Author: Spidermart

One of my goals in this whole hiking the IAT thing is to update the GD Guthooks map.  Other than the road walking, one of the clear barriers for entry into this adventure is the lack of information regarding important waypoints like water.  People have clearly hiked these paths before, even left comments, most of which are outdated or not helpful.  Saying, “cool bridge” on a water source doesn’t tell me anything about whether water is there or what it looks like.  A lot of what we are going on is gut feelings.  Not a great thing when you’re running 3 miles to a water source and it’s 8pm.

Another factor to help keep me motivated in updating Guthooks information is our “friends”. Chicka & Sunsets, just a few days back.  I put friends in quotation marks because we have never actually met them, I have never directly communicated with them, it’s been all Brianna except for my Guthooks notes.  They posted in the IAT Facebook group that they would be starting a couple days behind us, so Brianna started chatting Chicka up and they been talking ever since.  I’m told that Chicka and Sunsets run a hostel on the Appalachian Trail, are pretty popular in the trail community.  They have videos on YouTube that you can check out!

More so to the point – if I can help take some of the gamble out of Chicka & Sunsets’ daily plan by updating waypoints as we go, I’m more than happy to help!

The first 75% of today was finishing the long road walk.  We ran into a quaint little bar around mile 8, Diane’s Back 40.  We stopped in for a beer and some pizza.  It’s a really nice bar with pool tables, darts, stuff like that.  The pizza was delicious and Diane even filled our water bottles back up before we hit the road.  Thank you, Diane!

About 2.5 miles after the bar and in the heat of the day, we ran into Lublin Park; a great place to stop and take off our shoes and socks for a bit.  Bathrooms with flushing toilets and sinks with running water, who could ask for more?  We sat for about an hour on a swinging bench, chatting with Mel (Brianna’s dad) on the phone for a bit before heading back up for the final 3.5 miles of road.

By the time we made it to the Lake Eleven trail segment and off the road, it was about 2.5 hours until sunset and we had a decision to make.  We each had about a liter of water left and the next mapped water source was 5 miles away.  We could camp where we were with enough water for dinner and sleep or press on to where we hoped was water, where we hoped there would be a camp spot.  We risked it for the biscuit.  I could say it was adventure that pulled us forward, the sense of not knowing how things would play out… but let’s be honest, it was really about having enough water for coffee and breakfast.

Brianna led for the first two miles before asking me to go ahead as she slowed down. I looked back after about another mile and saw a bus with the letters S-T- R-U-G-G-L-E written on the side and Brianna was riding it.  I didn’t pray, because I am not a prayer, but I did wish upon a star because, theoretically, it shouldn’t matter where you are.

This time, we got lucky.  About a mile before reaching our 5 mile goal, we ran into a beautiful bridge with camping and a slow moving stream underneath.  Home for the night, tent up before sunset.

Anyone who knows Brianna will not be surprised by this statement: the girl loves her breaks.  Sure, we take a lot of necessary breaks for heat and feet, it’s really about how she has the ability to slip into them so naturally and never come out.  I’ve got at least a picture a day of her leaning back on her pack, shoes off, eyes closed.  If I didn’t remind her that we had to move on, we may still be back at mile 100!

*Don’t get me wrong, I like breaks, I’m just not as good at them.

Last night’s quick camp was a success.  The forest was quiet and we slept without an alarm set for the first time in a while.  It turns out we were really fortunate in stopping early like we did, the spot we were shooting for had swamp water.  This is why Brianna & Marty hiking Prime Directive is so important: Do not pass by a good thing in search of something better… especially when sunset is imminent.

Today found us hiking on Federal land, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.  I’ve only had this experience + our Upper Peninsula hike, but so far, Federal lands have the best paths and premade campsites around.  We have seen a lot of people today, they just pitched their tents in the middle of the forest because they can.  If you’re willing to carry all your water and gear in, you really can camp anywhere you want.  Pretty cool.

Trails were really challenging today.  The combination of heat & body fatigue are hitting us hard, only tapped out a 14 mile day.  End of day hiking is painful.  Your mind wanders and you start to miss little rocks and roots, kicking them hard, awkwardly stepping on them in ways that aggravate an existing blister or begin to form a new one.  This is something we need to do better.

Luckily, I planned for shorter days in the west and longer days in the east.  Also, even more luckily, Mel is coming to visit and we will be taking a zero mile day this week.  Luckiest, Mel has new & bigger shoes for Brianna!

For the Alliance!

The forest was dead silent last night.  A deep breath before the plunge (Lord of the Rings Quote).  Without a doubt the quietest night we have ever spent in the backwoods.  You’d think that would help us sleep, but it didn’t.  We both stirred all night, and every one of the many times we woke back up, the forest was still silent.  Thoughts of the movie Evil Dead played through my head, not helpful.

Morning came and so did the sounds, of birds and mosquitoes, of wind and trees, of life!  Last night’s campsite was beautiful with easy access to water, only downside was the uptick on mosquito swarmage. The Thermocell was on as soon as we arrived and stayed on until we flopped sideways into the tent for bed; it even got turned back on in the morning, which is a very rare event.

In case you’re wondering, Thermocell is not paying us to advertise for them.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d take the money in a heartbeat, it is a product we love as it allows us to take breaks without getting eaten on the entire time.  I’ll write a blog about our bug solutions in the future.

Today’s trails certainly had a highlight, the Mondeaux Esker segment.  The esker semi-circles around a body of water called the Mondeaux Flowage.  Mondeaux Flowage has a weird shape that makes for ideal peninsula campgrounds on the west side.  Brianna & I took a break at one of them, Picnic Point Campground, and the wind off the lake was delightful.

Me: Is this why we put ourselves through this?  All the beautiful sights?

Brianna: Heck if I know.

Pro Tip: Flowage is the Wisconsin term for a lake that is upstream of a dam, other places in the US call them reservoirs.

Walking on an esker is very similar to walking the spine of a mountain.  These eskers were formed by glacial melts of old, with many radically vertical ups and downs.  Ending our trail day on the Mondeaux Esker made for quite a challenging series of climbs.  Beautiful views of the flowage lake, but ouch, my toes and knees were screaming by the end of that beast.

Hiking allows us to tour the country and see beautiful hidden gems like Mondeaux Esker & Flowage that we would not otherwise know exist.  The flip side is that we don’t have enough time to spend in each place, our list of “places we need to see again” is growing.  It’s a reminder that while traveling the world is fun and worthwhile, the US has more than a lifetime worth of cultural and geographic diversity all on its own.

End of the day began another chapter of the hike, Mel picked us up!  We had not anticipated the esker climbs to slow us down as much as they did, he was quite frantic by the time we arrived late to the rendezvous parking lot.  Being his first time on the trail with us, I can understand the worry.  It also didn’t help that neither of us had any signal or method to communicate AND he had been up and on the road driving since very early that morning, if he even went to sleep the night before.

If you split the Mondeaux Esker segment into an east half and a west half and pretend each half is a child, the east side that we hiked first thing this morning is the annoying child that poops itself and cries all day.  West side kid gets all the attention and toys, the east side kid is the middle child that remembers what it’s like to be the favorite and it is pissed.  More specifically, the Mondeaux Esker’s east side was filled with bogs and ankle breaker holes covered by overgrown grass.

Today would have been a very challenging hike in terms of terrain and water if it hadn’t been for Mel.  Mel carried our packs in the truck and met us every 5 or 6 miles while Brianna & I walked the trails with only a hiking pole, a bottle of water and all the snacks a Fanny pack could carry.  Walking 21.5 miles with this kind of support was almost like a day off, such a dream; road walks weren’t so terrible, rugged terrain wasn’t so taxing.

Brianna has asked me to correct and improve upon a previous entry, so here is my best effort at that.  The song about not loving Jesus is not something she made up, it’s a Jimmy Buffet song.  She also claims that she sang the actual words and not the words I said she sang.  

“My head hurts, my feet stink, and I don’t love Jesus”

Needless to say, I think she is wrong but wanted to provide readers with her side of the story, even if it’s not what I believe to be accurate.  Most people reading this will side with Brianna, and to that I say… wise choice.

After the hike, we hit Ed’s IGA in Rib Lake for supplies before retreating back to the AirBnB.  Our AirBnB is quite amazing little house on 120 acres of farm land, a perfect place to relax.  We met Don, the owner, and he is a salt of the earth farmer man; has to be in his 80s, probably still bales his own hay.  He is bringing us a grill tomorrow for the steaks Mel brought :-).

This entry will be short.  Tomorrow is an off day with much prep work to be done.  We have a 7 day stretch coming up with no towns or resupplies.  Will write more on this tomorrow.

This is a well timed zero day.  Our clothes are all dirty, we are out of food, our feet have many blisters, Brianna’s shin is injured from we don’t know what and my beard smells like my pillow case – several days of sweat, dirty feet and slobber.

Whether planned or unplanned, zero days are a time to rest your body and resupply, when possible.  Sometimes a zero day pops up because of sickness like it did for our friends Chicka & Sunsets, who were forced to get off the trail for a day after day 3 or 4 due to a sudden and violent illness.  Ideally though, zero days are planned and you can get ready for the next big trail days.

Imagine Brianna and I mathing out how many days we need food for and sorting through everything very meticulously.  If we miss a meal, there is nowhere nearby to pick up new supplies, you will go hungry.  If we carry too much food, that’s extra weight your body has to carry across hundreds of miles.  

You might be saying to yourself, “I’d rather carry all the extra meals and definitely not go hungry.”  I get it. Keep in mind that the more you carry, the more you need to eat, the slower you walk, the more damage your feet take, the faster you fatigue, the less likely you are to physically make it to the end of the trail.  If you take a modern consumer approach to hiking, you’ll have way more of everything than you actually need.  Why not take extra toilet paper? More clothes? Another bottle of bug spray?  Long distance hiking is about making a plan and living with the fact that life happens.

And at the end of it all, even when we are in the middle of nowhere, Brianna and I are not alone.  We probably won’t have anyone rushing to our aid if we run out of toilet paper, but if we ever get into a real bind, help will come.  We’ve learned that locals have our backs.  We’ve always known that from Florida to Georgia, Kentucky to Ohio, Michigan, “help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”  I think this Harry Potter quote is a good reminder that even though we strive for independence and self sufficiency, it’s rarely that simple.

Brianna & I mapped out mileage for the next 7 days over coffee and quickly realized that we will need some big miles and will not be able to carry 7 days worth of food, so we asked for help.  Brianna put a quick call in to the local IAT trail coordinator, Ruby, and asked if she knew anyone who would be willing to drop our prepackaged food off to us on Sunday morning before we start our day.  Without much back and forth, Ruby agreed to help us!  With Ruby’s help and the hidden cache we socked away on the drive in (hopefully it is still there) our packs should be relatively light.

After sorting and counting our food a few times, we packed everything up and drove over to the city of Tomahawk, Wi.  Brianna and Mel dropped me at the laundry mat while they visited Ruby to drop our resupply bag off.  

My experience at the laundry mat was uneventful.  Our clothes are cleanish, the arm pits of my shirts still have a hint of body odor.

Brianna and Mel reported back that the trip to Ruby’s was a success.  Ruby and her husband gave us some good future trail info and seemed happy to help.  I’m sure it didn’t hurt to have Mel’s people personality and epic beard around during first impressions, or that Brianna is a cute and innocent looking blonde gal.  If we ever need to hitchhike, I’ll be hiding in the woods while Brianna tricks people into thinking it’s just her.  I’m half joking, that is a tactic hikers use.  People are far less likely to stop for a solo man or a lady and a man.

I couldn’t tell if Mel was amazed or amused as Brianna and I continued running around and prepping for an early morning departure.  I put up the tent to let it air out for a while Brianna soaked her feet in some epsom salt and iced her shin.  Brianna cut my hair.  I Sawyer bug sprayed our newly clean clothes.  We both replenished our toiletries and recharged electronics; packed, unpacked and repacked our bags.  

Mel capped the evening and trip off by grilling, not just steaks, Kentucky grown grass fed back straps (Thank you Mel, uncle Tom & aunt Vickey!). Even without a thermometer, they were  cooked to perfection.  Brianna and I used our neck knives, but the meat was so tender that we probably could have cut through them with a spoon.

We are headed into the woods without a town for the next 7 days.  Communication and posts will be limited as we strive to conserve battery power.  Happy trails!

Mel, Brianna & I were all up and out of bed by 0430 this morning.  Brianna jumped in the shower while I made toast with jam and some banana slices.  We didn’t have to be up early this morning, only a 12 mile day, but Brianna and I are strong in our resolve to start hiking earlier, take more breaks, finish the day earlier.

The Mel goodbye was hard, of course.  Seeing him is always a good time.  He hooked us up with everything we could ask for and more. This reprieve could not have been better timed.  We physically and mentally needed a break.  Not to mention the 7 day stretch that started today.

The next 7 days of hiking is interesting because there are large gaps where camping is not allowed.  This is why today is only a 12 mile day followed by a 24 mile day.  There is no camping we can use for those 24 miles, we have to shoot the gap in a single go of it.

Today’s hike started with a 2-mile Rib Lake segment, followed promptly by Wood Lake.  Rib Lake was beautiful and easy walking.  It wasn’t raining this morning, but it did last night.  Rain in the night, trees weep til morning’s light = we got rained on.

Wood Lake was challenging.  The rugged trail mixed with slippery everything made for a challenge.  I tripped and slipped a few times.  Brianna smacked her injured shin on a downed tree.  She later told me the pain was so bad that she wanted to vomit.

If I had to choose a most memorable part of our day it was near the beginning of the Wood Lake hike.  I’ve seen over a hundred beavers dams on this hike alone by now, I continue to be amazed by those industrious critters.  Today we saw what I can only think to call a beaver dam staircase.  There was a top beaver dam stopping a pond, followed by three more dams down the creek the pond was flowing to.  I tried to take a picture, doesn’t do it justice.

Halfway through our day’s hike, a Taylor County Forestry truck rolled by us.  The driver was a younger gentleman by the name of Jordan, he rolled down the window and asked if we needed anything.  We said no and made some small talk about our plans to stay in Wood Lake before continuing on in separate directions.

Wood Lake County Park is home for the night.  I’m not sure how many sites there are in total, definitely no one in any of the 5 or 6 sites around us.  Our Guthooks app advertised this campground as only having 4 sites, which made us concerned for what might happen if we arrived and they were all taken.  All that worry for nothing.  We are a short distance from the bathrooms, the water pump, completely alone @ $10 a night!

Early day tomorrow to beat the heat.  Wish us luck, last we knew a storm was coming… no service here to verify 😮

A flash of lightning lit up the sky, thunder shook the ground beneath our beds.

Brianna rolled over and asked, “what time is it?”

“0200, plenty of time for the storm to roll through before 0400,” I replied.

Our 0415 alarm went off, it was still storming. The same was true for our 0500 and 0600 alarms, still storming, and violently so. Our resolve to start earlier was overruled by our desire for self preservation.  We would not be hiking through a storm in the dark.  If the storm wanted to get us, it would have to pierce the paper thin walls of our three person tent to do so.  It did eventually reach inside to get us, pounding rain bounced off water puddles, sending little splashes in at us and our gear.

It was becoming clear that not only were we not going to start our 24 mile day early, we weren’t going to start it dry either.  The best thing we could think to do was pack all of our wet gear up and retreat to the park’s pavilion for coffee and breakfast.  If we couldn’t start the trail when we wanted to, we may as well start it how we wanted to.  It’s like when you know you’re going to be late for work because of some stupid reason that was completely out of your control and you stop for coffee anyway.

It was 0900 by the time we started the trail.  Our 2 mph average would get us to camp after an 830pm-ish sunset.  We would also need to find a time and place to lay our gear out in the sun.  An impossible task that we somehow pulled off.

All of our disadvantages for the day also brought advantages along with them.  The storm had kicked us in the mouth, but it cooled the day high down from 88 to 80 and gave us a nice breeze all day.  We needed to make it 24 miles because Ruby was dropping our food off the next morning, but that also meant our packs were almost as light as they could be.  We rolled into our destination site and setup camp just as the final day lights dipped below the horizon.  Mosquitoes were bad, but we were home for the night.

Trails were beautiful and the work our trail coordinators/angels, Ruby and Bruce, do are evident.  The mowed trails were a dream to walk through and the unmowed trails, like the final 3 miles, were a slogfest.

Thank you for all that you do!

Ruby and Bruce met us at the IAT parking area just off Burma road @ 0700 as planned.  Brianna & I were in the process of filtering some stream water when Ruby handed over an unexpected 2-liter of water with our food.  I hastily dumped the river water out and filled us back up with the clear water.  Thank you, Ruby!

We chatted for a solid 15-20 minutes about our experiences on their trail and thanked them for all the hard work we noticed through our long yesterday hike.  Ruby reminded us that there is a long stretch with no water coming up, she would be more than happy to leave us 4-liters if we wanted.  Yes, please!  Our list of people who are getting thank you and Christmas cards is growing!

Before they left, Ruby and Bruce stated quite frankly that today’s section of the trail is one of the IAT’s best.  They did not do us wrong here, either.  Half of the day was road walking, but the 10 miles of trail in the Turtle Rock & Grandfather Falls segments were trail gems.  

Turtle Rock took us up the west side of Wisconsin River & Grandfather Flowage.  The trail was riddled with large jagged rocks, making it difficult to both enjoy the rapids and not break ankle, I think we did alright.

Grandfather falls took us down the east side of the Flowage, walking us over an old hydroelectric dam and by large penstocks the waters flow through.  Grandfather falls must be a popular spot for skilled kayakers.  We saw many signs warning kayakers how dangerous the waters are and to proceed at their own peril.  No signs said not to do it, they were more like, “you’re crazy if you do this, don’t blame us if S goes south.”

If I had to guess, I’d say the day began to sour soon after we arrived at Tug Lake park, which was about 4 miles into our 10 miles of road.  Don’t read me wrong here, Tug Lake Park is amazing.  They have bathrooms, a water pump, benches, pavilion, easy lake access.  Fortunately, their water pump was working.  Unfortunately, I noticed right away that it was pumping up brownish rusty water.  I’m not afraid of rusty water, I’m a late 80s & 90s kid, we were still drinking out of hoses and eating paint chips. As a mental thing though, you’re less likely to drink water if it looks unappealing.  It tasted fine, it just looked like toilet water.

We had 8 miles left in our day with about 3 hours of sunlight left by the time we reached Tug Lake.  We could make it to the hiking shelter before sunset if we left as soon as we arrived and put our fast shoes on.  Would you rather hike 2 hours in the blistering sun or wait and hike at least an hour in the dark?  We choose to make dinner at the park and wait it out.

The last road miles of the day came and went quickly, in the shade as we planned, but there was less than an hour left of sun and 3 more miles to push.  Our last section of the day was called the Underdown, not to be confused with the Upside Down, and it was beautiful… in the light of day.  We passed through about a mile of large pine trees called the ‘Enchanted Forest’ before everything went dark.  The Underdown is a combination trail for hikers, horse riders, snowmobilers and bikers.  Trails criss cross like spiderwebs up and down very hilly terrain.  Not the best spot to be relying on headlamps and hiking poles, yet there we were, doing our first night hike on it.

It took us about 2 hours to arrive at our hiking shelter.  As a shelter that is also used in the winter, I had assumed it would be 4-walled building with a door and beds.  What we found upon arriving is that the shelter is a 3-walled open face with benches, a table and a fire pit.  No worries, it’s 10pm and we are calling it a night.

Did we have fun today?  I wouldn’t call it that exactly.  We had an experience and built up our confidences for the next time we find ourselves hiking in the dark.  The goal is to make brand new mistakes next time!

Hiker Trash. A saying in the hiker community that I did not fully understand until this trip.  Brianna & I have been seriously hiking since around 2010 when we lived in Colorado Springs, thank you Uncle Tim & Mama Penny!  We lived on the West side of Colorado Springs with easy access to the Garden of the Gods and all the surrounding trails.  Our first major hikes were up the scar and a two day trip up to the top of Pike’s Peak.  We have learned so much since those days, to include what it means to be hiker trash.

Today is an appropriate day to write about hiker trash.  We haven’t had a shower in four days, our clothes are all dirty and we are not going to get a shower or clean clothes for at least three more days.  That, however, is not what it means to be hiker trash.  Hiker trash is being that dirty and then taking it to the next level.  Hiker trash is arriving to a public park where families are hanging out and taking your stinky shoes and socks off to air even stinkier feet.  Hiker trash is laying your dirty underwear in the sun to dry after a severe storm.  Hiker trash is taking a campground shower with your clothes on and then hanging them out to dry like you just did laundry, filling a hotel bathtub with hot water and dirty clothes.  Simply put, hiker trash is choosing to be comfortable with looking like trash and doing trashy things because being uncomfortable isn’t the preferred option.

I guess I wanted to get that out so readers know what I mean when I say ‘hiker trash’.  Before this trip, I thought it was just a thing hikers said to sound cool.  Now, I know that it is a real thing, I finally get it.

Laying on a bench in the back of 3-sided hiking shelter was some of the best sleep I’ve had on the trail in a while.  Midnight elk calls woke us up a couple times, which was more cool than it was intrusive.  A good night sleep rose both Brianna & I’s spirits, having tables to cook coffee and breakfast on with a beautiful view of Dog Lake didn’t hurt either.

We started the day with about a half bottle each of Tug Lake Park toilet water.  Ruby had left us water just 5 miles down the trail, so we ran for that.  I wish there was a picture of us as we reached the water and started guzzling it right out of the old fruit juice bottles she had filled for us.  Water was running down my beard like a dwarf drinking mead on their birthday.

As we sat there, water drunk and filling our bottles, two muscle bound section hikers passed us on their way out for a few day trip.  I didn’t catch their names, but we did give them our blog info (if you are reading this, please comment and let us know how you did during the MASSIVE storms last night).

Clearly water drunk but back on the trail, we made a our first rookie mistake of the trip.  The trail crossed over a logging road and we followed the logging road further than we were supposed to.  Instead of backtracking, we bushwhacked our way back to the trail.  Silly move, let’s not do that again.

Today was hot, 86 degrees with drowning humidity.  What better day to climb Lookout Mountain and the Harrison Hills segment?  Very literally the steepest and most elevation we have done in a single day on the IAT.  Lookout Mountain is only 20ft lower than the highest point in Wisconsin.  Our plan for the day was originally 19 miles, we only made it 15, but for a very good reason.

On one of our many breaks while ascending Lookout Mountain (we hiked 15 miles in 12 hours), Mel texted me a weather warning.  He said that an ugly looking storm was forming in Minnesota and it would likely be hitting us at some point tonight.  What are a couple hikers to do?  The answer, of course, is get lucky.  Just 2 miles down from Lookout Mountain lived a fully enclosed ATV shelter.  A “No Overnight Camping” sign loomed in front, so we called the local Sheriff Dept and told them our plan to crash there for the night out of the storms.  The officer said that he couldn’t give us permission to do that but they would not enforce the restriction tonight as long as we cleaned up.  Deal!

I had texted Ruby and Bruce to ask if there would be water at the ATV shelter.  They replied back, “No, but we will bring you some.” Which they did, plus Sprites, Pepsi and beer :-).  Thank you, Ruby & Bruce!!

Our home for the night is our tyvek ground sheet on a concrete floor with all of our normal ground pads.  Safe.

One hell of a storm last night.  If we had been in our tent through that… I would be writing a very different post today, if at all.  We could hear the winds raging and the rain pounding.  Thunder and lightning was popping and cracking faster than I could count “1 apple, 2 ap”.  We heard large trees being ripped out of the ground from their root balls.  This was serious shit.  Thanks to the ATV shelter, we started our day both dry and healthy.

If you read the title of this post and did the math, you already know we hiked 26.5 miles today.  The end of Harrison Hills and the beginning of Parrish Hills are very challenging with the ups and downs, this morning we also had to navigate around and over many tree blow downs.  When we weren’t in the hills, we were dealing with bogs and miles of thorny overgrown raspberry bush trails.  We started hiking around 0645 and didn’t get camped until 1030pm.  We road walked in the dark and didn’t see a single car in all the 4 miles.

When you’re at a mental breaking point and still 3 miles away from camp, at least another hour, it’s gut check time.  You have more than one semi-serious injury and you are exhausted. This is what you signed up for.  No one is coming to save you.  Is it an adventure or a miscue?  I’m not sure if I picked my mental fortitude in the Air Force or if I’ve always been this way, but I say it’s an adventure.  However, this adventure is not just about me and I am trying my best not to push the team of us too far too fast.  I can see Brianna getting mentally and physically stronger and that’s a powerful beauty to behold.  Some of life’s endeavors worth pursuing.