Ravi. Not dead.

In early June, Tom, Ravi, Tammy and I found ourselves in Madison's REI. Ravi and Tammy supposedly came along for the fun of it, but I kind of think there was more to it than that. No sooner did Tom and I turn around than Tammy had Ravi talked into a new backpack! Well, that was no good by itself, so I of course had to make sure he had backpacking-worthy shoes to go with it. And there we were. Ravi all dressed up and no where to backpack. So this past weekend Jeremiah, Jody, Ana, Tom and I put our personal preferences for comfort and air conditioning aside to head to one of our favorite backpacking locations, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in northern Michigan. I know, heroic and self-sacrificing, right?

Car stuck "in a doughnut area"

I'm pretty sure we had him nervous right from the start. We were supposed to meet Ana at our camp site Thurs night, and somehow ended up in a town on the wrong side of Munising, wandering around darkened streets filled with Christmas shops and north pole-themed street names. For real. Once we made it back to the other of Munising, we found ourselves driving around an ATV track in the middle of the night in the midst of a group of long-abandoned camp sites. They looked close enough to the real deal but Jeremiah, who was driving (and whose car we were beating on dirt trails), really didn't think an ATV track was compatible with campground sites. Finally, he peered ahead, motioned, and exclaimed to us all, "you guys! This is a doughnut area!" K, maybe you had to be there. But "This is a doughnut area!" became our rallying cry for the rest of the weekend. Ravi suggested calling Ana and asking her to set off a flare so we could find her in the dark, right about the time Jeremiah's car got stuck in the sand. We all got out and he was eventually able to drive forward and we made it to our site, no flares required. I'm guessing Ravi was by this point becoming pretty dang apprehensive about our ability to navigate the wilderness on foot when we clearly had so much trouble with wheels and not one, but TWO functioning GPS devices on board.

Jody, Jeremiah, Ravi, Tom, me, Ana

Friday we got trail passes, had a lovely breakfast in Munising, and repaired a tent (yes, the "boy" tent. The girl tent was fine. I'm sure Ravi wasn't worried at all about the tent ripping open in the middle of a thunderstorm.) while Ana and Jeremiah dropped a car ahead on the trail. And then we were off! And it was simply beautiful. Tom and I were the only ones who had been there before - and the last time had been quite a bit more foggy. So it really was just fabulous to be there and on the trail. Check out the pictures if you don't believe me! Jody and Ana kept us amused with stories on the trail, Ravi told us stories of a previous camping trip gone wrong, and Jeremiah alternated between making insightful comments and wishing Christy (his fiancee) was there with us.

By the end of the day, it became clear that things were going just a little too well. Since Ravi didn't show any particular signs of impending injury, and since something dramatic needed to happen at some point, Tom decided to take the fall for us all. Literally. We had decided to hang out/cook supper on the stone slab shore and as Tom waded out with his cool camera for a good sunset shot, he slipped and fell. His goal of keeping the camera dry was met, for the most part. However, he sacrificed his elbow in the process. Ravi took a look, saw bone, and referred it to the rest of us. Thankfully, Jody's had some training in backcountry first aid, so with Ravi and Ana running back to the camp site for first aid stuff and the rest of us helping however we could, we got him patched up well enough to stop the bleeding. For the rest of the trip, he tried with varying levels of success to keep it dry, clean, elevated, and from getting bumped. He ended up going to the doctor on Monday where they immediately gave him a tetanus shot and put him on antibiotics. And there - we hope - that part of the story ends. :( Because I'm his girlfriend and I'm writing this :) I get the prerogative to say that I was impressed with how little he complained - between that and several other injuries, he really had grounds for it!

move along, move along... nothign to see here!

Indian Pipe!

Saturday dawned as beautifully as Friday had. We had 10 miles to cover, which didn't seem like much at the outset (it never does), so we had a leisurely pancake breakfast and then set out. Have I mentioned that the Pictured Rocks are just incredibly beautiful? The pictures capture it to some extent, but Ravi and I talked about the fact that there just isn't a way to capture the stillness and the sound of water and the pulsing beauty of it all. At one point we were bumbling along the trail and I noticed something white. I paused to look closer and about fell over with excitement. I had found Indian Pipe, a rare flower that grows in the region but that I had yet to discover on my own. Indian Pipe is cool - it's truly a flower, not a fungus, but you wouldn't know it to look at it, since it doesn't have or use chlorophyl. Ravi's camera can take 3D pictures, and if the blogger technology supported it, I'd post it here. Even in 2D, it's still pretty stink in' cool, hey?!

While I was getting excited about wildflowers, Tom was developing new economic theories. He and Jeremiah hashed through possiblities of eliminating the public sale of stocks and turning all companies into consumer-driven cooperatives. Toward the end of the day's hike, Ravi had yet to be seriously fearful for his life, so it was time to take things up a notch. There's a great swimming hole along the path, where you can jump off the rock into the clear cold water. Never mind that Ravi can't swim: we all were jumping, so Ravi had to too! And he didn't die! We played around in the water and on the rocks for more than an hour, soaking up the sun and the beauty before heading back to the trail for the days last stretch.

Jody giving Ravi impromptu swimming lessons

We wound up the day near a more sandy beach (much easier on elbows). While a few evil stable flies did show up just to make sure we knew there were problems and troubles in the world, we really had a lovely evening. The sun set beautifully and we watched it sink into the water hugging our backpacking meals and just being glad to be alive.

Sunday morning started hot, and got warmer and muggier from there. Jody, Ana and Ravi were smart and started the morning in the water, but after a while even that didn't keep every one of us from getting sweaty and just a teensy bit miserable. Finally! A day for Ravi to give up on backpacking as a valid form of entertainment. Only it didn't work. Even after taking a wrong turn and fighting off bugs and dropping stuff and Ana dropping her pack to run back for it and leaving beautiful Lake Superior for woodland trail, Ravi was STILL smiling! It was a little eerie. I think we were all glad to finally reach the car and the beautiful air conditioning, but Ravi's final, parting comment was, "so, can we go next weekend too?"

still smiling!

Hmm - it's really tempting!

it’s never too late…

Angela: … to go backpacking this coming Memorial Day weekend! We’ve kicked around ideas here and there, but I think we’re going to aim for a Porcupine Mountains trip in UP Michigan. I know some of you already have conflicts (boo!), but for those who don’t – golly it will be fun!

Tammy: Yes.

Tony: the division 3 (ultimate frisbee) championships are in Appleton this weekend. I plan to go see that instead of the division 1 tournament. That opens me up for backpacking.

Andy: I think you know I’m in.

Jamie: awesome… out of my church commitments, so would be down. I would love to go – the porkies are awesome!

Patrick: enjoy the trip! and make sure you see some amazing rainbows (and avoid the stable flies!)

Ray: I’m pretty sure Becky and I are out, but our gear is up for grabs if anyone (even Jason) wants to borrow it.

Katie: As much as backpacking has always been my absolute favorite - I think at 37 weeks pregnant, the doc might frown on it :)

Tony: doctors don't know everything. We'll just bring a blanket we don't mind ruining. It'll be fine.

Angela: I'm pretty sure Becky AND Katie should go... like Tony said, we can always bring an old blanket. :)

Becky: Lol!  I think Katie and I would both also require a real mattress and at least 2-3 full sized pillows each.  I think we would need to bring a couple of pack mules on this trip! :)

Katie: Oh Becky, just wait... I'm up to 4 pillows now!! Two behind me (so I can sleep propped up), my body pillow, and one for my swollen feet!! :)
And the fact that it takes me half an hour to walk around the block - baby coming is probably the least of our worries!

Angela: Got that, Tony? 
2 mules, 6 pillows, 2 mattresses, and a route that allows "flexibility" in terms of distance traveled per day.

Katie: Don't forget scheduled potty breaks every 30 minutes! :)
Am I forgetting anything Becky?

Tony: Good news. So far, these all seem like reasonable requests.  I think we can make a deal.

Friday: since Andy and Tammy were both able to leave early on Friday, we dubbed them “Team Shady” and sent them on ahead to secure a camp site. They were able to do so without a hitch, and set up the girls’ tent at a nice, bug-free site to kick off the weekend. Team “YesIAmAwesome” (Tony, Jamie & Angela) left later on Friday and after a few near misses (almost left food the flatbread and the salmon quinoa in the freezer – eep!) arrived at Lake of the Clouds in the dark. Before heading to the camp site we took time to enjoy the view; in the moonlight you could see the water and trees and just be happy to be in the north woods.

Saturday morning we skipped breakfast to get a halfway decent start on the trail. This would have stood us in good stead had we not found new and exciting off-trail ways to reach our destination. We were never lost, precisely, though the trail definitely was for quite a while. The picture is of a log “bridge” we crossed – the point where we THINK we parted ways with the trail!

It was on this part of the excursion that Jamie found a leg bone of some animal and thought it a humerus situation. Things started being less humorous toward the end of the day when we were getting tired, running low on water, and finding every potential site already taken. When we finally did find a site a mile from our original destination, Andy ripped off his shirt and did a happy dance. Unfortunately Tammy was the only one there to witness it, so we can only take her word for the awesomeness. The rest of us probably would have done happy dances too, but we were too tired to do much but focus on food and camp setup.

Tony still managed to plunge into Lake Superior. It was cold! So the rest of us didn’t get much more than our toes in. Jamie and I had found some leeks growing along the path, so it was fun to fry those up and try ‘em out. We ended up out on the Lake Superior shore, cooking dinner and watching the sunset, and just enjoying the waves and the beauty.

Sunday morning we got a bit of a slow start (but at least no skipping breakfast!!). Once we were on the trail we were able to make great time. Even with stops for wildflower identification and pauses for beautiful rocks on the shore, we made it to our next camp site by late afternoon. We ended up at the same site that the group had camped at five years earlier – where we first encountered the notorious stable flies! Thankfully not a single one showed up for our entire time on the shore. It’s a lovely site and it was great to have leisurely camp setup. I found time to hop into the water and get my Lake Superior fix for the weekend, Tony, Andy and Jamie got a lovely fire blazing, Andy and Tammy worked on getting us all drinkable water, and we all just enjoyed being comfortable on these stone slab chairs that had been set up at the site.

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We had heard that it might rain, so we decided to set up the tents before cooking dinner. Good thinking, that! All five of us ended up crammed in the girls’ tent, devouring Andy’s family’s beef burgundy recipe (amazing!), and listening to the rain pound the tent walls. The rain cleared up right before sunset, though, so we were able to emerge and hit the beach just in time to watch the sun sink beneath the waves.

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We headed back to the tent for some card playing and an ad hoc game of “Would you Rather” (“Would you rather be the most beautiful person in the world, or have gills?”) before calling it a night.

After the boys left, it is my sad duty to report that a small, innocent spider caused a ridiculous amount of furor (might have been less had the thing had the decency to die once it had been squished!) in the girls’ tent before its body was callously dropped outside the tent.

It ended up raining pretty hard for much of the night, but both tents stayed warm and dry enough to ensure no crabbiness that a warm cup of coffee the next morning couldn’t cure. Blueberry pancakes didn’t hurt either!  The lake was gorgeous after the rain, and only reluctantly did we find ourselves back on the trail walking away from it all. After a stop at Henry’s Never Inn for an authentic Yooper lunch of burgers, fish & pasties, the two teams made a successful run back to the Fox Valley.

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Things Lost

I’m guessing we generally lose a thing or two on any trip, but on this one for some reason we really racked ‘em up. If you run across any of our long-lost things – well, you know where to find us!

• Saturday we lost the trail for 2-3 hours. We stuck close to the Big Carp River, but the trail went far afield before returning to the river, and to us. Devious!
• Saturday night, Jamie lost her head lamp. We looked all over the tent, only to have her find it the next morning. It was under her sleeping pad. Of course!
• Sunday morning our nearly empty camp garbage bag disappeared. It had been in the bear bag the night before, but we looked through everything and never found it. Strange!
• Tony lost two new shiny carabiners at that same site – maybe a crow found the site while we were down by the Lake? Odd!
• Sunday night Tammy (who has the same headlamp as Jamie, and presumably didn’t want to be outdone) lost her headlamp. It too was found later, but the pattern raised some questions. Suspicious!
• Monday night, Jamie, Tony and I set up the tents at Tony’s place so they could be hosed off and dried thoroughly. By the next morning, the tent stuff sack had completely disappeared and has yet to resurface. Dang!

Things Found

OK, so we FOUND a bunch of things too! Michigan really put on a wildflower show for us. In spite of counting ounces on most things I lug along on the trail, this is the second trip for which I brought a flower identification book – and was so glad I did! Here are the most exciting finds (and notice, please, that they are listed at the end and so can be skipped by the uninterested!):

	Swamp Buttercup (which I had mistakenly been calling a Marsh Marigold! Good catch, Jamie!)
	Canada Anemone – This is one I was really excited to see as I hadn’t identified one before!
	Canada Mayflower/Wild Lily-of-the-Valley These were everywhere: tiny, delicate, beautiful.
	Everlasting pea? Or some other kind of pea? We weren’t sure, but saw quite a few of these – and assuming the purple and white are just variations of the same plant??
	Columbine – and a bunch of swamp buttercups. We saw lots of columbine our hike out.
	Starflower! These were everywhere, and beautiful, and I love this picture Jamie got of this one
	False Soloman’s Seal – ok, all this “false” nonsense kinda throws me – it’s still beautiful and exciting to find and identify! :)
	Thimbleberry – These were big and everywhere. We stumbled across the fruit on our last day at Lake Superior Provincial Park and gorged on the fruit – so it was fun to identify the flowers!
	Orange Hawkweed
	Pussytoes! This was one I found in the book, thought odd, but then recognized when we passed some on the trail heading out – crazy!

Also found – lots of bluebead lilies, wild strawberries, bunchberries, daisies & Canada hawkweed! Hooray!

not all who wander are lost

[Pictures of the weekend]

Labor Day Weekend. I've been looking forward to it for quite a while: six of us heading up to Canada's Lake Superior Provincial Park to bask in the solitude and camaraderie unique to backpacking. On this trip: me, Jeff, Tom, Tammy, Tony and Jamie.

The below is paraphrased from Tony's description of the trail to our friend Jason (he didn't know I was attempting to transcribe his words as spoke!). This is illegal in 11 states.

<Mostly Tony>It turns out that not all paths are created equal.
This thing is insane in that on the eastern shore of Lake Superior there is a lot of elevation change, and they try to maximize your awareness of it as much as possible. Sometimes they have you rock climbing. Sometimes they have you climbing rock rather than walking trail. So when you're climbing you may or may not be moving forward. You're expecting from your experience with Colorado’s Rockies, Pictured Rocks, and Isle Royale, that you’ll do 1-2 miles per hour and in a full day you’ll do 9-11 miles. And here it' s just not possible. So when the ranger says it takes 4-5 days to take your planned route, you say yeah, if you're grandmas! If the Ranger hadn’t been Canadian her message would have carried more weight.

So there was a plan as we drove up. Tom got nervous about the whole thing, Tony was all gung ho. We compromised. but it turns out that even from where Tom wanted to start we wouldn't have had a chance. We started out early the second day, hit it hard, had a late lunch, and decided that there was no way based on our progress that we would make it. The decision was made to do the trail we'd just done back to our car and take it from there. Which worked out ok, we did it. We went out in 1 1/2 days and back. got all 6 of us (including packs!) in a Toyota Corolla and drove to the finish line. We camped there, and did a 2-hour packs off on Monday morning.

Turned out to be a nice trip. We saw a lot of things twice. The first time we were kind of rushed: we didn't take time to swim when we saw nice spot. On the way back there were plenty of stops. We found a sandy beach at one point. At another place there were these rocks that you could kinda sorta jump off if you were careful. It was neat.

It was crazy walking on all kinds rocks. and rocks of the same size would all be together. So you'd go from a field of gravel to a field of boulders. The worst were these bigger-than-softball-but-smaller-than-volleyball ones that looked like dinosaur eggs. You’d step on them and they’d either hold or or they’d move and you twist your ankle. When they’d move you'd be standing between two and they’d smash your twisted ankles above your hiking boots.

Also, the Cookhouse was good. The End. </Mostly Tony>

Speaking of food… "civilized" people eat inside wayyyy too much! Most meals we ate away from our camp site, out on the rocks. Watching the water, the sunsets, and filling up on hot food after a full day of hiking… there’s really nothing like it.

Life becomes simpler – or at least more straightforward - when you’re picking up everything and going somewhere else each day. It’s a great test of group dynamics to work together to get everything done – the food cooked, the water pumped, the tents set up, the bear bag hung, the tents packed up, the bear bag taken down, more water pumped, more food cooked. I love it when everybody just does something and somehow it happens. And it doesn’t hurt that you’re doing it all in the most beautiful setting possible! It almost makes you forget how tired and aching your body is! Almost.

One of my favorite things about this part of the world is the cairns. There’s something completely enchanting about a trail that requires following rock stacks to know where you’re going. In the woods there were little blue guy signs, but on bare rock, cairns were such a simple, artistic way to navigate the elusive, winding trail.

Another thing that just can’t be beat is Lake Superior itself. The weather was unbelievably perfect all weekend, and the Lake – which I usually associate with crashing and beautiful waves – was as calm and mirror-like as I’ve ever seen it. It made for indescribable views of underwater rocks and sunsets.

<more from Tony> Also, we had McDonald’s. The End. </more> (for real this time).

30ish miles of goodness in the wilderness

With considerable re-shuffling, Tom, Nancy, Tony, Jeff, Ray, Becky and I were able to make the backpacking trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore this past weekend. It did NOT start propitiously. What is it with miserable starts to really cool things lately?!
* Tony had all sorts of issues with work, so ended up driving separately so he could come late (he arrived at our car-camping launch site at 4:00 AM), and leave early. He had to drive to/from work-related road trips in Rochester and Madison on both ends of the trip. We cooly and callously went to one of his favorite restaurants without him - and it was GREAT! Good ol' burgers and shakes, and for super-cheap! Mickey-Lu Bar-B-Q in Marinette - you must go there!
* Ray, Jeff and Nancy were good sports and volunteered to drive the 2 cars we'd need to the end point. But a 2-hour shuttle ended up taking 5 or 6 because of crazy road construction backtracking (strikes one and two against PRNL cartographers). Given the lack of cell phone coverage, you can imagine how agitated Tom (because he's Tom) and Becky (what with being married to Ray and all) were by the time the Three Musketeers rolled back into the camp site. Tony and I continued the cool and calloused theme: we tossed around his football pillow and took naps and generally waited to panic till we knew what actually happened.
* We decided that even with the late start we'd still be able to catch Grand Sable Dunes, and then hike from the bottom of them along the shore. This area is seriously one of the most fantastic spots in the world. If you like sand dunes you'll be on the right track, but imagine Lake Superior dumping so much sand there that it piles up to 500 feet above the shoreline! Pictures don't do it justice.... After de-sanding our feet and donning our hikin' boots we wandered along a shrinking shoreline until we found ourselves bushwhacking through forests and losing shoes in mud and water - for real! You guessed it - there was no trail from the bottom of the Dunes (strike 3 against those dang cartographers)! Tony and Tom scouted ahead along a cliff-like face to see if the shore would re-appear, and Jeff went straight up to see if we could climb up to the trail without backtracking. Thankfully the second option was an actual option. It was a LOT of work to climb up all that sand with backpacks on (it was definitely lower than 500 feet by that point - may 2-300??), so when we finally made the top and relatively quickly found the trail we were all pretty stinkin' relieved.

From there on, things definitely got easier! We found our camp site, which was actually a car camping site: cushy with things like the cleanest outhouse I've ever - uh - experienced and a picnic table!

It rained during the night with a good chance things might get worse. After some discussion, Tom and Nancy decided to hike back out and bring the car around to meet us near our 2nd night's destination while the rest of us hiked. It didn't end up raining on us so we had a great hike and had fun playing games like "how many mosquitoes can you hit at once?" (we think the record might have neared 7 - check out Jeff's jacket!) and "is that a blister?" Meanwhile Tom and Nancy toured a lighthouse we had passed on Saturday and rejoined us. We walked nearly to our camp site, and then backtracked to a water-hole we had admired earlier on the trail. Tom, Tony and Jeff all braved the freezing water!

Monday we were off for the most scenic part of the trip. We got a decently early start and so were able to pause for long stretches at the incredible views and waterfalls. It was great fun looking back along the shore to see how far we'd come. Picture Rocks really is one of the most beautiful places in the world - and there are great day hikes and car camping for those of you would like to see it all without quite so much crazyness! The day ended with Jeff and Tony going for the cars, and Tom and I randomly deciding that we needed to dunk ourselves in the lake one more time - clothes and all (there was this spot where a river was entering the lake and it was just breathtaking - in more than one sense)! There really is nothing like it - I'm sure you would have done the same!

Once we were all bundled into the car we stopped for food at the Dogpatch in Munising (remember that one, Katie, Jen, Ben and Aaron??!) before heading back south. Here are the pictures from the trip.

And I can't end this without mentioning all of the flowers we saw. It was so fun to be there in the midst of the late spring blooming. Bunchberries, Blue Bead, Wintergreen and Starflowers galore, but then we also saw Pink Lady Slipper (both pink AND white), Daffodils (how did THOSE get out there?!) Trilliums, Nodding Trilliums, Jack in the Pulpit, and Forget-Me-Nots! *sigh*