Flat Lake aka Rock Pond

Flat Lake

I had kind of a rough time today. I went to a lake I have never been to and I did not find that trail but that was okay because I had an outlet stream to follow, so no worries there.   Surprisingly the lake was not at all frozen, I think it is spring fed.

But after I had been at the lake for awhile I reached for my GPS(r) and it was not there in my pack pocket. I knew I had lost it while brush crashing and following my exact route out of there was not going to be easy.  If I had been hiking on a trail it would have been an easy thing to back track and find my GPS. 

I went back to the brush and searched and searched for it for about an hour  I kept trying to follow my same route but then I saw some red ribbons and I knew I was off my route.  I had not seen those red ribbons on the way in.  The terrain was a little rough, but I scoured the hillside for about an hour and then gave up.  I went ahead  and walked around the lake like I had planned on doing and then went back to the outlet and had tea.  I was not happy but I did not let it stop me from hiking around the lake or having tea.

Frozen mushrooms at the inlet of the lake

 I could see the trail out and when it was time to go I really wanted to follow it but I decided to once again try to replicate my brush crashing route to get out of there in hopes of finding my GPS(r) I followed my mental landmarks to know where I had been. My landmarks were mushrooms and those damn red ribbons I lost my landmarks again near the red ribbons but then on about my 5th try I saw a conk that I recognized so I knew I was back on my original route. 

Then 15 feet from the conk I saw something that told me I was on the same route without a doubt. It was a piece of orange duct tape, the tape was attached to a lanyard and the lanyard was attached to my GPS(r) . I kissed it more passionately then I have probably ever kissed a lover. I was so happy to have my GPS back (I've never lost it before) with my GPS back I went back to the lake and followed the trail out.

Decommissioned road

The road was decommissioned about 1/4 of a mile from the trail to the lake but it was not torn up too bad and there was a path left open that was free of logs.  If all decommissioned roads were this nice for hiking I would not complain about them quite so much.

2 miles with 800 feet elevation gain.  It should have been just 150 feet, looking for my GPS added a lot of ups and downs to this hike.

Lake pano with strange perspective