Walked the Soaring Eagle trails and a side out and back through the Steven & Rosina Kipper Preserve trail over to Beaver Lake and back Saturday morning.  Total mileage for the exterior loop and walk over to Beaver Lake was about 7 miles.  Parking at Soaring Eagle is paved and free with spillover street parking along E Main Dr.  There is additional access at the north end of Trossaches Blvd NE and at the Beaver Lake Preserve lot off W Beaver Lake Dr SE.  There are single functional sanicans at the main Soaring Eagle lot and at the Beaver Lake Preserve lot.  There is some significant mud on the north and east sections of Soaring Eagle though nothing that would completely obstruct passage.  There is some mt bike traffic but they were all very polite.  Many of the local dogs had their hoomans off leash today if that is an issue for you.  

Soaring Eagle didn’t have any eagles but there were a pair of big raven flying high over the forest canopy, >grok, grok, grok<..  Much of the forest is open maple/alder other than the south east corner which is more conifer.  The Beaver Lake trails have more native cedar.  There is a single remaining native dogwood in the southern half of Soaring Eagle which is pretty cool, (most died of disease in the 70’s/80’s.)   Most of the views over Beaver Lake are of billion dollar houses on the other side, but there are a few more natural areas.  A nice, quiet walk in the woods.

We parked at the main (small) lot for Beaver Lake Preserve and then made a dumbbell shaped loop hike through both the preserve (including the add on to upper Beaver Lake), and Hazel Wolf wetlands.  The main feature of the preserve was fields of ferns under the trees with well tended wide gravel paths.  The loop around the wetland is on single track narrow trail with some nice sections of boardwalk, and highlighted at the very scenic pond overlook.  Doing one loop without the other might leave you a little dissatisfied, but doing them together makes for a nice winter's afternoon outing.  We clocked close to three miles.

I had a map which we didn't really need as there is lots of signage at each junction.  There are connector trails leading to other parks here so do be careful to not get turned around on the different spurs.  Dog restrictions also vary between the two areas with clear instructions on what is expected.

Super easy, chill hike with two preschoolers in tow. They ran most of it and probably could have done another loop! Excellent signage at every intersection. 

Plenty space at the trailhead parking FYI

Went for a nice jog at the park, and the trail is in amazing shape! People were super nice and were wearing face masks.

Beautiful easy walking hike with scattered clouds/misting with appearances by the sun. Some berries seen but not easily accessed on the lake side of the road. a little muddy in some areas from previous night's rain but overall a very nice, peaceful hike with not too many people out on the trails.