Day 60: Grassy Lake Segment, Washburn County

Day 60: Thursday May 6th, 2021

Total Miles covered for the day: 8.5

Location: The Grassy Lake Segment, between Pershing Road to the west and 30th Ave to the east. 

This was our longest hiking day since September 7, 2013, and our fourth-longest hiking day ever. When I stop to consider we're both a little heavier and a lot older, I feel a little bit proud of our accomplishments today.

Last night we drove out to beautiful Eagle Point Campground in Cumberland, WI, and set up our tent. Except for the Camp Host, we had the entire point to ourselves, complete with hot showers. Eagle Point is an excellent place to camp when it's empty, but it may feel more crowded when it's full, which I've heard starts about Memorial Day. 

Anyway, when we woke up the temperature outside was a decidedly nippy 35 degrees, so it took both self-motivational talking and the call of nature to get me out of my sleeping bag. Breakfast was cold eggs and hot coffee, and we were soon on our way.

We reached our drop site on Lehman Lake Road and left our target vehicle in the parking area in front of the gate, then drove to our launch site at the east trailhead on 30th Ave near Shallow Lake Rd. The time was 10:15 am, and the temperature had risen all the way to 51 degrees.

The first thing we saw was a big, beautiful new trail sign, welcoming us to the segment. Duly welcomed, we headed west, or northwest, to be more specific, intent on covering this 5.7 miles of trail fairly early in the day. 

What we found, besides Trout Lillies, Bellworts, Hipatica and the first blooming Trillium, among other flowers, was a broad, easy-walking trail that provided almost no hinderance at all to leisurely strolling through the woods. The trails were manicured, and there was little in the way of hills. 

Anemone Trifolia

Bellwort

Which is not to say that the entire hike went that way. In fact, there were perhaps 15-20 areas that were a little muddy to a lot muddy, and would present difficulties depending on the amount of recent rainfall, and 2 or 3 areas that were basically ponds laying across low spots in the trail and probably hosted minnows. I've seen worse, but sometimes it would make sense if the people doing trail maintenance would just cut a little trail to go around these things rather than making the hikers pick their way around. 

One of many 'grassy lakes', but not THE Grassy Lake

Another obstacle we faced were the beavers, or more precisely the results of their relentless efforts to remake the landscape to their own liking. As far as I can tell, the only animals more adept at making the environment more inhospitable to other creatures are people, and for that reason alone I admire the little varmints. Mankind deserves a little payback for what we've done to the neighborhood. 

Marsh Marigolds

Have you ever noticed along the trail, when you're walking between two close ponds on an isthmus of land that is more likely than not the remnants of an old beaver dam, that there is a trail cut across the land between the two ponds? This trail, as wide as most deer trails and usually more thoroughly trampled, is a beaver trail, left behind by the constant foot traffic between the two waterways as often as not dragging branches along behind and underneath them. I saw one such trail that was blocked by a recent tree-fall, and I set about sawing off a chunk of tree and getting it out of their way. Oh, I know they would have gotten to it eventually, but I thought I'd give the little flat-tailed, buck-toothed critter a hand. It gave me joy.

There was one spot in particular, N 45 38.883, W 91 53.093 or thereabouts, where recent damming activity had basically extended the lake across the trail. The only way through, because there was lake on both sides, was to walk across the top of the thing, keeping balance in the parts that were thin, in a zig-zag pattern, until dry land was reached on the other side. To be perfectly honest, the workmanship on this bit of dam was a bit slipshod. I can only hope that in the intervening days between when we crossed it and when this was published that there was a rodent repair crew dispatched to shore things up a bit. Otherwise this crossing could get a little wet.

Walking side to side across the trail

And we weren't done with the beavers yet. There was one spot, the exact location escapes me, where the view we got looking down the trail was a lake - at eye level. We were down here - the lake was up there. It was clear from our approach that beavers had, perhaps not too long ago, succeeded at raising the lake level up several feet, obliterating what was once a logging road, or snowmobile trail, or whatever it was that was first laid down, and upon which we had been walking. This was the one place where the trail took a significant detour through the woods, and the quality of the footing fell from a Grade A walk in the park to a Class C goat trail, discernable only because of the yellow blazes and the many travelers who have scuffed the roots and trampled the dirt into mud. 

However, all bad things came to an end. When we got clear of the lake, we returned to the wide and orderly trail. It felt like we had been marooned on an island for weeks, only to be picked up by a luxury cruise ship, or climbing out of a cave into the bright sunshine. it was welcome, though somehow a little disorienting.

Coyote Scat

Another very grassy lake

Fiddle heads

As we headed west, we hit a T-intersection where the trail used to go north to connect with the Shingle Camp Fire Lane, but now cuts to the south. The view of the lake is quite beautiful, if you're into pristine lakes surrounded by natural forests and wildflowers. If not, well, maybe hiking the IAT isn't for you. The rest of the hike, even before it finally got to Shingle Camp Fire Lane near Lehman Lake, was on a broad road that was frankly a lot nicer than some of the 'roads' we've driven down to place vehicles at one end or the other of a segment. Reaching Shingle Camp Fire Lane wasn't even that big a deal, except that it meant we were nearly done with the first part of our trip.

We reached our waiting vehicle at 3:20 pm, and the temperature was up to 55 degrees. It was exactly at this moment that I realized if we wanted to hike the remaining 2.8 miles and finish the segment, we had hiked it backwards. After some rest, a little lunch and lengthy discussion, we determined we would go ahead and finish the segment. We drove to Shallow Lake Road, picked up the other car, drove straight back to the parking area on Lehman Lake Road to drop our target vehicle back off, then drove to the west end of the segment on Pershing Road. 

This part of Grassy Lake proved to be relatively uneventful. It wasn't hilly, it wasn't filled with lakes and beaver dams, there weren't any hemlock stands or pretty streams, but it was a nice, easy walk on a broad snowmobile trail. 

There was one fairly memorable spot. Right around N 45 39.698, W 91 58.505 on the trail, where a short well-worn path leads to a bench overlooking an unnamed lake some 30 or 40 feet below. Many people have made this very short side-trip, and many lucky through-hikers have discovered that 20 feet from the bench is a flat piece of ground begging for remote camping, a spot that is not on any map. If you are reading this blog and choose to take advantage of this spot, please leave a comment. 

Of course, on the opposite side of the trail, somewhere along here, there is supposed to be a spur trail that would allow you to walk up to the edge of the namesake for this segment, Grassy Lake, but we didn't see it, and we never saw Grassy Lake, either. We saw many lakes, and many of them were quite grassy, but the official 'Grassy Lake' of IAT fame will remain forever a mystery and a legend to us. 

A very gloomy and creepy puddle

A bit further to the north, about halfway through the hike, the trail cuts severely to the east (as we were walking) where it heads generally, if not doggedly, eastward until it unceremoniously ends at Lehman Lake Road. Like the north/south part of the trail, it is broad and flat, with unspectacular views, and very little wet or muddy terrain. 

Impressive ancient tree roots at the corner

Nevertheless, when we reached our vehicle and connected the dots, we had effectively extended our St. Croix line another 8.5 miles to Shallow Lake Road, and completed nearly all the hiking in Washburn County, save for little bits in the Bear Lake segment and in Birchwood at the north end of the Tescobia Trail segment. That was worth celebrating. 

It was 6:15 pm, and it had been a long walk. Time to go to the campsite. 

Running Total: 419.3 miles of trail covered; 37.5 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 60.

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