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!
 | See High on the Hog |
4 comments:
9.5 miles in snow. That's a good workout. You need someone with a snowmobile to shuttle you to the trail segments!
Hi Dan- That would be helpful in a couple of places.
That's a lot of miles! Great images too
Mersad
Mersad Donko Photography
Lulu: "Hmm, this must be some new definition of 'road' that we are unfamiliar with."
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