This was my first time at Freedom Trail. We took my friend's Nissan Frontier 2WD and made it just fine. The directions I found here were easy to follow. By far, the shortest hike I've taken compared to Bradford Ridge Trails and Bowen Ranch. I read here that it's approximately 1.2 miles one way. As long as I have a high clearance vehicle, I'll be taking this route from now on. The pink arrows and other spray painted markers frustrated me. The trail was well tread and very easy to follow! (mumble mumble id*ots) We hiked down at 1-ish and were blessed with an overcast afternoon. It was pleasantly balmy and made for a nice hike down. I hardly used water from my camel pack. It took us less than 45 minutes to get down. We met a group at the creek who came down by way of Bowen Ranch. There was a 74 year old gentleman with them. Kudos to him! Fortunately, they were going back up already when it was still overcast and temperature somewhat tolerable. They assured me they had plenty of water for their hike back. The beach and hot pools were amazingly clean. A group of SD naturalists were leaving when we arrived at the beach. It was a very pleasant afternoon with about 50/50 ratio of textiled and naturalists. The Perigee (supermoon) was amazing to see when hiking atop one of the ridges which took 40+ minutes to hike up to! We hiked out at 11am the following day and it was very hot and cloudless. It took us an hour to get back to the car. There were so many steep areas that made me stop and catch my breath every five steps. See you all at the hot springs! Dev
