Pocahontas State Park Hike

Israel and I met at the parking lot near Lido Pizza off of Beach Rd, drove to Pocahontas State and parked at the Civilian Conservation Corp Museum building.  We started the hike by walking down the trail towards the dam to hike clockwise around the lake.  As we got to the bottom of the path and walked towards the concrete footbridge we saw that the recent rains had caused the water level to rise so that it was flowing over the concrete bridge.  We took a 3-min detour to the main road, crossed the creek using the main road bridge, then quickly rejoined the trail.

The trail took us along the edge of the lake and we soon spotted a beaver, who had actually noticed us first and had retreated to the safety of the lake and giving the surface of the lake a slap of his tail as a warning for us to just look and keep our distance.  We continued on and the path slowly lead up a few hills and a couple of very nice overlooks. 

Walking provided continuous, albeit slight cooling, on this very still, hot & very humid evening.  Our first stop was our last stop because trying to enjoy a nice view had us to pay a price of a pretty sweaty time.  Thankfully ice water in our backpacks and towels at our sides helped us to “sweat it out”.  We continued on, the trail slowly weaving through large, tall pines, oaks and tulip poplars, which, surprisingly, quite a few trees—some quite large-that had been downed in a storm that ripped through the area month earlier.

We came upon a creek and a concrete path/dam then up a slight hill following the creek from above until we came upon a boardwalk about 100 yards long through a marshy area that had evidence of high water recently.  We proceeded along more boardwalks, rejoined the lake and stopped to take in the water lilies and cattail reeds.  We continued on and finally saw another person on the trail—which had been completely void of hikers, probably due to the heat and humidity.  We soon encounter a few more adventurers ignoring the heat.  Soon we were back to our starting point, 2.56 miles and about 75 minutes later, sweaty but mentally refreshed.  It has been quite a few years since I hike this trail and it was good to be back.

We will be hiking the Beaver Lake Trail, 2.56 miles and about 60 minutes to 90 minutes (very generous amount of time).  A very nice, easy hike along Beaver Lake and through the woods to enjoy a later summer afternoon and early summer evening.

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/poc.shtml

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/documents/pocahontas.pdf