Wednesday, March 25, 2009

OT Trip Report - Bell Mountain to Council Bluff Lake

My friend James and I hiked Council Bluff Lake to Bell Mountain (reversed) March 22 and 23, in about 24 hours. It was our first hike of the year, and left me a little sore.

The view from Bell Mountain is a must-see, and is easy to get to on foot. It's pretty level all the way from the North Bell Trailhead. It'd make a fine afternoon hike, out and back.

Once you get past that, the rest of the trail has some pretty good hills, by our Midwest standards. There are long level parts along ridge-tops and in creek bottoms, but you'll have some climbs in the 200-400 foot range. There are some beautiful creeks along the way, too, so finding water was not a problem for us. Joes Creek is big enough that in wetter weather, it is probably hard to cross.

We heard from other hikers that there are feral pigs in the area, so we hung our food out of there reach overnight. We really saw very little animal life - a couple squirrels and birds along the whole trip. We saw lots of deer scat from last fall - many were full of persimmon seeds.

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