One trailhead for the pathway in Silver Creek State Forest Campground is located next to site No. 10 and is well posted with a display map. Heading north you immediately arrive at the confluence of the Silver Creek with the Pine River, a deep hole that’s accented with a thick rope swing over it. If the day’s hot, there’s no better way to end this trek than by taking a turn on the rope swing. Eeeha!

The trail uses foot bridges to cross Silver Creek and then a smaller stream before climbing a steep river bank to its first edge-of-the-bluff view of the Pine. Continuing along the bank, you pass a spur at Mile 0.3 that heads east (right), the start of a short loop that is poorly marked and hard to follow. Stay on the main trail to skirt the bluff to a great overlook at Mile 0.6. The view includes two bends in the river, any anglers casting for trout and a ridge several miles away.

In the next mile you dip twice onto an ORV trail and then make a rapid descent to a “T” junction. Head right to break out at the Lincoln Bridge Canoe Landing at Mile 1.6. There are toilets, water, campsites and picnic tables either at the launch site or the nearby State Forest campground.

Also nearby is the Lincoln Bridge. This classic trestle bridge is set in a wooded ravine and from the middle you can view the Pine upstream and downstream or look below for trout. On the other side is a two-track that is posted as the Irons Snowmobile Trail, an ORV trail and the hiking trail. Truly a multi-use trail. Within 100 yards the pathway veers south (left) away from the two-track to enter the woods and leave the other motorized trails behind.

The west side of the loop features fewer bluffs and less climbing. After swinging away from the river and intersecting a pair of two tracks, you descend to a foot bridge across a small stream at Mile 2.3. Within a third of a mile from the bridge you return to the banks of the Pine and begin the highlight of the loop.

For almost a mile the pathway skirts the river, sometimes right along it, other times just above it. The water is so clear and the current so swift that you can see trout facing upstream, waiting for some morsel of nourishment. At Mile 3.1, or less than a mile from the Silver Creek Bridge, is an ideal place to set up a dispersed campsite, a place where you can pitch your tent in a grove of large cedars overlooking the river.

In another quarter mile the trail takes a sharp turn to the west (right) along with the river, climbs the river bluff and then skirts the bluff for a short distance. Keep a sharp eye for trail markers at Mile 3.7 where the pathway crosses an old two-track in a red pine plantation as this area can be confusing. Shortly after that another foot bridge over a feeder stream is crossed and the Pine with the Silver Creek Bridge pops into in view.