On Friday, April 29th I had not planned to hike since the forecast called for rain on and off all day. By 10:00 AM no rain had fallen and the forecast showed it holding off until 3:00 PM. I decided to get out and do a quick hike and chose Frick and Hodge Ponds as my destination. I had not hiked UP the Flynn Trail to Hodge Pond in some time and made that my intended route. Sheila was eager to get going as I put my gear in the trunk and opened the backdoor for her. The temperature was in the low 50’s but there was a slight breeze and a bite to the air. I wore my MH Winter Wander pants and and my Mammut hoody over a single layer top. BY the time I drove out the DeBruce Road and up the Mongaup Road to the trailhead, it was already 11:40 AM. There was one other car in the parking area as we crossed the road and started up the Flynn Trail. The sky was overcast and the air felt damp but despite this I warmed up quickly and was soon opening the zippers on my hoody. I kept a quick pace with Sheila riving out ahead kicking up a few birds as we hiked. By 12:20 PM we had hiked 1.7 miles to the junction with the Big Rock Trail. We continued straight ahead staying on the Flynn Trail heading toward Hodge Pond. We passed through the gate and were soon at the next trail junction where we stayed to the left to stay on the Flynn Trail to Hodge Pond. As we approached the pond, I looked at the scene and decided it was the kind of dreary that does not photograph well and continued passed the shores of the pond without stopping. To this point the trail had been relatively dry but as we continued on the west side of Hodge Pond the Flynn Trail began to be muddy. As we walked along the western shore, we turned left to stay on the Flynn Trail and began a slight up hill to the gate where the trail turns to the left.
This part of the Flynn Trail is pretty flat and the trail is often the lowest point which allows water to collect with nowhere to go. The rain earlier in the week had made the trail wet and I had to walk around several wet and muddy areas. I noticed that Sheila simply walked through them! We arrived at Junkyard Junction at 12:50 PM about 3.25 miles into the hike. From here the rest of the hike is primarily downhill with a few small hills along the way. We turned left on the red Quick Lake Trail and found it was also wet and muddy in spots. Some section of the trail are washed out leaving a lot of rocks behind and making the downhill hiking not as much fun as it could be. There wasn’t much to see so we hiked quickly passing the junction with the snowmobile trail. We arrived at Iron Wheel Junction at 1:25 PM after hiking 4.8 miles. We turned right to stay on the Quick Lake Trail since the yellow Logger’s Loop continued straight ahead. The trail continued to be muddy but we made good time as we crossed the little stream in the woods and continued toward Frick Pond. We passed the junction with the Big Rock Trail that goes around the north end of Frick Pond and walked to the bridge across the outlet of the pond. I decided not to stop but to keep walking as I had felt a few drops of rain. We continued back on the Quick Lake Trail to the trail register. Along the way I was pleased to see that the ditching that we had done during our trail maintenance work was draining much of the water off the trail. At the trail register we turned right and continued on the Quick Lake Trail back to the car. The lot was empty when we arrived at 2:00 PM. We had hiked 6.3 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes with only 4 minutes of stopped time and an elevation gain of 910 feet.