The map says there's a road here..

The boys and I went up to explore another loop I've been eyeballing on the map for a while. We visited the Chicago Stump, then followed the Hoist Ridge trail, and came back along the Chicago Stump Road (along Verplank Ridge).

Hoist Ridge is one of the more interesting trails I've seen. There is a wide variety of terrain, some slow going in places, and many magnificent vistas. There are a lot of side roads that don't look like they've been traveled in a season or more--which makes for some interesting travel (the map did say there was a road there). There were also some discrepancies between the map and reality that led to some confusion as to exactly where we were in a couple of places. In the end, the GPS won.

The boys enjoyed looking for bugs, breaking sticks, and finding interesting rocks.

We stopped by the Cat Haven on the way back down and went for another hot but interesting walk. We've been there before. But they did have a few new things to see including their new Cheetah, and a new enclosure for the Bengal Tigers.