Hike: #7
Title: Northwest Loop Trail
Location: Mirror Lake State Park
Hike List: Wisconsin
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate (Hot weather makes it mostly moderate)
Duration of Hike: An hour or two of mostly pointless up and downs
First completed: 08/25/2013
Judged solely by the difficulty of the trail, the Northwest Loop at Mirror Lake is not too bad. There are some steep uphill and downhill climbs, but they are very short. In fact, the two steepest inclines (which are still fairly short hills) can be skipped by taking easy shortcuts. This trail only approaches a moderate difficulty because there are so many ups and downs.
However, the day I actually hiked the trail was one of the hottest of the year, which certainly added to the difficulty of the trail..I never reached the point of heat exhaustion, as I drank water every 10-15 minutes or so, but I ended up covered in sweat. Much of the trail is in the shade, so it wasn't as bad as the prairie portion, although it was still warm.
