Hike #5905 – Mohegan Lake – 2/27/2011
This hike was scheduled for Mohegan Lake, but an inspection of the trailhead on February 26 showed that its parking lot was snowed in. Additional heavy snow fell that evening, so upon regrouping at Thendara we decided to ski Cascade Lake instead. This proved to be a wise decision. Even with an additional six inches of powder, trail breaking was easy, and the blow-downs that used to encumber this trail had either been removed or were buried in deep snow.
The lake, nestling between low hills on either shore is always beautiful, but fresh snowfall, alternating sun and flurries, spruce and balsam weighted down with heavy snow and countless cris-crossing tracks of otter, mink and deer made it even more-so today.
As the sun broke through and temperatures warmed we experienced some icing on our skis, but Don and Sheila quickly produced cakes of paraffin and soon everyone was once more gliding swiftly through the forest. The falls that give the lake its name were completely frozen and anyone who didn’t know they were there would have thought them just an ice-bound cliff. We had a pleasant lunch and after more applications of wax, resumed our journey.
The trail on the west side of the lake provides gentle ups and thrilling downs and in no time we were back in the parking lot from which we proceeded to the Screaming Eagle in Inlet where Paul treated the whole group to a large pizza.