Recently, I was a volunteer parking attendant for the annual Dunebrook Dragon Boat Races, which took place on Stone Lake in LaPorte, Indiana. My task was done once most people had actually arrived for the event. While directing traffic into a baseball field, I realized that I was actually on a paved trail, and, wondering where it went, I looked it up on my trails app.
It appeared that I could actually follow the trail all the way around the lake. As my wife still had a few more hours to volunteer, I took this as an opportunity to go on a nice, long walk around Stone Lake. For those who don’t know me, I’ve been trying to improve my health by walking every day (and I’m training for a much longer walk – walking Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, an 84-mile walk that takes a week).
My own ignorance was guiding me here. For some reason, I thought the paved path went all the way around the lake, and I thought it was only two miles.
I was wrong on both counts.
So, I set off on the walk, following the nicely paved path along the southern end of the lake.
Stone Lake is not one of LaPorte’s largest lakes, nor is it one of the most popular (that would be Pine Lake). But it’s this lack of popularity that makes it a bit more sedate. There are well-developed beaches here, with bathrooms and facilities in the summer to serve beachgoers. You can even rent a kayak. I’ve never swum in the lake; there have been far too many contamination warnings for that (I won’t even swim in Lake Michigan).
It’s not even particularly clear whether Stone Lake is a very natural lake, Indiana classifies it as a reservoir because it is linked by a small channel to Pine Lake. Either way, it’s about 140 acres in size and only a few feet deep. Most of the shoreline, which was wise of the city planners, is parkland, though there are a few streets with houses that line the lake. But again, it’s far less than on Pine Lake. There are a few boats, but not many like in the volume on Pine Lake.
I passed the beach facilities and headed on the newly paved path that passes along the Lakeshore. I followed it for about a mile and enjoyed looking at all the beach cottages, a few of which look like they have recently been renovated (and a few that were clearly renovated with Chicago money because they follow a similar style – usually painted white with black trim and shutters).
And then after about a mile, I found myself at the end of the paved path, which unceremoniously ended at a dock. This was where I learned the paved path didn’t go all the way around the lake. But my trail app said there were trails to follow. So, I followed along the road, which would lead back to trails through the woods that would follow the lake shore.
I considered packing it in and walking back the way I’d come. If I did, it would be at least a two-mile total walk for the day, but I thought, well, I’m a mile in, and it’s only another mile around the lake, you’re halfway, keep going. Then at the end of the day, you can say you walked around the lake (I was wrong in my distance calculation here).
I walked to the boat landing area where fishermen put their boats in the water. I found the trailhead and followed it as best I could. This was not an enjoyable part of the walk. I generally like walking through the woods, but this was clearly a well-developed mountain biking track, and I kept worrying that I would be in the way of an angry biker trying to enjoy the paths.
This is where I would start to criticize the haphazard nature of the paths around Stone Lake. I don’t have a problem with the mountain biking tracks. And I was lucky that I didn’t encounter any that day, but there should be at least one dedicated foot traffic-only path around Stone Lake.
One reason is that I don’t want to get run over by someone moving too fast on a bike, and the other reason is that the paths were designed for biking; they do not go straight through the woods, they zigzag and go up and down in a way that makes walking unpleasant. I just wanted to walk around the lake. But I found myself zigzagging back on myself several times, while also watching out for bikers. I just kept dutifully following the trail app, which thankfully didn’t guide me too far away from the shoreline. For large parts of this section of the walk, you can’t even see the lake. It’s right there, but none of the trails allow you to see it.
Finally, I got to a section I’d walked on before and realized that I needed to get out of these biking trails before I got hurt. So, I cut through the trails and found myself in the middle of a neighborhood. The map indicated that further down the street, a proper hiking trail would start up again.
So, I followed the street, again, no sight of the lake at all, and found the trailhead. There were a few kids riding, I think, hoverboards through the woods, and we would end up crossing paths several times (or rather, I would be in their way as they were trying to hoverboard their way through the woods). Even though this was meant to be a hiking trail, it zigzagged very much like the biking trails I’d just left, and these teens were using the trail as such. It was… annoying.
Other than this group of teens, I mostly had the whole walk to myself, only occasionally encountering another person or a dogwalker. It was quiet in the quiet bits, and it was lovely to walk through and only hear nature as my companion on the walk. I just wish I hadn’t been in constant fear of being run over by a bike.
Eventually, I found myself back on the main trail next to the lakeshore. Clearly for walkers now. I crossed the neat metal bridge of the channel linking Stone Lake to Pine Lake and found myself in a parking lot next to Pine Lake. Then, I found the paved trailhead and walked the rest of the way to where I started.
In total, by the time I was back at my car, I had walked three complete miles, much more than I’d intended to walk that day.
I’d managed to walk around the lake, and I was rather proud of myself. But if I had to ‘review’ my walk, I would say that it was only moderately successful. LaPorte has spent a lot of money in recent years upgrading its parks and trail systems. But if they really need to take the initiative and either pave the trail all the way around the lake, or develop a hiking trail that’s separate from the biking trails (or develop a clear separation of the two). Then you have one singular experience that someone can tackle in a morning or afternoon.
Frankly, I’m not sure if I’ll do the walk again. I like the distance of it, but I was very well aware that I was walking in places or shared spaces that were not ideal for walking. I wish to encourage the LaPorte Parks Department to develop a walking trail around the whole lake. It’s also, and I should admit this, completely likely that I followed the completely wrong trail. Very possible since I’d never done the walk before.
It is nice that you can even walk around the whole lake, for the most part. The shoreline for Pine Lake is practically 95% controlled by private landowners, so there is absolutely no way to walk around LaPorte’s biggest lake (which, at one point, was two lakes made into one lake). I think I will try walking around Clear Lake next; it’s a similar size to Stone Lake, and it has public trails all the way around it.
After my walk, I waited in my air-conditioned car for my wife to finish her volunteering work, and I fell asleep. So, I guess the walk tired me out!