Stuff! - Day 340

  I promised to show you what all I bought, so here we go. First of all, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who so generously helped me buy these items to make the hiking smoother.

I ended up getting a different brand of microspikes than I was considering. I bought Hillsound. They were the same price, and they have a size that is smaller.

But the real deciding factors for me were that someone closer to my weight said they grip better, and they have a strap that goes across the top of the boot. I haven't needed these yet, but I'm pretty sure I will. These are extra-small and they fit my boots perfectly.

I also got myself a little folding chair. I have a sort of chair that works with my backpacking equipment. It's a nylon shell that you stuff your sleeping pad into to make a chair. Not practical to use during the day. But I decided that I wanted some way to sit for breaks and lunch that wasn't on a wet log as we get into winter. A situpon helps, but sometimes you end up having to sit on the ground. David, the one who backpacked with me, has one of these. I got to try his and determined that it is comfortable for me.

It folds up and goes in a little stuff sack that fits in my daypack. I like it! Brand is Helinox.

I also want to really thank Bill and my last host Kevin. My trailer lights started to act up, and I really hate messing with electric stuff. I know, I know, I did all that re-wiring, but troubleshooting problems is a total pain. Bill, however, considers this fun. "Have at it," I told him. The problem was that the ground had gotten corroded, so they fixed it right up, and now I don't have to wonder about how much of each drive is going to be illegal with no lights.

Today I actually rested most of the time. It felt GOOD. However, in the evening there was another Heritage Chapter event with an annual fall dinner for the work crew. I was invited. What a feast!

Bethany cooks all of this each year! Amazing volunteer. She's featuring the gingerbread cake for dessert. I'm going to need to hike this off. Tomorrow.

I told you a while ago that I also bought mittens. These aren't anything super fancy, except I did get talked into battery heated ones. You don't keep the power turned on all the time, but if your hands get chilled doing something, you can just turn them on for a while to get the fingers warmed up. I have a little trouble with that Raynauds syndrome, so I need to do a better job at keeping my hands warm this season.

Oh, did you notice another pair of warmers there with the mittens? "Where did they come from?' you ask. Well, Sue is back for another round with me. Can't beat that!

Tomorrow I'll be back on the trail. Taking the weather one day at a time.

See Moving and More

Moving and More - Day 339

  I've hiked 19 days in a row without a break. I'm feeling it. As it turned out, there wasn't a lot of rain today so I probably could have hiked, but anyway, I moved the trailer, did some hike planning, and then the Heritage Chapter of the NCTA had an evening party. If I had hiked also, it would have been a crazy-stressful day.

As it turned out, there were members of five chapters attending their little get-together. Here is one representative from each of those chapters. Left to right we have Bethany (Heritage), Carl (Ni-Miikanaake), Joan (Spirit of the Woods), Sue (Peter Wolfe), Bill (Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore). That seemed pretty cool for a small gathering.

There were also three members of the Next Generation Coalition there. I met some of them at the Celebration, so Tessa and Felicia were there, but the lady on the right, Lisa, I had not previously met.

Pizza was provided, and there was lots of fun chatting and laughing.

Now it's time to thank our last hosts, Ellie and Kevin of the Chequamegon Chapter.

Not only were they willing to have my trailer there, they offered Bill the same deal. It was pretty cool to be staying right next to Bill, and it made the place look as if we were in our own little trailer park. They insisted on feeding us (life it tough, right?), and one evening some other trail friends came and brought food. This is also where the bonfire was. Lots of socializing for me!

I am also taking tomorrow off. It's supposed to rain quite a lot. Even if it doesn't, I'm going to concentrate on resting. But the sad news about tomorrow is that Bill has to leave.

Everyone is worried about how I'm going to get through the UP. All I can do is make tentative plans and take one day at a time. Right now, the upcoming week looks pretty good for November. Telling me about storms that aren't where I am and fussing for me are pointless.

Tomorrow, I'll show you what I purchased with the gift money I was generously given when I asked for help to buy winter spikes.

See Michigan!

Michigan! - Day 338

  It was a beautiful day...

... to walk to Michigan! This was on the road crossing sign at the end of the day yesterday.

Today was all road walk, although several miles were soft surfaced woods roads. But this allowed us to hike really fast. At our second break stop there was a bar/restaurant. We stopped and celebrated with cold drinks and a bag of Combos. Pretty basic celebration, but it made me exceptionally happy. Hey- when a cold drink tastes good in November, it's a winner, right?

Just a few more miles and we got a glimpse of Lake Superior. Haven't seen Gitchee-Gumee since Minnesota.

Here it is! What a perfect day to see the "shining big-sea waters."

Only two more miles. Nuts. Michigan didn't have a welcome sign on this road. But Wisconsin did. Bill has now completed all the Wisconsin NCT miles, his first NCT state he can cross off (although he's really close on Michigan and Ohio, but those are the two biggest mileage states). He had walked the western half previously. We've been together for the eastern half of the state.

This was hilarious. Right below the sign someone had discarded a pair of hiking boots. Or perhaps Bill had a ghost walker shadowing him all the way.

Just a few more steps and we reached the middle of the bridge over the Montreal River, the border between Michigan and Wisconsin.

Bonus Section: the westernmost point in Michigan

Bill then took me down to a park where you can get to the westernmost point in Michigan. It's not on the trail, but it was so close he said we had to see it. That point of land that sticks into the water from the right side of the picture is it. This is at the mouth of the Montreal River.

And here I am with Wisconsin behind me. I guess that's appropriate!

Miles today: 16.9. Total miles so far: 3962.3.

See It's All New to Me

It's All New to Me - Day 337

  Today's hiking was 100 % off road, and 100 % new since I was last here. In fact, about 3 miles near the beginning are so new that they aren't really open yet. However, we were given good maps and advance info. The big challenge of the section, and of the day, was that we had to wade Tyler Forks. Yes, this is the smaller river from yesterday with all the waterfalls and fast water. Here, it is barely moving, but it was a little deeper than might be comfortable. Bill went across first.

I'm shorter, but we both made it safely across. The DNR is going to build a bridge here, but they won't start until next year.

We were constantly amazed at the outcrops of rocks. I just don't remember this about Wisconsin. And I couldn't find out much about their composition in a fast search. For now, I'll just say they were impressive. And big... we climbed over 300 feet up one pile called Porcupine Hill.

At the top were the remains of a very old fire tower. Much older than the forest service ones. In fact, I've never seen tower foundations of cribs filled with rocks. And it only had 3 legs. One volunteer said that the county thinks it is from about 1900.

Speaking of volunteers, we ran into Joe and Bethany, out doing trail work.

This huge bridge over Tyler Forks, was built with donations in memory of Bethany's husband. This is a truly impressive structure.

We've now moved very far upstream on Tyler Forks. Remember, it joined the Bad River at Brownstone Falls. But that doesn't mean it's a boring little creek. Nope. It's got rocks and flow enough to create Wren Falls.

One really interesting fact is that there have been efforts from time to time to mine gold in Wisconsin. This is the remains of the Maxim Mine which operated from 1903- 1910. There was an attempt to mine gold and copper, but it was never economically viable.

The shell of a steam drill was abandoned. We also found what was probably the well.

The afternoon was hillier than we expected, but we just kept walking. Things leveled out along the Potato River.

In other fun news, we watched a northern harrier hunting, found a tunnel in one of the rock piles that you could crawl through, and speculated a lot about the rocks.

Miles today: 14.9. Total miles so far: 3945.4.

See Bad River

Bad River - Day 336

  Today was defined by the Bad River. No, it hasn't been naughty, that's just its name. It's located entirely in Ashland County, although it drains parts of Bayfield and Iron Counties. For a relatively short river, it gets around.

Our first encounter with it is in the City of Mellen where a city trail parallels it. At that point it's a calm stream.

Mellen is a trail town. In fact, Mellen was a trail town before there were NCTA Trail Towns. Because the Chequamegon National Forest was the first to build North Country Trail (quite a while before the trail was even authorized), Mellen got involved too and the NCT has followed their city hike/bike trail forever. This is Mellen City Hall, a distinctive building.

This tiny and adorable historic State Bank building has been on the trail forever. A picture of it appears in the earliest book about the trail, written by Wes Boyd.

I could be mistaken, but when we were here before, I don't think the city trail went all the way to Copper Falls State Park. Now it does. And that's where the river gets interesting! The fault line for the Mid-Continental Rift runs through the park. The Bad River follows one of the fissures of the fault line.

Let me try to explain this picture. The Bad River runs from the bottom to the top of the picture. The river coming in from the right is Tyler Forks. It is falling into the Bad River at Brownstone Falls.

Here's a closeup of Brownstone Falls. There are a couple of things to note here. First of all, the red rocks. These are red sandstone- that sedimentary layer I've been talking about for days that the glacier scraped away. But here the rift fault split the rocks apart. Remember the Mellen bank building. Red sandstone, also called Brownstone. Yes, this is the building material so many city buildings were made of around 1900. But it didn't all come from here. The black volcanic rocks are still down at the bottom of the river channel.

The second thing to notice is the U-shaped channel left of the falls, and just left of the center of the picture. (with the big light spot in it) This was the original channel of the falls, but as the waterfall eroded upstream it encountered softer rock where it now flows. It changed course! Sometimes it will still overflow into that other channel. I think it was doing that when I was here before, but those pictures are not digital- thus not with me- so I can't check.

This view requires that you rotate the picture of the junction above to the right by a third. We are now standing above Brownstone Falls looking down on the top of it, and looking upstream along the Bad River (the channel that goes off the bottom of the upper picture).

The first thing to notice is how straight the Bad River is. That's where it runs in one of the fissures of the rift.

Now look back upstream on Tyler Forks. There are lots of beautiful falls along that river as well.

North, downstream of all this mad rushing, the trail continues through the park. A lot of this trail was new since I was here last time. There are also quite a few other geologic things to see in this park, but they aren't all on the trail, and we didn't have time to visit them all. But if you are a geology buff, this is a very cool place.

The trail mostly stays at the very top of the sedimentary layers. There were a few places where you could see down to the depths. Here the river is placid again because the valley widens out. Just a couple miles before the end of the day, we finally bid farewell to the Bad River.

It flows to Lake Superior, and the wetlands where it enters the lake are a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. They are called the Bad River Sloughs. I'd like to see those some day.

Miles today: 16.1. Total miles so far: 3930.5

See Chequamegon East