Hiking the King's Highway to the Osprey Cabin

Mike Fogarty, Steve Fogarty and Tim Zietz took advantage of the amazing fall weather (80 degree temps, sunny skies, and light winds) to hike the King's Highway trail to the Osprey cabin at Lake Metigoshe State Park. There's a small parking spot right at the King's Highway trailhead towards the north end of the park road. There is enough room for two cars there. 

It's about a 1.4 mile walk on wide gentle trails that starts with a short uphill effort. These trails are well maintained for hiking and mountain biking and they are groomed in the winter for cross country skiing when there's enough snow. The cabin is well equipped for a comfortable night's stay with propane lanterns, bunks with vinyl covered mattresses, a warm wood burning stove, chopped wood, and a table with 4 stools. Outside living accommodations include the great outdoors along with an outside deck, picnic table and fire pit. Also included is a small portable outdoor propane grill. Oh, and yes, there's a nice well stocked outdoor toilet as well. Bring everything else you'll need for your stay. 

Tim gets a couple of final pack adjustments from Steve prior to leaving the trailhead.

Tim helps Steve identify the difference between an Aspen and a Birch tree. 

Beautiful fall colors

Beautiful Osprey Cabin

After a nice break at the cabin that included some afternoon tea and a few snacks, we went down the hill from the Osprey to check out the lake shore and then went on a walk to the US-Canadian border. 

Steve and Tim check out the shore area down the hill in front of the cabin. 

There's evidence here that beavers have been busy!

Mike at the border

The sun was getting low. Time to head back to the cabin for supper!

After returning to the cabin we had a relaxing and tasty supper of freeze dried food  (well, tasty except for Mike's meal. His was surprisingly way less than not good.) that was topped off by donuts, exotic teas and fruit.  Next we readied our sleeping bags and sorted our gear for bedtime then we went for a midnight walk back to the footbridge that separates Eramosh Lake from Rost Lake. Sometimes you can navigate between the two lakes via kayak or canoe, but not at this time. The bridge area however presents itself as a fantastic place for star gazing, and on this cool, calm and crystal clear evening it was spectacular! Steve is our resident astronomy expert who spent the next two hours pointing out stars, planets, constellations and all manner of heavenly objects along with space trivia.

The bridge between Eramosh lake and Post Lake,    The heavens were spectacular!

Noticing that it was 1:00am we thought it was best to head back to the Osprey cabin. It was late, and one never knows what creatures lurk in the forest at night.

While the 1:00am encounter with "dark man" was chilling, the beginning of the return hike the next morning began with a bright ray of light illuminating Tim. (Tim was the dark man... senior citizens shouldn't be serious all the time!)

What a fun, relaxing overnight outing! Many thanks to the Lake Metigoshe State Park staff for the work they do that makes the trails, the cabin, and the rest of the facilities there enjoyable!

https://www.parkrec.nd.gov/lake-metigoshe-state-park