Just Keep Moving - Day 358

  My mantra for today was, "Just keep moving. How fast you go is not important, but just keep moving forward." The snow was difficult.

This is Silver Creek, the same creek that the Eben Ice Caves are on farther downstream. I was mighty glad there was a bridge there. It's actually a road bridge.

No such luck at the Rock River. I knew this was going to be a ford, but I didn't know how bad. Not very bad, but I did have to use trash bag waders to get across.

Once I crossed that, I entered the Hiawatha National Forest. And, more specifically, the Rock River Canyon Wilderness. You may remember my post about Wilderness. This is another Federal Wilderness, but the trail does not yet go through it. For years and years, the NCT has been on a road beside the boundary because the Supervisor did not agree that the mission of a trail and the mission of a wilderness were compatible. But times and people change. The trail is now going to be allowed to pass through this area. It will probably follow the Rock River and include the Rock River Falls, but not the Eben Ice Caves.

The weather is warming, and the snow is getting wet and heavy. I have to be honest and tell you that today was a tough slog. When I saw Sue with Sophie and Annabelle coming out to meet me, I was really happy. Sophie is trying to decide if it's me, and she should run to greet me, or if it's someone scary to bark at.

I wore the snowshoes part of the day but not all. Some of the route was on little/not used forest roads, and the snow wasn't really deep enough there to need them, but it was heavy enough to drag. I have to say that I'm fine with this hike being a challenge, but if it turns into a constant death march, I'm not sure I'm up for that. We'll see.

This evening, we were taken out to dinner by members of the Marquette Area Chapter of the NCTA. I had a really nice salad which was a welcome selection.

Miles today: 9.9. Total miles so far: 4131.2.

See Marquette with Cathy

Marquette with Cathy - Day 357

  Cathy walked with me for about 8 miles today through Marquette. Then Doug picked her up and they continued on their trip to visit family.

This section is urban trail, but that does not mean ugly. Here are some highlights beginning with the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse.

In the summer, this area is all green grass in a park. The tower is a memorial to firemen. Notice the fire bell.

Of course, Marquette was a really important harbor on the Great Lakes during iron mining days. This is the old ore dock. You can also see it behind the tower in the picture above. The very top level was a railroad line. A bridge over where we are standing allowed ore trains to run out on to the top. Boats would pull to the sides of the dock and the ore would run down the lowered chutes into the ships.

Here's another important piece of the iron equation. Charcoal was made in this kiln. It was filled with hardwood and then controlled to burn slowly for days until it all turned to charcoal. The charcoal was taken to blast furnaces for use in making iron.

A long portion of the trail has been designated as the Iron Ore Heritage trail. Decorative mileage markers and many interpretive signs line the way.

After Cathy left, I continued walking on past town. I got to the next section of woods trail and passed Levasseur Lake. It's picturesque, dotted with islands.

Miles today: 15.4. Total miles so far: 4121.3 and I may have under 700 to go.

See Miles, Milestones, Musings

Miles, Milestones, Musings - Day 356

  For starters, Brad from the Marquette Area Chapter hiked with me today. Brad does a lot of trail maintenance, and he's a chapter officer, and he's on the NCTA Board of Directors.

We started in the woods, but soon joined a road for about 3/4 of a mile. I just have to show you this. Some road! Even a truck turned around at this mud puddle.

This pretty waterfall in the woods doesn't even have a name. It's hard to visualize the scale, but it's probably 30 feet high.

We had to cross a lot of small creeks that were larger than Brad expected, but we managed to get across them all without getting any wet feet. This one is the West Branch of the Laughing Whitefish River, and it's marked on the map as a ford. I was a little concerned about that one. Ha! Turned out it was not any more difficult than the creeks.

We did not take the side trail to Laughing Whitefish Falls. It would have added 2 miles to what was already becoming a tough day. It's a beautiful falls, but I'll have to pass on it for this trip. But then the trail goes down the steep-sided valley of the Laughing Whitefish River. It's so steep there are stairs. The river itself isn't super wide, but the DNR is planning to put in a new bridge soon because the approach is getting badly flooded. But we also got through that with dry feet.

As we started up the steps on the other side, Brad said, "I came through here a couple of weeks ago and cleared all the fallen leaves off the steps for you." Um, thanks. We had a good laugh and then stomped through the snow.

One of the most interesting parts of the afternoon was that we followed this meandering cliff for over half a mile. I don't know the actual geology of it, but when I looked at the map, I was surprised to discover that this is part of the south side of the Silver Creek valley. This is the same cliff on which the famous Eben Ice Caves form.

One of the things about this that seemed almost shocking to me is that this is beginning to feel like I'm almost to the eastern UP. Don't get too excited though. I've skipped almost 140 miles in the western UP because of the snow. It does look like the next couple of weeks might give me a break in the weather, but it's going to be difficult to decide what to try to do.

One of the sections I've skipped is the Trap Hills, and they are the most serious bit of topography I have left to hike.

For one thing, there is now probably no way I can complete the whole trail in one continuous hike. The road I need in Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park is usually closed to cars and becomes a snowmobile trail on December 1. They have already made that closure for this year. Also, Pictured rocks closed all their roads and campsites as of this morning. So, I have to decide if I should just keep hiking east and come back to do all those miles in the western UP in the spring or if I should try to keep filling in pieces.

Meanwhile, near that unnamed waterfall, I passed 4100 miles. I'm going to name it the 4100 Falls!

Today was quite difficult. The snow was deeper than either Brad or I anticipated. We took turns breaking trail. At least no one got wet feet. I earned my dinner (see below) today!

Finally, this evening, we met up with Cathy and Doug (yes, Cathy and Doug from home, Cathy who helped me prepare for this hike, Cathy who hiked with me on day one)! They took us out to dinner, and Cathy is going to hike with me tomorrow. What fun! I had portabello mushroom ravioli in Alfredo sauce, and cherry crisp for dessert.

Miles today: 9.5. Total miles so far: 4105.9. 4100!

Mangum Road to Rumley Road parking, Michigan UP

See High on the Hog

High on the Hog - Day 355

  The big goal of the day was Hogback Mountain. This is the most difficult hike in the immediate Marquette area.

It was past sunrise when I started hiking down on the shore of Lake Superior, but the sun was still low enough to give Presque Isle Park a nice glow.

The angled sunight as snow fell off the trees made everything look misty.

There's my goal! It's really not that high, but can you tell there's a big valley to cross before I get there?

Not so high, but very rocky, and all the rocks were hidden under the snow. The main trail doesn't go right over the top. That was fine with me today since the last part is a steep scramble over bare rock. However, I did go all the way to the top in 2017. It's really a great view.



Sue met me for lunch at a ski area trailhead, and then I dropped down to the Dead River. How did a beautiful river get such a morbid name? That information is probably lost in the mists of time. The early Ojibway name translates roughly as "by the Peninsula for Road to the Land of the Dead." The French translated that to River of the Dead (Riviere des Morts). That has now become Dead River.

There were lots of wildlife tracks today. It was cold again, but with the sun, I guess the critters came out. Deer, rabbit and mouse tracks were abundant. These mallards aren't anything special, but it was nice to actually see something moving about.

Just a little farther, and I was back on the shores of Lake Superior looking at the Marquette lighthouse.

Marquette area has lots of recreational trails and people have been using them all weekend. Skiers, fat-tire bicyclists, walkers, joggers, dog-walkers, etc. Every single piece of trail I was on today had been walked since the recent snow by at least one other person. Some sections had been heavily used.

The sun was most welcome!

Sue said we better have ham or pork for dinner to celebrate crossing Hogback. So we had split pea soup with extra ham, and she also got some cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster. Dinner felt high on the hog even though we ate it in the trailer rather than on top of the mountain.

Miles today: 10.1. Total miles so far: 4096.4.

See Push the Reset Button

Push the Reset Button - Day 354

  I just have to face it... I won't be done with this trail until the end of January. But I don't have to think about that today.

What I did have to think about today was:

1. Reset the location- Moving the trailer. We did that, and want to say a big thank you to Terry and Sue for letting us stay there for the past week. It turned out that we have a mutual friend and quite a few things in common in addition to that. They were awesome hosts.

2. Reset the schedule- I spent most of the day trying to work out an alternate plan that will allow me to complete the western UP miles with a minimum of backpacking. I have no idea what iteration this is for some of the locations, but it's feeling crazy.

3. Reset a computer- David S. has given me a "new" to me computer, because mine is nearly dead. Setting up a new computer in the best of circumstances is insane. This is not the best of circumstances, except that the old computer is still functional, so I can use it for help and to get things done while I work on the new one. So far, I have one browser and my Google account synced. It's a start.

4. Reset my brain- A subset of #2. I've resisted Windows 10 as along a possible, because I LIKE Windows 7. Also because I don't want to buy upgrades for a lot of my software. But at long last, I really have to do these things. But the biggest problem today was that I don't even know how to do the basics with a Win10 touchpad. I now can drag and drop, right click, and scroll, but... sheesh. How to feel like an idiot in one easy lesson.

5. Reset the weather- The upcoming week is actually looking pretty decent for this area. I will be back on the trail tomorrow. Today was brutally cold. There was supposed to be a lot of snow and high winds. Not so much. Still- a good day to reset and not hike.

I know this is a lot of non-hiking info in the middle of a hike. But these things have to happen for me to reach my goals of completing and sharing this trip.

See Sturgeon River, Briefly