Day 28: Thursday April 30th, 2015
Location: Camp 27 Segment, Lincoln County
Near
the western edge of Lincoln County there is a 2.9 mile section of trail we have
been both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. If you’ve been following along at all, you
know that we are Section hikers, and not even particularly dedicated at
that. That means we look for as many
places to chop a segment up as possible.
We place a target vehicle at the end, drive to the beginning, hike
whatever distance is needed, and if there’s time left when we’re done, move
back up the trail a little farther and do it again.
Late
yesterday afternoon we dropped a vehicle off at the western end of the Newwood
Segment to hike the last 3 miles or so.
This also corresponds to the eastern end of the Camp 27 segment. That point is HERE. Believe it or not, it’s possible to drive a
vehicle into the middle of that particular piece of nowhere, and there isn’t a
soul around to tell you you can’t park there.
(Actually, there is relatively decent parking close by.) When we got to our target vehicle, we drove around
to the western end of the Camp 27 segment and camped for the night.
This
doesn’t sound like much, right? 2.9
miles of trail; drive from one end to the other… Tell you what. You go ahead and drop me on one end of that
trail, drive to the other end, and I’ll bet you $500 I can beat you there on
foot. There simply isn’t a way to get
there from here. We chose the southern route,
which is only about 70% gravel roads, and it took us roughly 50 minutes to
drive to the other end. Really. It’s that far. When they talk about this being one of the
most remote sections on the whole Ice Age Trail, they aren’t kidding. You don’t want to get lost out there, and you
don’t want to have to walk for help.
During that entire 50 minute drive, we saw not one commercial business
of any kind. No towns, no grocery, no
gas stations – nothing. Just an
occasional hunting shack. If you’re new
to the Ice Age trail, don’t start here.
It may give you a good idea of what you’re in for by trying to hike the
whole thing, but it’s not the way to ease into a new hobby.
So –
we woke up this morning in absolute leisure, knowing we only had two short
pieces of trail to hike, and a nice, long, relaxing drive in the middle. We had our breakfast of hard boiled eggs,
heated up our coffee over a tiny little fire, and took our time getting ready
to hike. By 10:20 am everything was
ready and we took off down the trail. It
was 51° and sunny, with a light western breeze at our back. Another perfect hiking day.
The
new Ice Age Trail Guidebook, 2014 has an icon indicating how challenging a
section may seem to the hiker. This one
rated a ‘5’ out of ‘5’. Ummm – no. I disagree completely. Unless the dry weather gave me a totally
inaccurate picture of what this trail is normally like, I found it level,
well-groomed, well-marked, and completely enjoyable. In the first part of the hike (west to east, anyway)
there is a long, well-sodded beaver dam that leads past a pond (of
course).
At places, in brief stretches,
the trail shares logging roads, but I was really impressed with how well-marked
the turns were. There was hardly a
branch down on the trail, and if it weren’t for a small handful of creeks that
had to be hopped over, it would have been completely fabulous. There was even a nice bridge that had been put
up in the fall of 2013 to make the whole experience even more pleasant. The only thing that would make this challenging
would be wet weather and mosquitoes that come out later in the year. That and the fact you have to drive for hours
to get anywhere near the thing.
So –
in the end, I’d have to rate this section a ‘B’. I’d happily hike it again if it was easier to
get to. We ended our hike at 1:21 pm,
with the temperature a mild 61°.
Running total: 228.3 miles of
trail covered; 22.6 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking.
Location: Connecting Route 5, between Timberland Wilderness Segment
and Camp 27 segment, Lincoln County
There isn’t really much one can say about a
gravel road connecting route that would interest a reader. This one is no exception. Certainly the area is remote and beautiful,
and you’re unlikely to encounter a single vehicle during the entire 1.9 mile
walk, even though this is the only road around for miles. The best thing that can be said about it is
that it’s easy to find parking, and the area really is pretty, and quite
enjoyable before the wood ticks and mosquitoes take over. I wrote earlier about how incredibly
tick-infested the Timberland Wilderness Segment is during the hot weather, and
even now, at the end of April, with the weather still at 61°, and properly
coated in deet and Permethrin, we still found a few ticks on us on the nearby Camp
27 Segment.
Sheesh.
Anyway, we started our hike at 3:00, and
ended at 4:00, with the temperature all the way up to 64°. In case you’re curious, when we reached our
target vehicle at the end of the Camp 27 segment, we took the northern route
around the no-road zone, and this time it took even longer and was 100% gravel
roads, also with no towns, no gas, no grocery, no business of any kind.
Sheesh.
Running total: 230.2 miles of trail covered;
22.6 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 28.
