Section Hikes of 2016: North Country Trail

Wednesday, September 21st:

Alex and I finished up with our lunch at the Dunes Saloon in Grand Marais, Michigan. We drove separately to the southern terminus of our section hike, a place called Trout Brook Pond. We left my car there at the trail head parking loop, then took his car to our starting point at Tahquamenon State Park. All of this took a few hours, and it was already early evening by the time we were situated.

Our goal for this evening would be a five mile hike along the Tahquamenon River between the upper falls and the lower falls. But the upper falls were pretty amazing, so we spent a couple hours there. Alex a.k.a. "Money Shot" set up his tripod and took tons of photographs and video for his documentary project. A group of Amish or Mennonite women were near us on the viewing platform, and one of them asked me how the cascading water got such a golden tan color. I told her that it was actually a river of beer, but she either did not understand my sarcasm or just was not amused with me, rebuking my explanation. So I told her a more believable story, that tannins from fallen conifer trees seep into the water and give it that nice tea color. This made much more sense to her.

A river of beer!

Alex told me this would be the best scenery along this entire 65-mile section. I was a bit disappointed to learn that our hike's apex came in the first quarter mile, and that between here and my car stood 64 and three quarters of a mile of nothingness.

In this, his latest nature documentary project, we talked about the best way to present it to the general public. When he uploaded his last project, "A Sense of Direction - A 1200 Mile Walk on the Pacific Northwest Trail," Alex noted that a lot of his YouTube viewers checked out after the first 15 or 20 minutes of the 75-minute video. So there's a new strategy this time; it will be released as a series, with each of his nine section hikes of the North Country Trail through Michigan's Upper Peninsula being released as a separate 10-minute (or so) episode. This section would be episode four, and I assured Alex that it would for sure get the most hits of any of the nine uploads, the Fitty Shrimp episode, with plenty of nudity and inappropriate commentary!

Our southward trek through the U.P., about 65 miles.

On these maps, we would complete sections G through N
(in reverse order). 

It's a great trail, maintained by Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore
Chapter of the North Country Trail Association.

When I first agreed to do this, my only stipulation was that there would be no night hiking. My vision isn't great at dusk and after dark, and I don't need another hiking injury. But by the time Alex finished filming, we had about one hour of daylight left and at least two hours of hiking to reach our destination. The miles along the river were muddy and very rooty. I don't think it would have been bad during daylight, but once it got too dark to push forward without the benefit of my headlamp, I discovered that my batteries were pretty much dead. Worse, Alex had moved on pretty far ahead of me. The last couple miles were through pitch black night with barely a dim ray of headlamp illumination to help me along, with the roar of the raging river nearby. It sucked.

At around 10:00 p.m., I finally reconnected with Alex at the Lower Falls area. There was an RV campground with quite a few long term denizens, but nothing that would suit our camping needs. So we pitched our tents next to a creek in a dark and swampy marsh on the least soggy plots of ground we could find there.

In the morning, we went back to the camp store for batteries and coffee. Alex got some footage of the lower falls before we hiked out.

Frothy head on a river of delicious beer!

He knows it, there is a certain knack to filming mushrooms.

We got hungry and started to look for a place to eat lunch. Nothing seemed right, so we kept going. We found a small stream with some lumber stacked next to it. We stopped there and started to prepare lunch. Soon, people showed up to use the lumber to build a bridge over that stream. They were a trail crew from the NCTA, including Ken Wawsczyk who is Regional Coordinator in charge of the entire Michigan section of the North Country Trail.

We ate while Ken and company began pounding away at the bridge project. They apologized for ruining our quiet lunch spot. I got an idea, that maybe Alex should interview them for his documentary, which he did. It went well, and they loved the idea of being featured in the upcoming episode.

Money Shot interviewed volunteers from the NCTA
and the Shore-to-Shore Chapter.

One of the crew volunteers gave us the inside scoop on some places to camp that night, once we reached the mouth of the Tahquemenon and Whitefish Bay. They also said they would be having dinner at the Silver Creek Pub on Hwy 123 if we made it that far and wanted to join them, but we knew it would be a bit too far.

This boat has seen better days. 

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
if they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
(from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - Gordon Lightfoot)

Well, we followed the directions to the secret stealth campsite where the sawmill town of Emerson is said to have thrived over a century ago. But what we found was a grass lane that turned to mush the closer we got to the lake. I cut my losses and backtracked, setting up camp at a dry spot on the lane. Alex explored further, hoping to reach the shoreline. But later, he too came back with mud to nearly his knees. He built a fire to chase away the ridiculous mosquitos while I went on a mission to get us some potable water from the RV campground across the highway, a mission that took more than an hour.

The next day, we walked four miles along Hwy 123 and arrived at the Silver Creek Pub where we each enjoyed a delicious fried fish platter. Much of the hiking that afternoon hugged Whitefish Bay before cutting south into the Hiawatha National Forest.

We made the mistake of not watering up before we left the bay, and we would pay for it later on. I just assumed there would be a water source someplace along the way where we could camp. There was none. Just before dark, we found a large grove of well organized fir trees where we set up camp. I had a nice juicy orange in my food bag, a trick I'd learned from previous waterless nights. I gave half of it to Alex, and that along with what little water we did have got us through the night, which by the way was very chilly.

Our last glance of Lake Superior and Whitefish Bay.

Seems like there should be water here, but no.

Camping in the fir farm.

We woke on a chilly Saturday morning and we figured we'd have to hike nearly ten more miles before we would find water. We arrived at the campground next to Soldier Lake in time for lunch and found a pump. The water had a very metallic after taste, but I didn't care, I quickly guzzled two liters, and Money Shot did the same. The caretaker at the camp assured us that the water is tested regularly and is fine to drink.

Soldier Lake, after more than 15 miles without water.

Late afternoon on the final day of our hike,

and we stumble upon by far the best campsite of the trip!

We completed our trip on Sunday afternoon and I was delighted to find my car right where I left it on Wednesday. We drove back up to Tahquamenon State Park for Alex's car. There is a brew pub there, and we had a nice meal to celebrate our accomplishment.

Chafing is a constant.
(photo by Money Shot)

From here, it would have made total sense to jump on I-75 and head back toward lower Michigan. But Alex thought I should go to Marquette and meet some of his friends who got to know me through clips he shared with them while making his PNT documentary. Now, Marquette is about three hours the other way, but I figured, what the hell.

After a couple of fun days in Marquette, eating a pasty for the first time (meat and potatoes inside a pastry crust), and hanging with some Yoopers (people of the U.P.), it was time to get out of Michigan. From here, it made more sense to go through Wisconsin, and I reached out to my friend Chris in Madison. We met Chris last year on the last day of our PNT hike along the Pacific Ocean, and he gave us a ride all the way to Seattle. This time, I hit him up for a couple nights sleeping on the floor of his college apartment at the U of Wisconsin campus, and toured Devils Lake and other popular sites in the area.

The Ice Age Trail passes by Devils Lake.

Leaving Madison, I decided to head south to Kentucky to visit my folks there. I stopped for the night to camp in Hoosier National Forest south of Bloomington, Indiana. I pitched my tent under a picnic shelter because of the threat of overnight storms, a very good decision, as it turned out.

I got an early start and stopped to visit with my brother south of Louisville, then over to Danville to spend a few days with my folks before heading back to Maryland to tend to my property.

Lodging for this segment:
Tent camping: 5 nights (free)
Mooching off friends: 4 nights (sponsored a couple meals)

Here's the episode from Alex's channel; it's pretty funny actually. Check out all nine episodes and be sure to subscribe to his channel since he is super talented and will probably be famous one day!