Keep on Truckin'

After the trip to Arizona left me with some feelings of unfinished business, I started planning another backpacking trip for the late summer.  The Superior Hiking Trail is calling my name for a 3 night 35 mile jaunt.  Mike is even coming up from Texas to join me.

It had been 3 months since I last put the pack on and hiked any distance, so it was time to do a bit of training before we head up to Minnesota in 2 weeks. I bought a new pack as well, nothing was really wrong with my old one, but this one is more 'bare bones' and because of that it's also 2 pounds lighter. I thought it would be wise to try it before I take it on an extended trip to make sure it was going to be comfortable.

Friday after work, Tracy dropped me off on a trail head of the Ice Age Trail in the Kettle Moraine Northern Unit. About 3 miles north of Mauthe Lake.  In a little over an hour I had hiked 4 miles and where I would stop for the night. Primitive shelter #2.  You can only camp at designated shelters in the forest and there are only 5 in this 30 mile section. Oh yea and I paid $26.00 for the privilege. 

I hung my hammock, my pack and my sweaty clothes. Perfect weather, not too hot, a bit of sun and the bugs weren't too bad.  I started a fire, because why not. I also started dinner. A dehydrated meal called Texas State Fair Chili. It was pretty tasty. It even had a side packet of cheese and corn chips to put on top. I will definitely bring this one a long again. 

This is the part of solo camping that's a little hard to get used to. Now what? I had my kindle, I have a fire but its strange sitting there by yourself. Not that I don't have good conversations with myself.  Once it got dark I went to bed, tried to read but just wasn't happening. I laid there listening to every bird and insect in the forest. Eventually I dozed off, only to be awoken by some noise by the shelter. I shined my flashlight in the area and went back to sleep.  In the morning something was messing with my stuff. A sock (that was on my shoe) and a small bottle of hand sanitizer had been knocked off the bench where I left them that night. Probably a raccoon.

I made a little coffee,had a little breakfast, packed up my gear and was back on the trail by 8:30. 

 

Lots of people on the trail today, yesterday I passed a boy scout group from Chicago and today I passed no less that 12 people. Most with large packs like mine. 

Today I had eight miles to go and I did that in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Got back to my car and was home before noon. A nice trip if I say so myself.

The pack was a hit, more comfortable than I expected and sat real well on my back. I also used my inreach communicator for an extended test. No more cell signal issues and you can track my progress- where I am by this site here. It updates my position every 10 minutes. Should have had this in April, could have saved us time and possibly extended our trip, I will have this set up in two weeks to track Mike and I as we travel on the western shore of lake Superior. 

Home improvement

Over the course of the last few weeks, We decided to give the deck a little make over.  We already added the new whiskey barrel planters and painted so other planters but we needed a little more to this 20 year old structure.

I pulled the warped and cracked handrail and replaced it with some nice cedar. Pulled the old broken lighting and set the new handrail back a bit. Then I used some old cedar 4x4 I had in the backyard to make some light posts. Topped that all off with some heavy duty string lights we picked up at Costco.

It really makes the deck nice at night now and adds a little flair as well.

On the River

Two weekends ago we had a crew hit the Milwaukee river in West Bend.  Tracy, Mackenzie, Ryan and I all put in after the Barton millpond dam and did a 4 mile trip.  This is pretty neat because it takes you through (behind) downtown West Bend, under several bridges and through 2 nice parks. The water was a little low that day and we ended up with a bit of scraping at the beginning.  I ran video the whole time and then took to editing it down to a manageable 18 minutes or so.  Som funny spots and nice scenery. Its the first time Tracy had been in her boat in over 2 years because of her hip surgery. She shook the rust off and had a good time.