Commentary by Emily, photos by Desiree
Five fearless foot soldiers hiked to Mink Lake from Spine Rd Beach parking lot. A cool wind and threatening skies did not deter us. There was a lot of dodging of muddy areas along both the upper and lower ridges of the trail. The rain over the last few days has not had a chance to be absorbed into the ground. We turned this into a positive experience by checking out the tracks left by at least one large buck and a few wolves. We were fortunate to be joined by a new hiker. She was encouraged by the experience to come out for more such hikes. Our lunch break was spent in the protected area under some hemlocks on the shore of Mink Lake. There were wood blocks around a fire pit which provided us with a ready made lunch spot. We were back at the parking lot in full sunshine by 1:25 pm. We enjoyed the combination of mud bogging and hiking. Some of us did stretches after returning just to keep limber for the rest of our day. PHOTOS
