Quest for Mud Lake

I belong to a hiking club, The Herkimer Alpiners. A group of primarily over 50's who like to get out all year long for hiking, snow shoeing, skiing and canoeing. This winter when they were putting the spring/summer schedule together, I volunteered to lead a hike to a local lake, Mud Lake.

Now I had never been to Mud Lake (this one anyway, there are several of them in NYS) but on a local map, it isn't very far away from my house. I also know of two unmarked trails in that vicinity, so I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find the place this spring and be ready for the scheduled hike date of July 8th. So now the weather is fine and on Sunday (the 20th) Randy and I decided to try and hike to Mud Lake. On the map, the elevation change from my house to the lake is about 700 feet. So we knew there would be some climbing involved. Of the two possible trails already in existence, one is on State Land totally and the other cuts thru private property and then to State Land. I'll call the 1st, State trail and the 2nd Old Farm trail.

On Sunday, I wanted to check out the trail that starts on State land as I would rather lead a group of hikers on public land and avoid any chance of getting absentee landowners upset. So we take the jeep up to the start of the trail, about 1.5 miles from my house. Lucky us, the black fly season has just started so we douse ourselves with repellant and start on our way. My theory was that the old logging road that we are following will eventually lead us up to the lake. We follow it for about an hour and a half but it gets fainter as we go on. There is plenty of evidence that ATVs use this old road despite the big sign at the beginning saying ATVs are not allowed. However, we get to an area where the road is getting faint and a big area of tree blow down has covered the road. We struggle around for awhile trying to pick up the old road but didn't find it. We called it a day and started back to the jeep.

Now since we didn't take any compass bearing at the beginning, we really aren't sure the old logging road is actually going in the right directions. We resolve to try again on Wednesday from the old farm road as the map has the old farm trail actually on it unlike the State trail which is not marked on the map.

On Wednesday we jeep up to the old farm road, actually only about 1/4 mile from the State trail, park and reapply bug repellant. I didn't do a good job Sunday and I received several itchy bites from black flies. I was hoping to avoid the mistake. Again, we don't take a compass bearing as we are thinking that we just have to travel up the old farm road toward a "house" that's marked on the map, then veer left, up the mountain and to the lake. Please note that passage on the old farm trail is still allowed, but the property on either side of the road is marked Posted. So, up we go and we get to the "house", really a hunting camp, just fine. Note that all along this trail are the remains of stone walls from the time the whole area was cleared and farmed. Anyway, at the hunting camp, an ATV trail leads directly left, up the very mountain we want to ascend. Big smiles all around and we follow this new trail. At this point we are relying strictly on our "sense of direction"! Up we go, following the trail and we get to a place where it seems we are at the top of the mountain. Understand that the trees have leafed out now and visibility for any distance is poor. Mud Lake lies in a "bowl" surrounded by mountains. We think we see water below us and assume it's the lake. Please also know there is a larger body of water called Woodward Pond, near the trail head. Anyway, the trail goes on but we decide to go downhill toward where we think we see the water. Bushwhacking our way down the steep slope, we mark our path with surveyor's tape. Just about the point Randy thinks we should turn around and go back, we find ourselves on the ATV trail near the hunting camp. We had made a complete circle. Since we've already been hiking about 3 hours, we decide to try again another day.

Wednesday night, we both are totally bugged that we can't find a lake that's only about a mile and a half away from us. We decide to go out on Thursday afternoon with the map and our compass and take a bearing from the start of the State trail and head directly cross country to the lake. This is probably the steepest course we could take but we're now determined to find the lake. Map and compass in hand, Randy takes the lead. We go a short way and cross the State trail. OK, pressing on, we go some distance farther and cross the trail again. We mark this point with a rock cairn, as if I use this route for the club hike, we can hike up the State trail then veer off from this point. On we go. Randy must use short distances as the area is heavily forested but we move on at a pretty good clip. Much of the area has been wooded for a long time and there was little undergrowth. What there was a lot of was blow down. It was a pretty tough winter with heavy snow and wind. There were a lot of violets, both violet and white. Toward the top of the mountain we came to a relatively open area that was heavily covered with raspberry bushes that we had to push thru. Lots of berries in the future if I don't mind the hike. We finally get to the top and still can't see a lake. We drop down the other side, not too steep and while Randy is checking the bearings, I think I see water thru the tree tops. Sure enough, at the next bearing check, we can see the lake. HOOO HOOOO! Were pretty excited. We get to the shore and at this point of the lake it's shallow and a little swampy. Lots of frogs are singing, we can see where a beaver(s) come in and out of the lake and the stumps of the beech they've been cutting. Lots of blueberry bushes. Our plan was to circumnavigate the lake and hopefully find the snowmachine / ATV trail or trails into the lake but we were out of time. It took about an hour and a half to get to the lake. We had to get home for other obiligations.

So we get home with no problems and resolve to go back, using the same "path" and walk around the lake looking for the snowmachine/ATV trail or trails. We know that people, hunters and/or fishermen go to the lake. We are hoping there is a less strenuous path to take. But, even if there isn't we'll go using our new trail in July. And yes, we still have to go back and remove the surveyors tape we left at the old farm trail.