Yesterday one of my daughter’s wanted to go hiking, not on a huge long hike, but just a “get out in nature after finishing her college classes for the day” kind of hike. So my other daughter and I, as well as the dog, decided to join her. Because none of us wanted to drive very far, and because Willow has a nice trail system, we decided to do one of the local hikes called Almond Lake.

I had heard they had completed a trail all the way around the lake in the last couple of years, and hadn’t been yet, so I was excited to see for myself. I did make the mistake of not checking how long the trail was before we started. We started out on the trail where I could remember it crossing Willow Creek Parkway. There is no parking lot there, so we parked on the side of the road, but I think there might be parking down Crystal Lake Road, which I remembered later.

The first part of the trail is wooded and mostly a 4 wheeler trail, but then it branches off into just a footpath not far from the lake. From there we walked to several benches dispersed along the edge of the lake at various points. The day was beautiful, the sky was blue, and it was above freezing when we went. There was frost on the ground where the sun had not yet touched it, but overall, it was a perfect hiking temperature.

We didn’t have a lot of time, and so by the third bench and probably close to 2 miles from the car, my daughters asked how long the hike was. I told them I had thought it was only a couple miles around. One of my daughter’s googled it, and it’s actually 9.7 miles and goes around a couple of lakes. We didn’t have time to go that far, so turned around and made our way back to the car. One of these days I’ll make it all the way around!

I am grateful to our trails committee for their time and dedication in getting these trails marked, cleared when necessary, and maps made. In the winter they get out and groom the trails as well. It’s nice to be able to walk out my door and be on a hiking trail in less than 10 minutes. We enjoy hiking up mountains and along ridge lines, but we also enjoy not having to drive to all those destinations once in a while and just enjoy the beauty right out our back door. If you’re in Willow and love hiking, check out the maps and trail systems here. Currently they are prepping for winter, but the link has both the summer and winter trail systems.

Edit: We did discover we were looking at the wrong trail map. We were actually closer to half way when we turned around, it probably is only about 4 miles around. Maybe in the near future we will have to go and finish the loop!