Next month will mark the two year anniversary of the Black Forest Fire, and also hopefully a high point in the wildflower season making it a great time to visit the Section 16 trail in Black Forest. The trail is a four mile relatively flat loop through both burn scar and unscathed forest. As such it makes for an amazing learning opportunity!
Pros/Trail Teaching: We like using this trail to beef up the kids’ mileage endurance. It’s a trail I’m comfortable taking either or both kids on by myself, and is well used without being crowded. The opportunity to see how the forest is regrowing in areas lightly burned but very much struggling in the high heat areas where the top soil burnt away is great in illustrating the importance of forest management. Wildfires have played such a dramatic role in our community in the last couple of years that I think that letting kids see how things regrow after devastating loss is incredibly important and offers teaching opportunities beyond the literal regrowth of the forest.
Cons: This is a great walk or trail run, but if you are looking for a true HIKE, this will leave you unimpressed. Were it not for the fire, Section 16 is easily a pass for anyone not directly in the area.
Distance/Difficulty: While not as flat as the Indian Paint Mines, there is no significant elevation gain in this four mile loop. Mile markers and maps at the corners of this rectangular park help kids track their progress. (“Make it to the next map and then you can have a granola bar!”)
Directions: This is just west of the intersection of Burgess Rd and Vollmer Rd. The parking lot is large and well marked. You can join the trail at either end of the parking lot and go either clockwise or counterclockwise around the rectangle.
Photos:
This first group is from September, 2013:
This next group is from June 2014. We went on Father’s Day and the wildflowers were spectacular. There were so many different kinds. I’m hoping for the same type of display this year–we’ll be back with a wildflower guide this time!
This sign ironically predates the fire–the stand and display show marks of the fire, and it is even more educational in light of its new surroundings!
Further Reading: This post has great photos of the park and what to expect. If you weren’t intimately familiar with the Black Forest Fire of June 2013 I would read up about it beforehand. If you stop at the R&R Cafe south of the intersection of Black Forest Rd and Burgess Rd they have (a) great coffee and treats but also an amazing pamphlet that was created by the Black Forest Historic Society that goes into much more detail about the fire. Section 16 was the site of not one but two separate heroic efforts by firefighters to save The School in the Woods (which I still get teary about–to my surprise I welled up as I started to type this). School in the Woods is located in Section 16–you’ll walk by it if you do the full loop–and in the months immediately after the fire you could see the exact perimeter of protection that the firefighters created. The boundary looped out in one spot to include a small tree planted in memory of a former student. It was impossible to see and not want to bear hug every single fire fighter on the planet. The many many stories of little acts of thoughtfulness from those days still leave me without words.
