Distance: 3 Mile Loop
Official Site: [mostateparks.com]
My Photos: [www.mohiking.com]

Unlike many trails this trail is marked to go CLOCKWISE and there is a reason for it. It is marked with blue markers and the markers are sometimes bits of plastic ribbon around some of the smaller trees, and often times a blue spray painted dot on a tree.

I was chatting with one of the caretakers at the lodge and I’m glad I did because I got some tips about some of the trails. He told me they want people to go clockwise on this trail so when you hit your turn to come back you see it. Going clockwise, when you hit the Rockywood trail you need to turn right and that’s easy to see because it’s a T intersection. (The Rockywood trail overlaps Opossum for a ways).

He said when people go the other way, he has had to many people say they missed that turn to the left. If you look at the trail map, you can see the 10 mile rocky woods trail overlaps Opossum, and it’s to easy to just keep heading straight if you don’t see that turn.

Start the trail at the entrance to the parking lot at the lodge. Walk to the entrance of parking lot, the road forks, go to your right, head toward grassy area across the road, you will see the sign for opossum trail.

This was a nice little trail. Going clockwise, the trail follows a stream for a ways. The stream actually had water in it even at the end of this dry year when so many other seasonal streams ran dry months ago.

Then the trail heads up a hill for a ways away from the stream. There must have been a tornado out there a while ago because I passed quite a lot of uprooted trees. If you look at the map you can see the trail crosses the road 2 times. When I crossed the road I started looking for my right turn. I came to a T intersection and made my right, confident that I was now heading back for the what I knew would be the best part of the trail.

My confidence wavered when I passed another really good looking trail on my right. There was nothing like that on the map. I checked the map and right in that area, in the woods a ways, it says “cabin area” so I decided maybe that is a path to get down to the cabins, and kept on my way. I couldn’t figure out why the trail was not going along the ridge line like I knew it should. I kept checking my map. Since I had made my hard right at the T intersection, I never checked my compass because I assumed I was heading east. After about 10 minutes I saw startled another woman on the trail who just got on at the camping area. I asked her where the heck I was and she said I was going the wrong direction, that the lodge was the other way. I checked my compass and sure enough, I was heading west.

I told her I couldn’t understand how that happened since I made a right, and she said the trail takes a lot of little twists and turns right at the corner. She said the other trail that I passed was the one. So I went back. So just remember that if you go clockwise on the trail, at the T intersection, make a right and then another right at the next trail. It’s a little twist that is not shown on the map. When you find the other trail, it kind of looks like there is fork where you can go to the leftish or go straight. I looked to my left and saw a blue dot down a ways. So leftish is the way to go. I explored the path that goes straight and it peters out after a few minutes, I had to back track and find the blue dot again.

You will know for sure you are on the right path because you will start going down some natural steps made out of sheets of rock, and then you will cross the road again, and see the trail going into the woods on the other side.

One reason I wanted to do this trail is I know the last 3rd of it would be a great view, going along the ridge line, and it was. In fact, in the middle of that section, there is cute little stone gazebo offering a pretty view off the bluff. (See photos).

Following along the bluff was just as nice as I thought it would be except for one problem, the trail was alarmingly close to the bluff! In some cases, ridiculously close to the bluff. I had to go up into the woods in some spots to get away from it. I took a photo of one the spots that was just stupid. You would have to see the photo to see I’m not just being a chicken, which I can be sometimes. (On Nicks site at the very bottom of each photos you can see comments if any were made).

So here is the deal, on the east side of the gazebo the trail is just close enough to the edge to be fun. Even that side is a bit much though, it’s so close, that in many places the fissures that make up the jagged bluff line actually come up onto the trail and you can see down. You have to be very careful. I had my dog with me today and he kept thinking the fissures were new paths instead of 60 foot drop offs.

On the west side of the Gazebo I had to leave the trail in some places. It actually went onto some slabs of rock that were 5 inches thick hanging over the bluff edge. All I can say is be very careful if you bring a dog up there, even on the leash. I would not take small children up there at all, and children over 10 should be strictly warned to go very slow, stay close to you and not run ahead. Personally, I wouldn’t take kids up there.

The trail finishes up with a flourish. You go down some stone steps, behind the lodge, and you get to take the little bridge that is behind the lodge. The lodge itself is built directly over the stream and from this bridge you can a good view of that.





Edited 2 times. Last edit at 10/26/05 09:16PM by Nick Kasoff.