Natalia

Natalia

Hike the Minister Creek Trail

09/25/16

Honestly this trail was not worth it and I would not do it again nor would I really recommend it to anyone who wants a little bit of a thrill. It's your pretty standard basic trails. Pros: -Good length and relatively easy. Could do in one day with a fast pace or could prolong for two days if you wanted. -cute camp spots that you could stay overnight. About 3 miles in theres a nice area next to a river with many fire pits. It's flat and theres a ton of spots where you could pitch a tent. Cons: -TRAIL IS DEF NOT CLEARLY MARKED. It's only marked every 1/4-1/2 of a mile. Also there are many places where the dirt path isn't clear so there were many times where I was unsure if we were going the right way. We got lost twice and thank goodness we had gps with us. Also halfway through the trail they change the symbol they were using and then multiple trails intersect and all use different symbols and are also not clearly labeled so you can't tell which way you're supposed to go -trail not well maintained. We had to take so many detours because there were huge fallen trees in the middle of the path. Some we climbed over, some we climbed underneath, some you had to get creative. One time we had a 10 minute detour just to get around a humungous tree! Then there's this weird mile where your on the side of a hill and its a single file moat path where you're trying not to fall over because theres huge rocks blocking everything and theres grass up to your neck and of course the trail isn't well marked here either. -major lookout point is so so, maybe 5/10. And you can't really camp on it either since its all rock. You can camp a couple feet back from it, but then you lose the view and theres no water in the area either. Also its placed at a distance of 2 miles I believe? (guessing here a bit) so its really only good for a quick day hike. Or a hike, camp, and hike back the same path you came from. We took the north loop counterclockwise so as to save the lookout for the end, get some miles in, and not have to backtrace. -it was SUPER humid when we went and that was end of august. That definitely did not improve the trip. Overall, we made the best of it and had fun, but I would not recommend it to anyone, nor would I ever go there again.

3.0