Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge (Baring)

I visited the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge today, taking several short hikes.  The refuge consists of nearly 30,000 acres split primarily across two areas, the Baring and the Edwards units.  Today's hikes were in the Baring unit.

The first three hikes were off of Rt 191. 

My first hike was on the Hanson Trail.   This was a short 0.7 round-trip hike to a pond.  The trail and topo maps that I consulted show the trail continues beyond the pond; however, I was not able to find a way to continue.  I spotted a large water snake feet from where I was standing that slid quietly into the water.

The second hike was the short Conic Lake Trail, which ends at Lake Conic.  This trail was similar to the first.

My third hike was on the Conic Trail.  This was a longer trail, but similar to the first two hikes.  Trail maps indicated that the trail continues beyond the pond, and I could see that the trail continued through tall grass to a foot bridge and short section of trail before heading back into tall grass again.  This second section of tall grass was when I decided to turn around, after looking down and seeing 18 ticks crawling on my pants leg.  I flicked the ticks off but at that point decided the best option was to get someplace where I could do a more thorough tick check.  I had been doing tick checks all along, so am confident that it was the grassy section on the Conic Trail where I had picked up the ticks.  Fortunately I tucked my pants into my socks and had even sprayed my socks and shoes with permetherin.

This is what the Conic Trail looked like after the pond.  This explains the abundant ticks.  

Mosquitoes were abundant on the first three hikes.  I found wearing a head net and spraying my shirt and hat with Deep Woods Off helped significantly.  

After checking myself for ticks at the refuge headquarters restrooms (I had found another tick on my neck on the drive over), I hiked a short section of the Headquarters Trail.  This was essentially a double track dirt road, which was a relief after the "tick incident."  After a half-mile in, it started to rain, so I headed back to the parking.  On the way, I noticed a tremendous amount of ticks on the grass lining the trail.

The rain subsided slightly so on my way out of the refuge I decided to walk the Woodcock Trail.  This is a short, 1/3 mile accessible trail, and yet the last time I was here (in July 2020) I had seen two bear cubs walking across the path (blurry photo from July 2020 below).  I was not as lucky today (maybe I was luckier, since presumably there was also a mother bear with the cubs...)

Bear cub from July 2020 on the Woodcock Trail

Here is a map of the hikes I did today.