Avery's Pond Trail





Avery's Pond trail sounded like the perfect hike for a warm summer day.  Our hope was to find a good spot to swim along the way since the map showed the trail winding along the outside of Folsom Lake.  Surely we'd find a nice spot for a dip, so we grabbed our swimsuits and headed out. 

And, it seemed, we weren't the only ones who thought so.  We crossed paths with a handful of other hikers and a few folks on horseback as well.  The trail is seemingly very popular with equestrians, as we had to carefully pick our way through the evidence of their travels at several points along our walk.   

Two of the culprits can be spotted in this photo

No tigers. No bears. Oh my!  We did spot a deer, though.

For the first part of our walk, we stayed under a canopy of trees.  The trail was well traveled, bordered on each side by blackberry bushes and other shrubbery and punctuated every so often with wooden bridges.  All in all, it was a very pretty walk when not having to watch one's feet (as members of our group mentioned a couple times).  

Not sure what flower this is, but it's pretty.

Several bridges span dry ravines throughout the trail.

After about a mile or so of walking, we reached the pond.  Small and a bit stagnant, it had a strange sort of prettiness.  Not ideal for swimming, but great for a few photos.  Our hike, though, was not even close to being finished. 

Gotta get a picture with the sign...

...its a must.

We continued on up the trail and reached the power station where the lake meets the stream.  While we probably could have jumped into the lake at this point, we were a bit unsure of how we would climb back out afterwards.  Instead, we continued on up the trail and reached the stream and a bridge spanning across it.  

Soon after crossing the bridge, we noticed a change in the nature of our trail.  Instead of humid, comfortable shade, we were in the dry sunshine, and instead of flowering shrubs, our path was becoming crowded by increasingly encroaching star thistle.  Walking through it was an obstacle course, requiring quick dodging and side-stepping, especially if one was walking behind another hiker.  I learned quickly to back up a few steps so as to avoid the stems that swung back to hit me.  

Amber waves of pain

It didn't take long (but it can be argued that any amount of time was too long in that field) for us to realize that we weren't getting any closer to the water and decided to turn around.  A few more scrapes on our legs and we were back to the stream and the shade.  



No point of access.  How sad.

When we reached the pond again, we decided to walk along the other side of it in hopes (the last of them) of finding a place to swim.  Still no luck, however.  We continued back to the car and decided to drive around to find a place to barbecue and paddle our feet in the lake.  Down to the boat launch was our first try, and that turned out to just be a parking lot.  So off we drove to check out a few more spots here and there, but we kept coming up empty.  And so was our gas tank.  Instead of continuing the search for a spot, we began a new search for a gas station.  We left the recreation area and drove into Loomis, found a gas station and drove home, opting to barbecue in the comfort of the backyard, with couches just a few steps away.