Day 35: Sunday August 25th, 2019
Location:
4.9 miles of trail covered
Back when we started this hobby in July of 2013, our first day of hiking was out at the western terminus. It was 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, and we never even found the trail. Seriously. We had no idea what we were doing. Read back to the first entry in this blog. On our second attempt we did actually cover a bit of trail, so that is what counts as our "official" Day 1 hike on the trail.
We were busy people at the time, and many things kept us from hiking. But one day, when we were driving south from Manitowish Waters after putting in a culvert and driveway using shovels and wheelbarrows (yes, we really did that), we pulled out the trail maps and on a wild hair decided we'd knock out a tiny little piece of the trail. We drove our car to the parking area at the eastern end of the Newwood Segment and walked the 0.6 miles of gravel road down to the West end of the Averill-Kelly Creek Segment, and then back again. It was an uneventful and nearly meaningless hike, but it did set up some rather large expectations. I remember looking east into the Averill-Kelly creek segment and saying, "We're going to be back here someday hiking that." From that day forward, Averill-Kelly became part of the mythos of our Ice Age planning. Someday, we would hike it. Someday.
The segment, as described, seems imposing. Three creek crossings. 5.6 miles of difficult, unbroken trail. Were we physically up to the challenge? We decided we would focus our efforts on other parts of the trail further west, and tackle this when we were in better shape.
As time went by, we kept talking about Averill-Kelly. 'We could do it in winter, maybe, when the creeks have frozen.' 'If they freeze', we reasoned. Fast moving creeks often stay open in winter, Then what? Hunting seasons got in the way. Focus on other parts of the map. Averill-Kelly just sat there, unchanging.
Six years have passed. Twice we have taken 'breaks' of 500+ days between segments. Finally, a week ago, we started hiking again. We hemmed and hawed about what segment to do this weekend. Averill-Kelly has shrunk somewhat in the eyes of the official route-keepers, now registering only 4.9 miles in the 2017 books (somehow the trail was magically 0.7 miles shorter) but it has loomed ever-larger in our minds. It was a mental block more than a physical one. We started researching the segment once again, and - SHOCK! - according to Google Maps, there had been a change to the segment, showing that rather then three creek crossings, there were now only two!* And from what we read, one of those was a rock-hop. Decision made. Though we were less prepared for a long-ish hike than we were years ago, we decided today would be the day.
So we loaded up our gear, picked up our daughter and her faithful dog, Joplin, and headed out to slay the dragon.
Our gear for this trip was this: Food. Water. Walking sticks. Water shoes. Bug repellent. Leg gaiters, to ward off ticks. All gear treated with Permethrin. (Our memory of the ticks in this region of Wisconsin was still firmly in place.) Rope. (Always bring rope when you're far away from everything.) Emergency first-aid supplies. Small towels (to dry off with after creek crossings). Check, check, check.
We decided to hike the segment east to west, to put off as long as possible the creek crossing where it was necessary to change shoes, socks, and leg gaiters. Driving down Country Road E, which my car still remembers from the many times coming here to hike the segments to the west of this spot, we dropped one vehicle at the western end of the segment, at the very spot we stood and stared into the woods six-plus years ago. A new sign. A little better maintained. Mowed, even. A good sign. Then we drove back to the eastern end on Burma Road, touched the sign, took our photos, and started the day. 1:17 pm, temperature in the low 70's, mostly sunny skies. Perfect day for hiking.
The first half-mile of the segment is rocky, mucky in places, and picks its way through a canopy of oak, maple, ash and other mostly hardwood species, with thick undergrowth. 'Six miles', we thought, because in our minds that's what you get when you round up from 5.6. 'This will be a challenge.' Though the going was slow, the ground was basically level and we made steady progress. It wasn't too bad, as long as you didn't turn an ankle. There were a few small trees down over the trail, but I cleared those away with my hand saw and we kept moving.
A quarter mile in and we reached the first creek crossing, Kelly Creek, and as advertised it was possible to rock-hop from one side to the other, though the rocks were quite slippery. The second quarter mile was much like the first, with few mosquitoes, but a persistent cloud of black flies that never went away the whole day.
Then the trail turns sharply north for a quarter mile or so, and you reach an intersection with a long logging road or file lane. This was an unexpected pleasure, as the trail became much less rocky, and offered a long-straight way through the woods. Even better, our cell phones were able to pick up a signal out here, so I was able to bring up a satellite map to view our progress via GPS. This northern section was a little less than a mile in length, and it was here that we encountered the only trees (two of them) across the trail that were of any consequence at all. This is in itself a testament to how much maintenance had been done on the trail after the summer storms, as we encountered many places where significant chainsaw work was needed to open the trails up again.
There was one notable 'puddle' in the road, which is apparently a permanent resident, since the official trail is routed around it with a little side route through the woods. Good thing, or it would have been necessary to count this as a fourth, knee-deep water crossing.
As we reached the corner where the trail turned to the south, we were delighted to discover that it continued to follow a fire lane, so the going was much easier than we had anticipated. Also, since this area gets a bit more sunlight, due to more recent logging in the past, there were ample blackberries to eat as we meandered on our way. Of course, with ripe blackberries come bears, and we started seeing frequent bear scat along the trail. At one point we even got a fabulous footprint in the mud of both front and hind paw from an average-sized bear. We kept a careful eye out the rest of the day for any possible encounters. There were none, but the dog alerted several times to smells, and we were always on watch.
Finally, we reached Averill Creek. And it was not waist-deep as we feared, but only a swift-moving stream not more than calf-deep at the worst, if you stay near the edge where people have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to create stepping stones. Before crossing, we sat down on the near shore and ate our lunches, having reached this spot with little difficulty, and knowing that once we crossed the creek we were only about a mile and a half from the waiting car.
We all removed our leg gaiters, socks, and hiking boots; put on our water shoes, and picked our way across the slippery stones to the other side, where we could have thrown our belongings rather than carry them if we had wanted to. The water was surprisingly cold, and I realized I wouldn't have wanted to do this on a 45 degree day. Once we reached the other side, we sat down again, took out our towels, dried our legs and toes, put our socks, hiking boots, and leg gaiters, packaged and stowed the wet gear, and put our hiking packs back on again. It all seemed a little silly, we thought, to go through all that work and fuss just to cross a little creek, but we were happy to have made the preparations anyway.
Packs on, we started on down the trail again. I could see from the satellite map that the trail now walked along the north side of the Newwood River, where it neared a large house and then crossed what must be a new bridge to get back to the south side. We walked approximately 300 feet and...
No. No no no no no. Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It can't be real. The trail... but... the map! The satellite map! Google Maps! NO!!! What have you done?
You can't always trust Google Maps. Or the satellite maps on your phone. Or any other piece of technology. The trail is the trail, and the trail goes where the trail goes. There is no new northern route. There is no bridge over Newwood River. Laughingly close to the first creek crossing over Averill Creek, there is a second crossing over the slightly deeper Newwood River. Still there. Nothing's changed.
"*Filth* it", I hear Theresa say. "I'm not going through all that again!" Straight into the water she goes, hiking boots, gaiters and all. I had to laugh to myself a little, because after all the years of dreading, planning, the purchase of a new pair of water shoes for her specifically for this very water crossing, she just plunges headlong into the river and marches to the other side. 'Hell', I thought. 'We could have done that six years ago.'
Our daughter decided to just go barefoot. I changed back into my water shoes. 'Why not?' I thought. 'I've got them along'.
After this final creek crossing, the route became a little more like how it had started, a narrow rocky path winding through the woods, but a bit less rocky than before. After a brief time we rejoined a larger logging road, and ate blackberries as we headed nearly due west the last mile or so before reaching the car. Over the course of the day, we saw no large animals and precious few birds, but we encountered many kinds of mushrooms, and I have sprinkled photos of them throughout this post.
The time was 5:45 pm; temperature 67 degrees.
Running total: 257.9 miles of trail covered; 29 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 35.
4.9 miles of trail covered
Back when we started this hobby in July of 2013, our first day of hiking was out at the western terminus. It was 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, and we never even found the trail. Seriously. We had no idea what we were doing. Read back to the first entry in this blog. On our second attempt we did actually cover a bit of trail, so that is what counts as our "official" Day 1 hike on the trail.
We were busy people at the time, and many things kept us from hiking. But one day, when we were driving south from Manitowish Waters after putting in a culvert and driveway using shovels and wheelbarrows (yes, we really did that), we pulled out the trail maps and on a wild hair decided we'd knock out a tiny little piece of the trail. We drove our car to the parking area at the eastern end of the Newwood Segment and walked the 0.6 miles of gravel road down to the West end of the Averill-Kelly Creek Segment, and then back again. It was an uneventful and nearly meaningless hike, but it did set up some rather large expectations. I remember looking east into the Averill-Kelly creek segment and saying, "We're going to be back here someday hiking that." From that day forward, Averill-Kelly became part of the mythos of our Ice Age planning. Someday, we would hike it. Someday.
The segment, as described, seems imposing. Three creek crossings. 5.6 miles of difficult, unbroken trail. Were we physically up to the challenge? We decided we would focus our efforts on other parts of the trail further west, and tackle this when we were in better shape.
As time went by, we kept talking about Averill-Kelly. 'We could do it in winter, maybe, when the creeks have frozen.' 'If they freeze', we reasoned. Fast moving creeks often stay open in winter, Then what? Hunting seasons got in the way. Focus on other parts of the map. Averill-Kelly just sat there, unchanging.
Six years have passed. Twice we have taken 'breaks' of 500+ days between segments. Finally, a week ago, we started hiking again. We hemmed and hawed about what segment to do this weekend. Averill-Kelly has shrunk somewhat in the eyes of the official route-keepers, now registering only 4.9 miles in the 2017 books (somehow the trail was magically 0.7 miles shorter) but it has loomed ever-larger in our minds. It was a mental block more than a physical one. We started researching the segment once again, and - SHOCK! - according to Google Maps, there had been a change to the segment, showing that rather then three creek crossings, there were now only two!* And from what we read, one of those was a rock-hop. Decision made. Though we were less prepared for a long-ish hike than we were years ago, we decided today would be the day.
* You can't always trust Google Maps
So we loaded up our gear, picked up our daughter and her faithful dog, Joplin, and headed out to slay the dragon.
Our gear for this trip was this: Food. Water. Walking sticks. Water shoes. Bug repellent. Leg gaiters, to ward off ticks. All gear treated with Permethrin. (Our memory of the ticks in this region of Wisconsin was still firmly in place.) Rope. (Always bring rope when you're far away from everything.) Emergency first-aid supplies. Small towels (to dry off with after creek crossings). Check, check, check.
We decided to hike the segment east to west, to put off as long as possible the creek crossing where it was necessary to change shoes, socks, and leg gaiters. Driving down Country Road E, which my car still remembers from the many times coming here to hike the segments to the west of this spot, we dropped one vehicle at the western end of the segment, at the very spot we stood and stared into the woods six-plus years ago. A new sign. A little better maintained. Mowed, even. A good sign. Then we drove back to the eastern end on Burma Road, touched the sign, took our photos, and started the day. 1:17 pm, temperature in the low 70's, mostly sunny skies. Perfect day for hiking.
The first half-mile of the segment is rocky, mucky in places, and picks its way through a canopy of oak, maple, ash and other mostly hardwood species, with thick undergrowth. 'Six miles', we thought, because in our minds that's what you get when you round up from 5.6. 'This will be a challenge.' Though the going was slow, the ground was basically level and we made steady progress. It wasn't too bad, as long as you didn't turn an ankle. There were a few small trees down over the trail, but I cleared those away with my hand saw and we kept moving.
A quarter mile in and we reached the first creek crossing, Kelly Creek, and as advertised it was possible to rock-hop from one side to the other, though the rocks were quite slippery. The second quarter mile was much like the first, with few mosquitoes, but a persistent cloud of black flies that never went away the whole day.
Then the trail turns sharply north for a quarter mile or so, and you reach an intersection with a long logging road or file lane. This was an unexpected pleasure, as the trail became much less rocky, and offered a long-straight way through the woods. Even better, our cell phones were able to pick up a signal out here, so I was able to bring up a satellite map to view our progress via GPS. This northern section was a little less than a mile in length, and it was here that we encountered the only trees (two of them) across the trail that were of any consequence at all. This is in itself a testament to how much maintenance had been done on the trail after the summer storms, as we encountered many places where significant chainsaw work was needed to open the trails up again.
There was one notable 'puddle' in the road, which is apparently a permanent resident, since the official trail is routed around it with a little side route through the woods. Good thing, or it would have been necessary to count this as a fourth, knee-deep water crossing.
As we reached the corner where the trail turned to the south, we were delighted to discover that it continued to follow a fire lane, so the going was much easier than we had anticipated. Also, since this area gets a bit more sunlight, due to more recent logging in the past, there were ample blackberries to eat as we meandered on our way. Of course, with ripe blackberries come bears, and we started seeing frequent bear scat along the trail. At one point we even got a fabulous footprint in the mud of both front and hind paw from an average-sized bear. We kept a careful eye out the rest of the day for any possible encounters. There were none, but the dog alerted several times to smells, and we were always on watch.
Finally, we reached Averill Creek. And it was not waist-deep as we feared, but only a swift-moving stream not more than calf-deep at the worst, if you stay near the edge where people have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to create stepping stones. Before crossing, we sat down on the near shore and ate our lunches, having reached this spot with little difficulty, and knowing that once we crossed the creek we were only about a mile and a half from the waiting car.
We all removed our leg gaiters, socks, and hiking boots; put on our water shoes, and picked our way across the slippery stones to the other side, where we could have thrown our belongings rather than carry them if we had wanted to. The water was surprisingly cold, and I realized I wouldn't have wanted to do this on a 45 degree day. Once we reached the other side, we sat down again, took out our towels, dried our legs and toes, put our socks, hiking boots, and leg gaiters, packaged and stowed the wet gear, and put our hiking packs back on again. It all seemed a little silly, we thought, to go through all that work and fuss just to cross a little creek, but we were happy to have made the preparations anyway.
Packs on, we started on down the trail again. I could see from the satellite map that the trail now walked along the north side of the Newwood River, where it neared a large house and then crossed what must be a new bridge to get back to the south side. We walked approximately 300 feet and...
No. No no no no no. Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It can't be real. The trail... but... the map! The satellite map! Google Maps! NO!!! What have you done?
You can't always trust Google Maps. Or the satellite maps on your phone. Or any other piece of technology. The trail is the trail, and the trail goes where the trail goes. There is no new northern route. There is no bridge over Newwood River. Laughingly close to the first creek crossing over Averill Creek, there is a second crossing over the slightly deeper Newwood River. Still there. Nothing's changed.
"*Filth* it", I hear Theresa say. "I'm not going through all that again!" Straight into the water she goes, hiking boots, gaiters and all. I had to laugh to myself a little, because after all the years of dreading, planning, the purchase of a new pair of water shoes for her specifically for this very water crossing, she just plunges headlong into the river and marches to the other side. 'Hell', I thought. 'We could have done that six years ago.'
Our daughter decided to just go barefoot. I changed back into my water shoes. 'Why not?' I thought. 'I've got them along'.
After this final creek crossing, the route became a little more like how it had started, a narrow rocky path winding through the woods, but a bit less rocky than before. After a brief time we rejoined a larger logging road, and ate blackberries as we headed nearly due west the last mile or so before reaching the car. Over the course of the day, we saw no large animals and precious few birds, but we encountered many kinds of mushrooms, and I have sprinkled photos of them throughout this post.
The time was 5:45 pm; temperature 67 degrees.
Running total: 257.9 miles of trail covered; 29 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 35.
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