No one was hurt, but when the mosquitos buzzing would give a World War II vet flashbacks to Pearl Harbor, it is time to stop or use bug spray. Technically, we did have bug spray in the car; we just were not wearing it.

Okay, Okay, let’s start from the beginning. In the beginning, a mommy and daddy fall in love … too far back? Hmmm… Okay. We decided to take a hike today down near the main boat ramp. There are often birds down there, so we thought we might see something new. This would be trail #1, the prairie trail, and #5, the upland forest trail. There are technically five trails at Summit Lake State Park, but #1 and #5 are connected. (The Summit Lake trail map can be found here. It is a PDF file, so you might need to go back to return to this page.)

It started out less than ideal because we did not look at the map before driving to the trailhead. We drove to the boat ramp, but the trail head is about 500 feet before the boat ramp parking lot. There was a poorly maintained trail that just lead back to the street. All it had were angry Red-winged Blackbirds and Canada Geese. We must have been close to a nest because the Blackbirds were very loud.

At the end of this short trail, Kate went up the street a few hundred feet while John checked for the map. (Isn’t that just backwards? A man reading directions, and a woman that wanders around?) There was a small parking area and sign for the trail.

The trail was wide and well marked, and as soon as we reached the forest, we were swarmed. We fled the trail with undo haste with plans to return wearing bug repellent armed with cans of Raid. On the walk back we did see a few things. The Cone-flower on the right is focus stacked.

This might be a female dark morph of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

We also saw a few bald eagles fly over, but we did not get good pictures.

After this, we headed back home. On the way back, we saw the fawns and mother White-trailed Deer again.

And a few Canada Geese and a Cotton-tailed Rabbit.

We did not walk enough of the trail to provide any kind of information on it, except 1. it appears well maintained and 2. bring bug repellent.

This hike is rated easy for walking difficulty and hard for blood retention.