Eighteen TrailBlazers and one canine managed to get to Lake Alma even though the road-powers-to-be decided to block off the westbound Highway 64 exit on northbound 540; many of us use this to exit to our meeting place! Getting creative, we found our way to the rendezvous and reached the trailhead in no time where a treat was in store for us.

Harry McWater, the man who had a dream to build this trail, led us on the first leg, and Jim Warnock, a hiker who has been instrumental in helping build this trail, led us the rest of the way. Both of them were able to answer lots of questions about this project. We first hiked here last November, and today we saw many improvements made by the volunteers who created this trail that is a work in progress in some places.

What a delightful day for a hike! There is a verdant jungle alongside the trail and some of it unfortunately was poison ivy! The waterfalls were flowing and Larry has been honored with a sign that say McWater Falls! Wildflowers were blooming, especially spiderwort, and some of the nandina had pretty red berries. There were numerous tiny flowers that defied identification. We crossed new bridges like Joe and Laura, as well as a large bridge over Little Frog Bayou. We successfully rock-hopped over one stretch of the creek that conveniently had a chain of fairly flat rocks. Today we took the lower trail rather than the upper, and we noted that more work has been done since our last visit. Several fishermen were angling for wide mouth bass with some success.

Arriving back around noon, we beat the heat and had plenty of time for other pursuits. A big thank you to Harry, Jim, and all the other volunteers who are always working on improvements! Great day!