state parks project, part 6: shakamak

Mike and I took a day off so we could do a long weekend with the boys for spring break, and our destination Monday (before we headed home and back to the grind) was Shakamak State Park. We debated between trails, but eventually chose one that led through the woods and to an abandoned coal mine (which sounded very exciting) and eventually ended up along the banks of Lake Shakamak.

There were plenty of wooden bridges and steps along the way, so Liam was pretty happy (I guess it made up for the bridge being closed at Harmonie). About an hour in we came to the coal mine, and there was much excitement ... until we all realized it was really just the entrance to the coal mine. Nothing much to see except some smelly old dirt, as Henry informed us angrily.

So on we went, over streams and fallen logs, and we were almost to the lake part (so close to the end of our hike) when we discovered that a bridge had been destroyed by a tree. Mike thought maybe we would have to head back the way we came, but we ended up being able to (very carefully and with bated breath) climb over the tree and get across. We are really getting adventurous!

Once we got to the lake, we were excited to discover that there were TURTLES everywhere out sunning themselves. I don't know how they did it -- Can they smell us? Hear us? See us from far away? Feel vibrations or something? -- but those sneaky suckers would wait until *just* as I got my camera focused and then PLOP back under the water. I even sent Mike and the boys on ahead to the end of the trail and sat motionless for 10 or 15 minutes waiting for them to come up, but the clever little jerks had my number and didn't surface. We still managed to get a few good shots, though, so I feel secure that we retain our place at the top of the food chain.

On the way home, I tried to get the boys to come up with some sort of ranking system for these state parks, because so far everyone has a favorite, but (I think) none of the favorites are the same. But naturally, that discussion devolved into an argument about how the ranking system should be structured, and who got to have the ultimate power to decide on the proper ranking, so I just threw my hands up and decided we would just tell you if we liked the park or not. And I'm happy to say that we definitely liked Shakamak!

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5.