November Picture Challenge

Here it is again, our once-a-month contest to test your familiarity with area attractions, landmarks, etc.....the first person to correctly identify the above picture wins a $25 Mud Creek gift card. Woo-hoo! Just e-mail us your best guess, but keep in mind that broad answers can be trumped by a more specific one. The winner will be notified in the December Mud Creek newsletter, just in time to do some Christmas shopping!

Lunch at Grass Mountain Lakes

Tuesday we braved the chill and the hunters to hike up to Grass Mountain Lakes. We arrived at the trail head about 10 am. There were two horse trailers in the parking lot and the sky was spitting snow. Expected high of 34 degrees. Cold! The trail was covered in a couple inches of snow, so we could tell we were the first on the trail that morning other than the rodent, fox and deer.

In some places through the trees it was difficult to spot the trail. Only a few horse hoof prints under the snow gave it away. Out of the trees the path was clear and the colors were amazing.We were bundled up pretty good, but still had to stop and pull out an extra pair of gloves & neck gaiter Gordy was carrying. I was enjoying spotting all the little tracks in the snow. Then in some thick trees we came across some wide oval shaped tracks. Much bigger tracks than what we had been seeing. The oval was about 4" from side to side with no claws on the toes. We didn't see any big cats watching us from the trees, but you can bet we kept an eye out.Note how nicely my "I am not a deer" flag on my pack blends in with the flora. I'll have to ask around and find out what these bushes are called. The stems & leaves had both turned the same rich rust color, like they had been painted. Right before the first lake the trail opens up into a perfectly flat meadow. Here we found more interesting big tracks. These were oval from end to end, and did have visible claws. My boot measures about 4 1/2" across the bottom of the laces. Owwww-ooooooOOOO! If there hadn't been snow on the ground we wouldn't have been aware of all the critters around us.
Down by the first lake we could see a hunter's camp set up, so we didn't go all the way down to the water. Instead we continued on to the second lake and checked it out. There didn't see to be a connecting trail from there to Coffee Cup, so we bushwacked up the hill until we found the trail again.
Gordy made us some hot beverages and a delicious lunch of teriyaki chicken and rice on the saddle with his MSR stove. Lunch with a view!
Those freeze dried meals really are handy. I've only tried the chicken & turkey flavors. One of our customers said the chicken & noodles tasted exactly like the turkey tetrazzini, but I could tell the difference. The turkey tetrazzini had big pieces of asparagus in it! We took some more pictures and enjoyed the view in all directions. It was a gorgeous day. We could just make out the Seven Devils in the distance. A couple of hunters came up the trail while we were eating lunch and continued on up the ridge, but they were the only ones we saw on the trail. Never did see the ones on horseback, so they must have camped farther in. During the drive down there were several pickup loads of hunters cruising up and down the road, especially around Goose Lake & the campgrounds.
We had kids to pick up from school, so we booked it on down to the car. There just wasn't enough time to hike into Coffee Cup Lake. Next time we will bring the kids with us so we have enough time. Coffee Cup is just 1/2 mile past the saddle but not at all visible from where we had lunch.