Raccoon Creek State Park Loop Hike

  I went with a group of hikers from an backpacking forum who wanted to hike this park 19 miles. We was going to spend the night at a shelter the night before,but a few of us couldn’t make the schedule time. So we all decided to meet at the Parks Office around 8a.m.

 I think I was the one,who traveled the farthest to get to the meeting place,while another had a little shorter drive. We all finally met up and discussed our hiking plans and route. while the rain just stopped from the night before.

 The time we left the skies were cloudy and the air was a little chilly. As we started up the trail from route 18 and pasted the mineral springs house. The sun finally broke through the clouds. The trail was pretty sloppy and the streams were almost overflowing their banks. I finally had to put away my fleece since I was getting hot by then

 We walked until about noonish which put us at 10 miles and we ate lunch at the soiux camping area and refilled our water bottles. About a few more miles we did run into snake,which smiled pretty for us and left as quietly as he came.

 We finally made it to the lake and had another little break and we saw a few hikers coming up the hill and alot of people fishing.

 After we cross the park road and walked a few more miles along the pine forest section we ran into a few more hikers, They were in training for another big trip they had planned.

 This section is my favorite section cause of the pine trees and the large anthills that are everywhere,along the xcountry ski area. some of the anthills were at least 4-5 feet high.

 we finally made back to our cars ,happily tired and the boxer that was with us the whole trip,looked as tired as the rest of us.

 The Park itself is a wonderful park with lots to do and they have a public beach area,picnic tables all over the place and the campsites were generally spread out. I would recommend the BP shelters if you want to do an overnight and they are kinda out of the way of the general public. I highly recommend this park either as a day hike or an overnighter.