John and Dave the path-builders

This is the walking map for my new favorite state park (sorry Seven Lakes, you've been superseded).

(Here's the satellite view from Google Maps.) Normally (that is, for the previous five or six visits since there was still ice on the lakes) we've done the walk around Wildwood and Valley Lake, usually starting at 19 or 24 and going in a circle. This is very nice (you're never more than about 6 yards from the water, but the view changes because of the crinkles in the lakes), but today we (okay, I - Frederick gamely suffers my choices) decided to try something new. We started at 17 and headed North. We were going to go all the way up to 7 and maybe back via 5 and 6, but when we got to 8 we discovered there was a secret option, that I have added in red below:

Actually, it just said that you could go to 15, but the path forked and we took the left-hand option and found that it went in a circle around an idyllic swampy little lake that you should be able to see below.

When we got back on the main path between 8 ad 15 we came across this magnificent tree.

You might have wondered, looking at the map(s), how you get to 15, given that there is a lake in the way.  I was wondering that myself when we met discovered the answer:

Who made this bridge, you may ask?  And to whom am I speaking in the video below?

John (left) and Dave, that's who!  And they were still working on it.  They lent us walking sticks (you can see Frederick using one) so long as we snapped their picture (that's what I'm talking about in the video - I used Dave's phone, but I also took one for myself).

Goodbye John and Dave!  Thanks for your service to our dry feet!
All in all, a delightful walk on a beautiful (high of 60) day.