Mud Lake and Gull Lake Ski

 When I told Pam about how nice it was on Mud Lake yesterday, she wanted to come check it out also. She had never been to the lakes out there even in summer. It has been blowing with 50 mph winds all over the area, but it stays calm out there. Pam and I usually hike or ski on Fridays, so I had her meet me at the end of my road then follow me to the Mud Lake parking lot. When we got there, we were the only cars. There is very little room for cars there, so it was nice to get some room to park. We took off skiing and kept going as far as we could far across the lake. I wanted to see if I could find where the Jim Creek, (actually McRoberts Creek) comes off the far end of Mud Lake. I was never able to find it. As it turned out, we were actually on it for a while and had continued past Mud Lake and following the loop, we ended up completely circling Gull Lake. I had no idea that we had actually left Mud Lake until I got back to the car and looked at our route on the AllTrails app. The land is so flat and marshy out there, that once covered in deep snow, it all looks the same. We and our 2 dogs had a fabulous time exploring. It was just as beautiful and calm as yesterday. We went over 6 miles today. After seeing our route on the map, I want to come back again and see if I can find my way cross country over to Jim Lake. Likely someone on a snow machine will have made a track over there so I won't need to go crashing through the deep snow. But even if I do need to do that, it will be neat to explore further. On our return, we started seeing a few other skiers, but they were all on other groomed loops and we never met up with them. I was shocked when we got back to our cars because now there were about 10 cars crammed into that tiny parking lot. Plus, a couple of loose dogs, creating a minor altercation with Bella. She does like to have very vocal conversations with strange dogs. I promptly plunked her into the car. It was a major challenge backing out of that lot, weaving in between the other cars. If I come back, I will be backing in so I can at least make an escape in the forward direction. This little ski adventure was fabulous. Now I'm yearning for summer to do it in my kayak.