a.k.a. Lake Wilhelm hike Hike length: 13 miles , you hike all the way around the lake! This was a long, long hike, which took us a good seven hours to complete. The first half, and it is nearly equal lengths on each side of this narrow long lake, was very low key. Wide paths clearly marked, ambling gentle rolling hills, taking us through and along side farm fields, quaint cabins and farm houses and of course, right along the lake. Mark and I are going to have to bring our boat to this lake, it is long and narrow with the eastern and western (the long sides) framed with glacially formed mountains. This funneled the wind in a constant strong steady state, there were a number of sailboats gliding across the water. We stopped and had our lunch on the dam on the southern point of the lake, looking out over the tiny fishermen and swiftly moving sail boats. Now the second half of the hike, that is a completely different story! Miles and miles of climbing and descending steep paths, up through and old abandoned apple orchard, you can easily see the forest quickly reclaiming the land for their own amidst the precisely spaced and placed apple trees. We went past a fallow field and through an amazingly dense, dark and fragrant stand of pines. The repeated climbing and descending, primarily the descending was very hard on the knees and by mile 10 of this hike (or about 4 miles of ascending and descending the hillsides) I felt like an old woman. I was starting to hobble, my knees were not at all happy, I'm glad I found such a wonderful walking stick that I had the sense to pick up around mile 5. I still have this walking stick. It is by the coat closet in the front entry way of my house. At mile 11 we decided just to move to the utility road that was in sight of the trail. We were hoping we would avoid more ups and downs since we did cross this road multiple times already. It was a wise move. We were happier, our knees were happier and we were able to make a bit better time since it started to drizzle at that point. I loved this hike, despite the achy knees, if I were to traverse this trail again, I would do it in reverse, start with the more challenging side and end with the meandering casual stroll that would be possible on the other side. I honestly don't recall where the traditional after hike pie was from, but I know we did not omit the customary diner stop.