Meadow Creek
When we saw the signs at the start of Buford Road in New Castle, we thought Buford Road would be closed at the Meadow Creek trailhead because of the Cabin Lake Fire. While we were airing down and taking out windows at the intersection of the two trails, we saw people coming from Buford and found out it was open all the way. That was good news, and we were all smiles as we headed for the lake.
The trail was easy and we saw people camping all over the place. It looked like a popular spot, and there were lots of big, flat sites. When we got near the edge of the mesa, we tried to peer between the trees to see down the steep hill, but the trees were too thick. We talked for only a second or two about hiking around to find the lakes and the views, but then we decided to keep going. It was going to be a long day, so we didn't want to do any side trips this time.
It didn't take long to get to the lake, and it was simply gorgeous when we got there. It was shining in the sun, surrounded by healthy trees and happy people. There were a few people fishing, but no one was catching anything. In that scenery, no one seemed to care. We hung out at the lake for a bit before heading on.
When we got to the cow camp we found a lot of people there and more people heading down the steep hill at us. There was plenty of room, though, so we waved and smiled at everyone and went on our way up the hill.
We were a bit surprised when the trail ended at a sign. It said that the trail was opened for fire equipment, but it wasn't the recent fire. The sign said it was for the Deep Creek Point Fire in 2001. You could tell the trail wasn't used anymore, though, so it was obvious it ended there.
Some ATVs came up from beside the trail and said the trail ended fairly quickly after that, so we just turned around at the big area where we were. It didn't take long to get back to the lake where we thought we'd have lunch, but it was pretty crowded so we thought we'd find a quieter spot. We did a drive-by of the campground, which was nice but small, before heading off to do Blair Mountain. There were other spurs, but we would wait until we got back to this spot later in the day to see if we would have time. It was a gorgeous lake, and we were really having a nice day.
