A Hike in Seneca State Park, MD

So on Saturday, Barb and I drove to Seneca State Park to take part in a 10 mile hike. We had to be there at 9:50 for a prompt start at 10:00. We got there at 9:45 and found the park gates closed. I phoned the organizer and also checked in on the web site. At 9:55 we were allowed in and parked at the Visitors Center as agreed. One other person was also there and she also called the organizer. We waited about 10 minutes then she called again to find that they had already set off on the hike and were not going to wait for us. The organizer's instructions were terrible that we never caught up with the group and so set off on our own to hike around the lake. It was a beautiful sunny day and we struck up a conversation as we strode along the trail.

Barb and I had noticed this roof lying on the ground near the Visitors Center and wondered what had happened to the building. I blame the beavers, more about them later.

We also saw these beautiful iron doors nearby, part of the building we presumed. A shame they were left outside to be eroded by the rain.

Here's Barb, trying to pick up the group's trail by checking for footprints. We thought we were behind them for a while but didn't mind that we never caught up.

The trail around the lake was very pretty and it felt great to be outside exercising after the long winter.

And then we came to a part of the shore that had been decimated by beavers. There were fallen trees everywhere and stumps littered with bark chips. I reckon them there beavers had chewed down the building we saw earlier too. Not a critter was in sight and I pondered on their whereabouts. We carried on walking following the trail around the lake.

Later we saw this fisherman shaped out of lights. It wasn't dark then but later I worked on the image to make him light up as I imagined it would look.
We finished hiking around the lake and were a little disappointed to find out we only hiked just under 4 miles. There was still no sign of the group so we decided to call it a day.

Barb and I went to a mexican restaurant for lunch where we had these beers in margarita glasses. What's up with that? They needed both hands to hold them.

After lunch we stopped at Merrifields Garden Center to stroll around, looking at the plants and ornaments. There were some beautiful glass orbs and of course that meant a photo, and then I spotted this on the outside of the center...

Bark chips! So that's why the beavers were chewing all those trees down and why we didn't see any of them at the lake. They were bringing their chips to garden centers to make a fast buck! All the plants and shrubs were surrounded by new looking chips so those long toothed entrepeneurs were raking it in. But what were they spending their money on? Maybe a skiing trip to Beaver Creek Lodge? Hmmm.