Wet and Wetter- June 6

June 6... we were happy about a dry start to the day, but while we were still packing the packs the rain started again. We arrived at the wonderful suspension foot bridge over the Naomikong Creek soaking wet (we thought).


The nice new fiberglass, accessible latrine made a wonderful place for a rest stop. Marie believes in full protection from wet, cold, and bugs! After that, we encountered the only piece of really bad trail on this whole hike. There was a boardwalk for footing, but the shrubs and plants had grown in so thick around it that we were not bushwhacking, but we were whacking bushes! After this section we really were wet... totally, dripping, nowhere dry at all wet.


But we got a gray view of Lake Superior. If a thru-hiker were walking east to west on the entire NCT, this is the first view they would get of the largest Great Lake.


I am very happy to tell you that the rain blew away by afternoon and we had a truly lovely campsite at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River in the State Park there.

Ferns & More- June 5

 


The rain ended before morning on the 5th, so that led us to believe we might be dry, but in no time at all we were in bracken fern that held buckets of water that wiped off onto our clothes. Pretty soon the ferns were higher than my waist, and some were over my head! So much for being dry.



Here was the mystery for the day. Marie wanted to know what these funny "spaghetti plants" were. At first I thought they must be sprouts of baby maples or something. But a quick tug revealed them to be a wilting stem with a heavy three-cornered leaf.



Turned out that they were trout lily, Ertythronium americncanum". The weight of the seed carries the seed case to the forest floor where new litter covers it.



Here's some lovely cinnamon fern.



We ended the day under cloudy, but dry, skies at this lovely, un-named pond.

To Soldier Lake

 
In reality, we leave here again on Tuesday for more hiking, but try to ignore the time lag. I'll start taking you through the last hike day by day.

We started hiking that section on June 4. This was the last time we were to be clean and dry for a while!



Most of the hiking that day was across a level plain with fairly open jack pine forest. However, by mid afternoon it was raining.



We camped at Soldier Lake, and it rained almost all night. The recent spraying of the tent and the new zipper kept us well-protected, but of course everything gets really damp.

Thank You SO Much!

Just read all your lovely and encouraging comments from while I was hiking. I hope I can visit your blogs before I leave again, but it doesn't look likely that I'll get to them all. I'll post some pictures later today though, and I want to say thank you SO much for your loyalty while receiving no traffic in return. But right now, I have to focus on this goal.

Hey, I'm Home

Sorry- not much to say tonight. We got here this afternoon, and due to time constraints that I just learned about on the other end we have to turn this pile of filthy gear around and be back out the door in two days. Will show some new pics tomorrow. We got wet a lot of days, but had no real problems, and the U.P. is done.