Trail Review: Deep Creek Lake’s Indian River Trail

What’s up Bear Country! While on our Deep Creek Lake State Park Camping Trip, we did a hike of the Indian Turnip Trail. For those wondering what an Indian Turnip is, it is a Jack in the Pulpit. If that didn’t clarify it for you (like it didn’t when Falker and Shaun told me), it is a type of wildflower that blooms in the Spring. I can only assume that some of those were on this trail, but we walked it in November, so it would be hard to find any plant truly. But maybe somethin worth considering if headed on this hike. We started at the Meadow Mountain Trail Head at which conveniently starts at the campground.

We got on the trail early Saturday morning. It was definitely cold, so this before picture is a good indication of the temperatures in Western Maryland in November. The tail was very well marked, but also an active hunting area, so we started by walking around some blood and hair from a deer kill. Not exactly the most cheery welcome, but it gave hope to the crew (myself excluded) that we would see a bear on this hike.

The Indian Turnip Trail is pretty well maintained and utilized, so it is very easy to follow. The trail markers are labeled and where you would want them, and there are orange blazers on the trees to reassure you that you are indeed NOT lost. It weaves its way around Meadow Mountain’s crown and through a variety of different forest growths and rock fields. Some places along the way reminded us of Troll villages, like you see in Scandinavian myths or in the movie Frozen for those not obsessed with Norse Mythology.

According to my always right, never wrong, and completely accurate FitBit- the total length of the trail and the needed connectors to get back to the star came out to be about 5.38 miles. Of that hike, there were several sections of uphill, mostly marked in the first and second miles on this trip. There is one particularly steep climb near the end of the uphill section about a mile and half in where switchbacks are used. Got me into cardio for a few minutes. Other than that, around mile 3 it just started to warm up, so my heart rate was high because of the temperature rising. The majority of the trail runs in the same contour line and walks around the crown of the mountain before descending at the end.