For the last full day of winter, Tredhed and I decided to head to one of our "Happy Places"; Murphy Lake in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest. We've been here numerous times since we were kids, hiking, camping, fishing and just hanging out. Today was a hanging out kind of day.
It was pretty chilly when we arrived at the Creek Rd. trailhead.
Noticing that a snowmobile had traveled the trail in recent times, we decided to spike up and see how far we could get before we had to put the snowshoes on. Fortunately, the hard packed snowmobile track provided a good base and we didn't need the snowshoes as the well marked trail climbed through the hemlocks.
Soon enough, we arrived at Bennett Lake. Since the trail doesn't go to the lake, we struck out through the woods on a side path to the recently used designated campsite. The view from this site was as great as we remembered.
After shedding a layer, we headed up the trail towards Middle Lake. Along the way, we noticed a neat ice fall.
After climbing another 350', we approached Middle Lake and it's beautiful views of the surrounding hills and ledges.
A short walk on the lake provided some great scenery, but we soon found ourselves back on the snowmobile path towards our final destination. Within a few short minutes, we arrived at the well-used Murphy Lake Lean-to.
The Lean-to itself was in pretty good shape considering it's almost 40 years old. However, there was a lot of half-burned hemlock laying around and the air smelled smokey from the wet wood.
We explored around a little and checked out the great views of Huckleberry Mt.
Returning to the Lean-to, we had a small snack and reminisced of all the good memories we've had here...except the leeches. Those weren't very good memories. After a while, all that was left to do was to pack up a little trash, hit the trail for Creek Rd. and close out another awesome hike to Murphy Lake.
It was pretty chilly when we arrived at the Creek Rd. trailhead.
Noticing that a snowmobile had traveled the trail in recent times, we decided to spike up and see how far we could get before we had to put the snowshoes on. Fortunately, the hard packed snowmobile track provided a good base and we didn't need the snowshoes as the well marked trail climbed through the hemlocks.
Soon enough, we arrived at Bennett Lake. Since the trail doesn't go to the lake, we struck out through the woods on a side path to the recently used designated campsite. The view from this site was as great as we remembered.
After shedding a layer, we headed up the trail towards Middle Lake. Along the way, we noticed a neat ice fall.
After climbing another 350', we approached Middle Lake and it's beautiful views of the surrounding hills and ledges.
A short walk on the lake provided some great scenery, but we soon found ourselves back on the snowmobile path towards our final destination. Within a few short minutes, we arrived at the well-used Murphy Lake Lean-to.
The Lean-to itself was in pretty good shape considering it's almost 40 years old. However, there was a lot of half-burned hemlock laying around and the air smelled smokey from the wet wood.
We explored around a little and checked out the great views of Huckleberry Mt.
Returning to the Lean-to, we had a small snack and reminisced of all the good memories we've had here...except the leeches. Those weren't very good memories. After a while, all that was left to do was to pack up a little trash, hit the trail for Creek Rd. and close out another awesome hike to Murphy Lake.
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