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  1. #1
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    Hot Days and Cold Nights on NCT in Hiawatha National Forest (Pic Heavy)

    I just got back from an abbreviated trek along the North Country Trail in the Hiawatha National Forest.

    Saturday afternoon, May 2, my beautiful wife drives my son and I north across the mighty Mackinac Bridge and west along US 2 to the trailhead on Brevort Lake Road.
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    We are amped up and raring to hit the trail! In our excitement, I head off in the wrong direction for a tenth of a mile before realizing my mistake. Turned to the right direction, we cross the road and soon cross a footbridge over the Brevort River. Being so close to Lake Michigan, the hike starts out cool, but our fast pace and retreat away from the lake soon has us sweating. The late start and plans to camp next to water sources has us only hiking 3 miles to the southern shore of Brevort lake to a popular campsite (Dam road ends at the lake). I’m blessed with seeing an eagle and although Bald Eagles are quite common in Michigan, I never tire of watching them. We set up camp and I meander around the area exploring, finding a nice section of the Brevort River at the bottom of a large sand dune.
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    I deemed conditions to be safe enough for a small fire (our only one on the trip) and allow my son to build one.
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    My tarp set in porch mode, allowing me a tree obscured view of the lake.
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    I turn in soon after dark, listening to geese squawking and honking across the lake. It’s fairly quiet otherwise, even though there are houses on the other side of the lake and in season, probably quite a bit of boating activity. I have to strain to hear highway noise from US 2 a few miles to our south.

    I wake just before dawn, to witness the sun rise over the lake while I boil water for coffee; magical.
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    Teenagers love to sleep and I have to wake my son. We decide on pop tarts for breakfast and are on the trail by 9. The trail borders Brevort Lake as we wind our way northwest over small hills in piney woods. A few patches of ice are still secreted away in nooks and crannies of dark spots. After the first four miles, we take a break and experience our first tick encounters. The ticks would find their way onto our bodies and gear for the rest of the trip and required vigilance on our part. At 4.3 miles, the trail crosses a main road and climbs a tall hill that almost affords a view of Lake Michigan (not quite) before swinging back around to the road for a short section of road hike… I know the trail builders wanted us to have the grand experience, but it was a cruel climb to put us back on the road we had just crossed.

    After crossing a small river, the road walk section ends and the trail heads northeast for a two mile hike to Worth rd crossing. We stop to filter water on Silver Creek; the water is discolored with tannin, but tastes fine. The footbridge is well built and all the rivers and creeks we crossed on our journey had wonderful, well built bridges. Just north of Silver Creek the trail crosses a two track and although there’s signage prohibiting wheel vehicles, some inconsiderate person decided to ignore the law and ran a quad along the narrow trail, chewing it up in the process and making the trek harder. This section is raised on what I assume to be an old rail track with wetland on either side. It’s narrow and lots of effort was made to route water beneath the trail with 4 inch pvc drain pipes, which the quad damaged along with several small pine trees. I’m sickened by the sight; the UP has thousands of miles of two tracks and forest roads which ORV enthusiasts can use. Why a few inconsiderate individuals decided to trash the one place they’re not allowed baffles and saddens me. We followed the damaged trail to Burma rd. crossed and were soon at the footbridge crossing the Carp River, were we made camp.
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    I knew rain was forecasted and it was great that it waited until we went to bed before rolling in. I listened to the thunderstorm approach while resting in my hammock and being so tired hardly noticed the lightning as the rain on my tarp lulled me into a deep sleep.
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    I slept so well, that even though the rain had long since passed before dawn, I lingered in my hammock until 8. We were slow to gather our gear eventually packing up my wet tarp and my son’s wet tent not getting on the trail until noon. It was a mistake, because the weather was hot and tired us. We stopped for lunch on another bridge, this one crossing Taylor creek and enjoyed a cooling breeze as we ate our peanut butter and pepperoni burritos and drank our tannin colored Kool Aid.
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    It was after 4 when we reached the north fork of the Carp River and decided to make camp. There was a nice open section with ample sun and warm wind to dry our gear out. We filtered more water and made dinner. The problem was location; my son didn’t feel comfortable with the distance we would have separating the one suitable place he could set up his tent and the area I found to string my hammock between two cedar trees…it also would have broken the 100 ft from water rule imposed by National Forest camping laws.

    After we ate dinner and cooled down, we gained a second wind. Knowing we wouldn’t have enough daylight to reach our original goal of Guard Lake, we decided to load extra water and at least reach north of Kenneth rd. The trail climbed and we were soon hiking over rocky outcrops that reminded me of Isle Royale. It was awesome!
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    Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: land of tough, rock-eating trees.
    By the time we reached Kenneth rd, we had roughly an hour of daylight left and we rushed on to cover as much ground as possible. Sunset found us just shy of East Lake rd. we were on a plateau overlooking East Lake in hardwoods. The trees were tall and widely spaced –a great summer canopy, I’m sure—and there was little undergrowth. The ground was lushly filled with Trilliums not yet in bloom and other fragrant greens that I don’t know the name of. We found a flat spot for my son’s tent and I strung my hammock nearby, hanging our bear bag just as the light faded. I lingered in my hammock listening to Loon song and marveled as the full moon rose and filled the forest with light; another magical moment.
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    The next morning, we hiked another mile of trail to reach East Lake rd. Here is where our adventure took a turn and changed shape. My son’s appetite was greater than I had anticipated and I didn’t think we’d have enough food to see us through, even though our food weight was still great. I decided to road hike East Lake Road to H 40 and try to catch a ride to Trout Lake for resupply. The day was hot and the road was hard on our feet. We didn’t catch a ride right away. I have never before actively hitch-hiked before, and here I was trying it for the first time with my teenage son. Several cars went by. I was getting low on water and we were getting quite discouraged. Hedging my bets, I resorted to collecting marsh water from the side of the road…I really didn’t want to drink this stuff mainly because I was on the side of a road with all the pollutants running off the asphalt into this water source, but carried a quart of it in my dirty water bag just in case.

    I changed techniques, crossing the road and walked facing traffic. It worked. The second car that passed put the binders on when she passed us and backed up to meet us. Thank god. A sweet savior popped her trunk for us to put our packs in and drove us the rest of the way to Trout Lake where I spent way too much money on meager supplies.

    Rehydrated and refreshed –sort of—we continued our road walk to meet back up with the NCT where it crossed Lone Pine road. The first four miles was highway (m123) and the last four were forest road, which didn’t prove much easier to walk on. We reached the trail at the Pine River just before sunset, exhausted beyond belief and doing a lousy job of hanging a bear bag…luckily no hungry bears ventured into camp. We had hiked 16 miles (at least) with all but a mile of it on the road. Our feet were torn up, bruised and blistered. The next day would be a zero day.

    I got cold during the night and decided to get up at 6:45 figuring I would nap later when it was warmer out. It’s a good thing I did; the temp was plummeting, my thermometer registered 31 degrees and my water filter was still hooked up to the dirty water bladder. Luckily, there was still water in the system and it hadn’t froze, but I did notice frost on my bear bag hanging a lowly 10 feet off the ground suspended on a dead pine branch (the whole tree was dead).
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    Our camp on the Pine River was a strange thing: first, it was located along a dead end stretch of road popular with fishermen; dozens of trucks drove past with none of them staying long…except for the guy who woke me as he drove past my hammock at 1:30 in the morning; he stayed until 8, leaving just before the DNR officer visited and questioned me (it was a friendly enough visit—thankfully I was in the National Forest and not state land since I neglected to carry required permits for dispersed camping on state land). There was good cause for this as there was a nice gravel bed in the river where I saw several nice sized Rainbow Trout; not sure if it was on a restricted river or not and didn’t much matter to me since I wasn’t fishing. The other thing is this campsite, which was well established was right on the NCT breaking the 100 ft. rule again…but I think it’s better to camp on already trodden ground than to impact upon virgin land. And it is clearly marked on the map I purchased from the NCTA.IMG_2150.jpg
    The bag in this picture isn’t where I actually hung the bag during the night; this was just to keep the little thieves from pillaging our goods during the day.

    My boy slept the whole morning away, coming out of his tent only briefly for food and water before going back to sleep. I farted around with camp chores and tending to my sore feet and treating the numerous blisters. The black flies were out, but not in large numbers yet; annoying, but not overwhelming. I got back in the hammock for a nice nap around noon letting the gusty winds rock me to sleep.

    Two hours later my son woke me, complaining about the black flies. I figured he was being dramatic but got up anyways to find they had increased in numbers and tenacity. Being that we were both really sore with swollen feet, the prospect of continuing our hike in pain and fighting black flies along with the nasty ticks sucked the fun factor down to zero. I called my wife, texted our coordinates and waited the two hours for our bail out.

    It was a fun adventure, but you have to know when to throw in the towel. I’ll get back to the rest of the trail after the bugs die down some.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
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    Nice report Don. That part of the NCT in the UP sure is pretty! Good for you on bailing out...been there, done that before a few years ago with my 13 year old daughter at Pictured Rocks after being eaten alive by the mosquitos. It's always better to be safe, than sorry.

    Hope to see you on the trail!

  3. #3
    Senior Member OneClick's Avatar
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    Nice Don! I didn't see any bugs around Alpena last weekend, at least not the biting type, but it's definitely time I shut it down until late September. But I'm a bug magnet. It's heating up FAST.

    I love a full moon at night in the woods!

  4. #4
    Senior Member Jcavenagh's Avatar
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    Nice report. I agree that bailout was a good idea. I hike for fun and I guess most folks do, too. If its not fun anymore, then the experience is tarnished.
    The road to success is always under construction.
    http://hikingillinois.blogspot.com/

  5. #5
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by markr6 View Post
    Nice Don! I didn't see any bugs around Alpena last weekend, at least not the biting type, but it's definitely time I shut it down until late September. But I'm a bug magnet. It's heating up FAST.

    I love a full moon at night in the woods!
    Yeah, the first night we were close enough to Lake Michigan I didn't have to setup my bug net. And even the second night I wasn't going to until I thought about the ticks and heard a few mosquitoes buzz my ear. Third and final night it wasn't even an option to go without.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jcavenagh View Post
    Nice report. I agree that bailout was a good idea. I hike for fun and I guess most folks do, too. If its not fun anymore, then the experience is tarnished.
    Yep, no sense in being out on the trail if you're not having fun. :-)

  7. #7
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by michigandave View Post
    Nice report Don. That part of the NCT in the UP sure is pretty! Good for you on bailing out...been there, done that before a few years ago with my 13 year old daughter at Pictured Rocks after being eaten alive by the mosquitos. It's always better to be safe, than sorry.

    Hope to see you on the trail!
    Dave, it exceeded my expectations...after Pictured Rocks and Isle Royale, I was thinking ghetto, but truly was fun and interesting.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    I compiled a movie with stills and video I shot with my iPhone...I have a lot to learn about shooting video.
    http://<iframe width="560" height="3...reen></iframe>

    https://youtu.be/VFWDVR8WRio

  9. #9
    Senior Member Dux's Avatar
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    Nifty trip report. Thanks!
    (insert pithy quote here)

  10. #10
    Senior Member Donk_67's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dux View Post
    Nifty trip report. Thanks!
    Thank you for reading/ watching. It was a good time.

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