Volunteer Trail

The Volunteer trail is marked with white reflectors and paint on trees. It shares the same route with the Day Loop Trail for the first 1.2 miles. The Day Loop Trail is marked with orange reflectors and paint. Both trails have very technical footing with a lot of rocks and roots but are still very runnable with little elevation gain. The rocks, roots, and downed trees can become very slick when wet or covered in moss. The Volunteer trail is easy to follow but blends into the forest, with leaves and grass covering the ground in a few places around mile four to five. The trail had several blowdowns on the day I ran it but they were all easy to go over or around. The trail was pretty busy on a Saturday morning. Most of the users were hikers. The coves on the lake were also busy with pontoon boats, party barges, and a few fishermen. This is one of my favorite trails to run when I'm visiting in the area. I hope the park connects these trails to other nearby trails in the future.