A Cloudy Day at Bradbury Mountain

View from the central summit.

Well, the plan wasn't to do Bradbury Mountain today, but when we got to the mountain we were going to hike we found a lovely sign saying 'Closed for Mud Season'.  How could we forget about Mud Season?!  Duh.  So we opted for Bradbury Mountain since we knew the trails were open all year long, no matter how much snow or mud there was.

We wanted to get a really good workout of a hike in, but most of the terrain is fairly flat and the forecast called for rain, so we opted for doing the Northern Loop trail to the Tote Road trail to the summit, then back down the Summit trail to the parking lot.

In all, our hike probably ended up being 2 miles of really easy trails with a decent view at the central summit.  Probably 45 minutes in all, even with our stop at the summit to take photos.  There are also lots of families with little kids and other dogs, not to mention that horseback riding is allowed in the park.  Basically a lot of things that its best to keep your dog on leash for.  Not to mention the fact that since its a state park all dogs need to be on leash anyways.

I know plenty of people who don't leash their dogs at Bradbury, but I also have seen facebook posts and fliers around for so many dogs that go missing there on off-leash hikes.  That, coupled with all the lovely muddy mountain streams (it is Mud Season after all) was enough to convince me to keep Denali on leash.  Although, I did cave and let him take a dip in a fairly clean stream on the back side of the Tote trail when I knew no one else was around.

Denali taking a quick dip in a stream.