Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve

Wow, it's been a long time since I managed to go on a hike. I've just been extremely busy lately with moving, parents visiting, and god knows what else. I think the other thing was that after we moved, I didn't really know exactly where all my gear was, so I guess that kind of discouraged me a little more.

Anyway, on Sunday I finally went on a hike! I went to Mentor Lagoons Nature Preserve, up along the lake, out just past Willoughby. I did the main 3 mile loop around the preserve. I downloaded a map from their website, but a decent trail map was also available at the trailhead. The loop starts on the main park trail, called Lakefront Trail, which is wide a gravel. After a short distance, however, I followed a small footpath the leads off to the right of the trail into the woods, which then just parallels the main trail, but I liked that it was more wooded and less crowded.

Soon, there is a wide wooden trail called Marsh Rim Trail that breaks off to the right and heads east. I followed this trail for a while until I hit the eastern edge of the preserve, where there is a sign that marks the end of the nature preserve and the beginning of a different Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve. The trail continued east into the SNP, but I followed the Lakefront Loop trail North up to Lake Eerie. This trail is also a wide, wooded trail all the way to the lake. The dominant types of trees I spotted were some types of maple, beech, and what I think were chestnut. Anyway, the forest had a neat look to it because there was almost no undergrowth, just flat ground and vertical tree trunks.

Once you get to the lake, the trail meets up again with the Lakefront trail, which I followed back southwest for a while. However, the Lakefront Trail continues further to the northeast. Also, there are a few narrow footpaths that lead down the 15 foot ledge to the beach that lines the lake. Anyway, I headed down Lakefront Trail, and appreciated that since the sun was getting low in the west, I had some shade from the horizontal shadows, on an otherwise open trail.

Eventually, I made a right hand turn onto Woods Trail and once again entered the maple, beech forest. Leading off to the right of this trail were a couple of very wide service trails, but I kept heading west along the main trail. This is a short trail section, which takes you out to the beach along the lake.

The map seems to call this section Shoreline Loop trail, but really there is no proper trail, and you are just walking along the sand on the shore of the lake. It seems that if you prefer, you could get onto the beach down one of the little paths around where Lakefront Loop meets Lakefront Trail and then walk all the way back along the beach, skipping Lakefront and Woods. But I found that while walking on the sand is pleasant, it is much more tiring than walking on more solid ground. The short section of beach along Shoreline Loop was a nice change, but if it was much longer it could have become difficult. I really appreciated having my new walking stick to help with plodding through the sand, and found that it worked best with the wide circular snow attachment.

The last bit of the hike is on Marina Overlook Trail. The first half of this trail is basically just the road that runs down the marina, so I got to walk past a bunch of porta-johns and ugly, fat, topless men sitting around their boats. But the second half turns up into the woods and lets you out onto Lakefront Trail, just a couple hundred feet from the parking lot.

All told, it is an easy hike, just under 4 miles. The trails were very well marked and easy to follow, and there are decent maps to follow. The forest has an interesting look because of the lack of undergrowth. I saw very little wildlife, other than numerous purple martins around the parking lot. The short beach section was definitely a nice change of pace. I was glad that I went in the early evening when the sun was low, because there about half the trail is exposed and would be quite hot on a sunny afternoon. Overall, it is a nice hike, but nothing spectacular.

I had to do this hike by myself because Melissa threw her back out that morning and was barely mobile. No Melissa also means no pictures.