Saturday January 28th 2023

It was a dull day when I got up this morning and it got darker as the day progressed. The increasing cloud cover implied the approach of rain, but it never arrived. The forecast calls for conditions to improve tomorrow without any rainfall. Today’s high temperature was in the upper sixties.

The campground is in full on weekend mode. Many of the big rigs from northern states that were here when I arrived on Thursday have been replaced by tents and smaller RVs from local areas. The number of kids in the park has also increased. Over near the lakes and recreation equipment rental area lots of people were engaged in fishing and boating. Bicycle riders were turning around at the campground after riding in the three miles from the park entrance. The campground is at the end of the road popular with bicyclists. In general the area was hopping.

My form of recreation today was a hike around Hammond Lake. The trails are wide multi-use pathways. In addition to walking, they support horseback riding, bicycles and even a segway tour. Today I only met one set of hikers and saw a bunch of horse manure. All of the bird life I saw was small. There were signs of bigger animals in one area along the trail. I think the tracks were from wild hogs, but might have been deer. They were closer together and deeper than I would expect for deer tracks. Nearby there was also disturbed ground that might have been caused by hogs.

My hike almost included trip around Dixie Lake as well. My choice of trails at one fork lead to the cabins on the far side of Dixie Lake. At the cabins I chose to turn left and return to my campsite rather than continuing around Dixie Lake. I’ll make that hike on another day. It would have tripled or more the length of my hike had I continued on around Dixie Lake.