Sep 25 2007
Lake Hudson State Recreation Area
Lake Hudson State Recreation Area in Lenawee County has always been something of a puzzle for me. There are no official trails in the park. Most people just walk along the paved roads in the developed areas. You can read a previous blog post about those routes here:
http://www.blogsmonroe.com/expatriate/?p=258
The developed areas, however, only take up a small portion of the park’s land. That leaves miles of shoreline, several small ponds and some rolling terrain to explore.
Some of the land is impassable. I don’t enjoy hiking through uncharted swamp or thick brush. So, for me, the key is finding a route along the lake that is scenic and open enough to hike in an enjoyable manner.
On Sunday, I decided to check out one of the old two tracks that enter the state recreation area from the north. There are several of these that lead south towards the lake from Tomer Road. The one that I chose had a small DNR parking area with a self-service pay box.
The path south is an old two-track that totals between a half mile and 0.75 miles in length. The route passes between two cornfields that the DNR leases to local farmers. These fields presumably provide cover and feed for deer.
Once the two-track ends, there is a walkable field edge that carries a hiker to the north side of Lake Hudson.
Once at the lake, the hiker has several options from this spot. To the west, a walker can continue to follow the corn rows and field edges, catching an occasional opening to the lake.
To the east, a walker begins to head into a wooded area. I walked several hundred feet in the easterly direction and found the shoreline forest to be reasonably hikeable. There is not a good path along the waters-edge. And there are occasional thickets that must be avoided. However, the understory in the woods was quite open.
One possible obstacle in this area was not a problem during this visit. There were several stream beds that were quite dry on Sunday. I passed them with little danger of be swallowed by muck. However, this area was quite buggy. And during periods of rain, this might be a treacherous area.
I decided to cut my walk a bit short after I noticed some youth hunters in the woods. I didn’t want to ruin their fun, so I headed back after just a few miles.
My ultimate goal is to develop a decent hiking route that circles the lake. I’d at least like to get some routes of four or five miles together. Given the four or five access paths that I have seen or hiked from the north in the past, I’d expect the latter to be possible with an extension of my Sunday hike to the east or west.
Again, this hike was more exploratory than anything else. To check out my route, click below: