Day 109: Kettlebowl Segment (Part 2), Langlade County
Day 109: Thursday, October 14th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 4.4
Location 1: The part of the Kettlebowl Segment between South Kent Pond Road and the Kent Fire Tower Road intersection at N 45 15.529, W 88 54.300
4.4 miles of trail covered plus 1.4 miles extra hiking/biking
The gap, the gap, the ever-loving Langlade Gap. 21.4 miles of unknown and imposing wilderness keeping us from being able to fill in maps 35 and 36, thus bringing our line all the way down from the Western Terminus to Devil's Lake State Park. It called to us. It mocked us. And to make matters worse, it was fighting against us.
We learned online, much to our dismay, that the Kettlebowl Segment was 'Closed' due to logging activities. We learned this a few days before our planned trip back up to Jack Lake Campground and a few days after we had already booked the cabin. But Theresa isn't one to take things at face value, and she called the Chapter President to ask for better details.
The south half of the Kettlebowl Segment, we learned, was definitely closed. However, if we wanted to hike in or out through the middle, by way of the gated off portion of Kent Pond Road, then we would be able to hike the north half of the segment.
So we waited until the end of bear hunting season and planned our hike on this glorious, sunny fall day. We had no idea what kind of trail was waiting for us. Long grass? Mud? Rocky, hilly, poorly marked trail? All was certainly possible, since we have found Langlade County to be largely foreboding in general. But we were determined to overcome.
In preparation, last night Theresa and I drove up to Jack Lake Campground to stay in one of their fabulous cabins, which can be rented for a mere $75 a night. This is a real bargain considering what we've seen available elsewhere. In some places we've seen hilly campsites with vault toilets going for $50 per night or more. In comparison - there is no comparison. We stayed in the Timberdoodle cabin, but I'll talk more about that later.
The big problem with hiking the Kettlebowl segment is the length. It's a long way from end-to-end as measured by a snail with a seven-mile upper limit. Also - and this is important for anyone else who is reading this in preparation for hiking out there - Langlade County will ticket and/or tow your car if you park along the road in non-designated parking areas. In other words, you can't just sort-of pull over next to the road by any old trail sign or crossing you like and start walking. You could get back to find no vehicle.
And that means, that while it would be possible to walk in via Kent Pond Road, it would not be possible to park a car there. That leaves only three options.
1) An out-and-back hike from the end
2) Ride a bicycle to the start and stash the bikes while you walk to the car, or
3) Get a ride from someone
For the first time ever, we put out the call for a trail angel to come and help us out by giving us a ride to the start of our hike. We put out the word that we were planning to hike the northern half of Kettlebowl, and while looking for a ride, we connected with another hiker by the name of Mary Johnson, and she wanted to hike with us.
At first we thought we'd have to bike down to the starting line, but the day before we left, we found someone who was going to be able to give us a ride. Being unsure how many people would fit in her vehicle, we arranged to ferry Mary down to the starting line at about 8:30 am, and our wonderful Trail Angel (who asked that we refer to her only as 'D', or as @iceagetraildayhiker) came to get Theresa and I at 9:00.
Not only did D give us a ride to the place we wanted to start hiking, but she also gave us a totally over the top welcome gift. (Again, more on that later.) We were so flummoxed that we completely neglected to offer her anything by way of thanks or compensation in return, other than to give her one of our SnOTT patches. She admitted she really wanted a patch, but wasn't sure if she qualified for one, since she wouldn't be hiking with us. We told her of course she qualified, and I even took a photo or three, but alas, I once again lost the photos in my fickle phone memory, so I don't have one here to share.
Kent Pond Road is a gravel mess that turns into an ATV trail long before it actually gets to the Gate that shows up on the IAT Atlas map. The closest D could get us to the gate, without endangering her car, was the bottom of the hill, about a quarter mile from the gate. We bid her farewell, and walked over the hill to find Mary, who was supposed to be waiting for us at the gate.
Except she wasn't there, or at least not right away. When we got to the gate she came walking up from the trail beyond the gate. I thought she had been off in the woods, visiting the necessary, as our English counterparts might have said.
Not so.
She had, in fact, chosen to wander quite a ways down that unmarked trail, only to turn back and come back to meet us at the gate. It was 10:30 am, and 53 degrees.
I said "trail", because despite what shows up as a solid gray line on the IAT Atlas map, Kent Pond Road ceases to look anything at all like a road immediately on the other side of the gate, and receives little to no vehicle traffic of any kind, including ATVs. It is NOT, I repeat NOT, a nice, easy walk on a spur trail to the IAT.
In fact, if Theresa had not insisted that I secure a list of coordinates to use as breadcrumbs to get us to the trail, I would not have been able to navigate to the IAT without getting lost on the myriad logging roads back there. And, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit, even with all those points and all my experience we still managed to take a wrong turn, and ended up in the wrong place.
Rather than backtrack, we decided to hook up with the trail a little north of our original target and then hike backwards to the start. This added at least an extra 0.5 miles to the already long extra walk of 0.9 miles. When we finally did connect with the IAT, it was at the easternmost spot on the trail, not just for this segment or this county, but for the whole IAT until somewhere just east of the Storrs Lake Segment way down near Janesville. That spot is at N 45 13.516, W 88 53.041, and it is commemorated with.. nothing. I don't know why I find these points interesting.
In hindsight, we should have backtracked as soon as we discovered our missed turn, because we would have saved ourselves a lot of walking. The turn I missed, as it turns out, wasn't very obvious, looking more like a deer path than a logging road. All of this, I will point out, is labeled "Kent Pond Road" on the IAT map. It just proves you don't know what you'll find until you get there.
The next thing I can share for future hikers, is that Burma Road is not a Road. I'm not convinced it ever really was a 'Road'. One could almost convince themselves that by driving on the Primitive Road north of Elton it might be possible to drive to not just one, but two crossings with the IAT. That one might almost be able to stand at the side of the road and hitch a ride while waiting on Burma Road. This is not so. You would be more likely to encounter an armadillo than a passing vehicle of any kind. So give up any notion of cutting the long part of the Kettlebowl Segment into pieces by that route. You can get quite a ways up that primitive road, but you will eventually reach a point of regret, and then you'll still have a long walk to get there.
So how were the trail conditions, you might ask? That's probably all you would ask if you're reading this, so I'll put it in a nutshell. When we first got to the IAT Trailhead sign on Burma *cough* Road, we weren't very impressed with the signage. We had to keep a sharp eye out for yellow arrows planted in unusual places. They weren't traditional IAT blazes, so some interpretation is necessary to keep your way, and there are places to make wrong turns.
The footing, on the other hand, was excellent. The hills were few and not steep, and except for an occasional bit of mud to avoid, the walking was excellent. And then, after we passed a large sign that would pass for a trial head sign, the blazes became much more typical and less of a worry. From that point forward, all we did was have a nice, enjoyable hike. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day.
I recall one spot about 1000 feet in length where there had been severe water erosion on the trail, and it was a little difficult to figure out why it was there, because there was no obvious bowl or hillside to feed it. But it did affect the footing, so some caution is due when walking through.
I noticed at one point that the forest we were walking through was littered with boulders. Hundreds of them, poking their ancient noses up from the earth where they have watched the world change around them for 10,000 years. How many times have these rocks watched the forest grow up around them, change composition, get drowned in floods, burn to the ground, only to start all over again?
Another detail I remember about this hike was a total lack of benches. We had to stop and just sit in the dirt to take a lunch, and that was when some curious and lethargic hornets came out to visit. They weren't very threatening, and when one landed on Theresa and wouldn't fly away all I had to do was coax it onto my walking stave and then transfer it gently onto a tree branch. Cute little guy.
I often think about how lucky I am that I have been able to travel so far and wide in my life, experiencing so many different environments, seeing so many different things.
Then I think of these little fellows, whose whole life has been spent in a puddle, here on the IAT.
I ask myself - Who is more satisfied with life? Me, or the frog? The frog has everything it wants or needs right here in this muddy puddle. I wander the earth looking for wonder and entertainment. The frog would tell me he is happier.
By the way - the Trail Companion lists a feature called Big Stone Hole, which they describe as a "large kettle loaded with granite erratics". We did follow the short spur trail, and to be perfectly frank I felt cheated. The boulders we walked past for the previous half mile were more impressive, and the fact that these were situated inside a kettle didn't exactly give me a thrill.
We chose not to take the side-hike up to Kent Hill. It may be the third highest peak in Wisconsin, but we weren't interested in putting on extra miles. Maybe someday when we're hiking for pleasure and not for the objective of getting from here to there we'll take another look at Kent Hill.
Or maybe not.
As we approached our parking area on Kent Fire Tower Road, I could hear Theresa and Mary chatting away behind me, making easy work of the miles. The trail itself had been beautiful - nothing at all like the arduous slog we had envisioned. It had been lovingly maintained and mowed, and when we reached the car at 1:52 pm, with the temperature hovering at 60 degrees, it was surprising to us just how easy the walk had been.
Mary was nice enough to snap a photo of the two of us at the finish line, and we shuttled her one more time so that she could walk the last 1.4 miles to the north, which we had already hiked.
It was early in the day, but we couldn't even think of trying for another piece of trail, because we had to head into Antigo to get some Shoe Goo and repair a broken item. If not for that, we would have had to drive all the way home. This trip, and a little bit of geocaching along the way, took up the rest of the afternoon.
We got back to Jack Lake in plenty of time to enjoy our cabin. I mentioned before that $75 per night was a real bargain, and this is what greeted us on arrival the night before.
There is a gas fireplace in one corner, that is the primary source of heat. We left it turned off the first night because it didn't get very cold and we were well equipped for cold weather. Tonight, though, we flipped on the fire and opened up the wonderful gift that we received from our Trail Angel earlier in the day.
It certainly went a long way towards our enjoyment of the evening. We spent the early part of the night playing 'Cache me if you Can', and the rest of the night sound asleep in our warm little bunk beds.
Brock's Progress on the Mammoth Hike Challenge: 35.2 miles
Theresa's Progress on the Mammoth Hike Challenge: 43.6 miles. DONE!!
Running Total: 770.8 miles of trail covered, 10.8 miles of trail half-covered; 126.6 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 109.
No comments:
Post a Comment