law, and Abby, the wonder dog.

Onion: Hard to find one on a Christmas eve hike.

Picture:

Google Map