The Lake Trail: southern lake Crabtree

The Lake Trail is 6 miles of singletrack circumventing Lake Crabtree in The Lake Crabtree County Park.

Summary
The first thing to note is that the trail shares part of its route with the Crabtree mountain biking trails, which can be closed after rain. When that happens, the gate at the Reedy Creek Road access is padlocked, which prevents the loop from being completed. If the trail is run counter clockwise having started at the park access, you won't find out about the gate until after running close to 5 miles. So, I'd recommend starting at Reedy Creek Road and checking the gate first.

The half mile of singletrack that I ran on the southern edge of this trail that veers off of the Black Creek Greenway was rough, and I think it would be rough shod or barefoot. The barefoot challenge lies in large acorns peppering the trail. In addition, there are sections of trail peppered in white granite gravel, which felt sharper than regular gravel.

In general, this section of the trail was very rooty. Sections of trail "stairs" (made out of two-by-fours) made running awkward even when not barefoot.

Overall, this is should be doable in minimalist shoes. I intend to test this theory once colder weather forces me into VFF's.

Access
There are at least three different ways to access the trail:

1. From the Lake Crabtree County Park. Park entrance is from Aviation Parkway.
2. From Old Reedy Creek Road parking by the water treatment plant. Go through the parking lot gates and take the paved greenway around the southern edge of the lake for a clock wise loop, or go through another gate at the bottom of the dirt descent to the lake for a counter-clockwise loop.
3. Via the Black Creek Greenway starting at Dynasty Road just of off Harrison Avenue. Take the paved greenway for 1.75 (or so) miles. The Lake Trail veers off to the left via a foot bridge. The trail junction is marked.

Lake Crabtree Parking Access