McCarthy Lake and a Puzzle with Cathy

  Today was pretty wonderful! I was fairly sure that 3-Mile Road was plowed, but even if it wasn't open quite all the way to the trail, we figured we could at least walk to McCarthy Lake and back. But the road was nice and clear. The temperature was brisk, but look! Can you tell the other really exciting thing? That sun was shining again! I'm doing an amazing job of hiking on just about every sunny day we have had this month. The trail started out mostly level.

But there are some ridges to cross in this section. Of course the lake is going to be in a low spot. This is a better than usual picture that shows how the little hills are all folded together.

There is a little footbridge across McCarthy Creek. I was surprised to see the creek had water in it. Usually, it's only running in the spring.

One more good downhill, and then a small detour off the trail to get to the open area along the lake. I really like McCarthy Lake. It's another small glacial kettle hole, but there's a little more topography close to its banks than there is at Bowman Lake. However, you can drive to this lake, so it's not usually as quiet as Bowman. But today, there was no one there except us. There were snowmobile tracks on the road, though. No, those are not my tracks on the ice. I don't think we've had consistent enough cold to be going out there.

The trail swings around the west side of the lake and then follows the south shore before climbing back into the hills. Here's a view from the south side. Did I mention that I love this lake?

We walked on until we were 2.5 miles from the car, so that with the round trip we'd have 5 miles to add to the Hike 100 Challenge. But with the detour to the lake access we did 5.5 miles all together. It was enough. The walking was difficult in some places. Not a ton of snow, but it was uneven footing. Our ankles got a good workout!

Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 is at 36.5 miles.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI. 3 Mile Road south for 2.5 miles past McCarthy Lake and return.

Then we went to Cathy's and did another jigsaw puzzle. This one is cats "helping" to do a jigsaw puzzle of cats! It was 750 pieces, but pretty easy, so we breezed right through it.

There is no other news. This was a scheduled total play day.

See All Day with Cathy