Day 25: Sunday, June 15th, 2014
Location: Timberland Wilderness Segment, Lincoln County, WI
Father’s Day, 2014. Sunny
and warm, with just a tiny threat of rain.
Nice and windy, to keep the bugs away.
The Timberland Wilderness Segment is the first, or last, Segment in
Lincoln County depending on whether you’re hiking it west to east or east to
west. It has actually been several months since we
last hiked on the trail, in a blizzard in February.
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The first thing we had to do was get to the segment, which
means driving for miles and miles on gravel roads, or course. We dropped one car at the southern/eastern
end, where there was relatively excellent parking just north of the trail head,
then traveled north and started at the north end. I was looking forward to a relatively nice,
easy hike on mostly level ground.
When we first got started, we ‘touched the sign’. I looked it up, and we had last been there
and touched that very sign going the other direction into Taylor County on
August 9th, 2013. This was not our first venture into Taylor County,
but after today the segments just keep getting longer.
Anyway, one of the Christmas gifts we gave one another this
last year was a decent pair of leg gaiters.
These are the things you strap on over your boots and lower legs to keep
water off, reduce exposure to ticks, etc.
We were fully prepared. We had
our high-top hiking boots on, our pants tucked into our socks, the shirt tucked
into the pants, the lag gaiters strapped and tightened – all set for a great
hike.
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The trail itself was great. It was actually recently mowed over most of the 3.7 miles, and there was a minimum of rocks and roots to get in the way. The markings were abundant (actually, as much as I complain about not enough blazes to mark the trail, there were places here where there were too many blazes) and almost no downed logs in the way. Only one log that I couldn't move out of the way. This tail was being beautifully groomed.
About halfway through the hike, we came to the place where the trail takes a severe duck’s beak turn and found that someone had recently dragged a lovely new Leopold bench there and placed it where there was a nice overlook into a lowland area.
Our bench stay was short, and we got up and started hiking again. Theresa was moving with an odd determination
that hadn't been present before. It wasn't really that hot (75 degrees?) and the humidity wasn't all that intense, but the
wind we had been counting on was blowing above and not through the trees, so we
were also swarmed with mosquitoes, black flies, gnats, and deer flies. The deet kept them off our faces and ears,
but they were annoying all the same.
I can hardly remember all the beautiful ferns and flowers, the
wonderful bridge work, the interesting spiders, beetles and wasps we saw, and all the trail grooming.
As we walked, Theresa kept looking down and
finding more ticks climbing up her legs.
There seemed no end to them. I
also was finding and removing ticks in quantities I had never experienced
before. Hiking is fun and all, but this
was ridiculous.
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| You should have seen this guy up close! |
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| Look close - see froggy? |
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| These beetles are eating the tree bark |
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| I love these ferns!! |
Finally, as we crossed the third and final roadway, we knew
we were only a couple hundred yards from the end, and faced our most hazardous
water crossing of the whole hike at the edge of the road. We quickly touched the sign at the end of the
trail, made our way across the boggy ditch, and stepped out onto the roadway.
“We are doing whatever it takes to get rid of these ticks
before we are setting foot in my car!” she said. I was in complete agreement.
I will save you the suspense. I didn’t count, but I’m absolutely certain
that each of us, even after constantly picking ticks off of ourselves as we
walked, stood on that roadway with over 100 ticks on our apparel. First to go was the fanny packs, carrying our
food and water. Not many there, maybe
only 15 or so. Then the backpack,
carrying our raingear. Again, only a few
in there. Then came the leg
gaiters. I couldn’t have counted. I found ticks burrowed into the Velcro closure. I found them in the folds where the cinch
ropes puckered the fabric. I found them
over and under the gaiters, but especially where the fabric was held tight to
my leg. No less than fifty ticks were on
my gaiters alone, probably more.
Next came the socks.
I only found 20 or so in the socks, but many of those were the nymphs so
small you need a magnifying glass just to see if they have legs. I know they were ticks, though, ‘cause the
little buggers dove in deeper when I tried to dislodge them from the loops in
the sock fabric. I rolled the tops of
the socks back and I had a ring of ticks under the upper end of the socks,
trying to dig into the pant legs there. As
soon as I loosened the fabric, they started climbing. It was a race to see if I could get them all
before they made it to my shirt. Then I pulled
open the tops of the boots. Yup – more ticks,
buried in the socks.
Don’t get me wrong.
Ticks don’t really bother me, but even writing about this is making me
feel itchy and buggy. And I wasn’t
alone. Theresa was standing next to me
doing the same thing, and she was just as infested. We were pulling so many ticks off that we had
to move to another part of the road because they were starting to climb right
back on again. The road was visibly
crawling with ticks.
So then the pants were pulled back and rolled down at the
waist. More ticks. In the zipper flap – more ticks. In the pockets – more ticks. Under the belt – more ticks. Pull up the shirt – more ticks. After all was said and done, we ended up with
three ticks that had made their way past all the layers and were crawling on
our skin. Only one had taken a
bite. Phew!
We got into the car and sat there for a while waiting. Sure enough, we each had a couple more ticks
crawling on our legs. I started to
investigate. We were both wearing the
kind of pants that have zip-off legs, and there was a flap that covered that
zipper we had each forgotten to check.
TICKS! TICKS!! TICKS!!!!
I must have had another fifty ticks just under the flaps. Open goes the car door – out go the humans,
off go the ticks. Find another place to
stand on the road, because they’re coming back up on the boots again. They were stacked up in the corners of the
fabric like sesame seeds on a Big Mac. I
know I said over 100 each, but I would not at all be surprised if each of us
was carrying over 200 ticks when we left those woods. This is NOT an exaggeration.
So – a warning to all you nature lovers in Lincoln
County. I was able to collect a broad
variety of wood ticks and deer ticks (possibly lone star ticks, too – I didn’t
look that close) by walking swiftly along a mostly mowed trail for less than
four miles. Please use tick repellent,
and don’t forget to spray your pants and socks!
There is a tick population out there of biblical proportion, and they
want nothing better than to feast on your blood.
Final analysis – this was a beautifully maintained trail
with easy access on both ends, with very little elevation change and few hiking
hazards. I would have to rate this trail
a B+, though there are many stretches that rate an ‘A’. My congratulations to the Northwoods Chapter. Officially 3.7 miles hiked. Running total: 215.6 miles of trail covered;
16.9 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of
Day 25.
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