This time in Upper Michigan, over Labor Day weekend.
I had been looking into this one for a while. Something different than the Superior Hiking Trail. Maybe even a little closer. The trails of the Porcupine Mountains set up for a nice loop so that I can leave my car not have to backtrack. For a solo trip, no shuttle, no BS.
I had been talking about my trips with people over the last year or so and some have even shown interest in joining me. I mentioned this trip to my friend, John, and he was all in. John actually has a cabin just outside Iron Mountain so he was familiar with the area. Which was good for to know the ins and outs of getting up there, where to eat etc.
I borrowed John a pack and hammock set up. I really don't have any good tent options for backpacking. He was going to be trying a lot of new things this weekend so it seemed.
On Wednesday afternoon, John picked me up and we drove to Iron Mountain. First we stopped for dinner at Randville Bar and Grill. An interesting place in the UP with a Yeti out front and every species indigenous to the area; fur, fin or feather mounted on the wall inside.
Ate some sandwiches, bought a carry out 6 pack and drove to to Johns. We stayed there for the night.
The next morning we drove to a bit and had breakfast at the aptly named corner cafe. On the corner of the only 2 streets in town. After some coffee and a huge stack of pancakes we made the final part of the drive to the park office to pick up our permits for backcountry and parking.
We get to the Summit Peak picnic area to begin our journey. Today would be the easiest, 11 miles with a gradual decline following the Little Carp River right to the shores of Lake Superior. The weather was perfect, sunny a light breeze and maybe 65 degrees max.
The trail was nice with quite a few scenic spots. This part of the trail is actually a segment of the North Country National Scenic Trail. A trail that is 4600 miles in length. I can now say I hiked on some of the Ice Age, Pacific Crest, Arizona, Appalachian and now North Country National scenic trails.
We also saw a lot of old growth forest here. Including some very interesting trees as well
The little carp river trail, follows and crosses the little carp river (naturally!). Only 2 of those crossings actually have a bridge, the rest is minor boulder hopping. The first one went ok, John ended up getting is feet wet on the final two. Which kind of sucks, but at least it was nice out and not cold.
About 5 hours in we reached the lake shore campsites. Much like the Superior Hiking Trail, you are supposed to stay at the designated sites. It makes sense, you keep the traffic off trail to a minimum and can better maintain fire rings and bear poles. Yeah, bear poles, you know to keep your food away from the bears.
The site we chose was nice, with a great fire pit with almost couch like seating. We ate, relaxed and watched the sun set over the lake.
Having the waves crash all night was the perfect sleep aid. I slept great. Unfortunately, John had a hard first night in a hammock. I half expected this, it's a completely new way to sleep and if not used to it it can be rough.
The second day was very similar to the first. sunny, breezy and high of in the low 70s. The trail today would not be as easy. We had about 8 miles of following the lakeshore followed by about 3 or so miles up to Lake of the Clouds. While not quite in the clouds it was a 900' climb over 2 miles. Over a lot of rocks. We made it.
Tonights site was not as nice as the previous. A little more buggy, a little more still. We set up camp and ate dinner. Had a fire (we had one the night before as well). John was tired, and went to bed. I stayed up a little while longer before I retired.
The next morning the rain started around 4:00 AM and did not stop until 9:30. It wasn't too bad, lying in bed listening to the rain. Eventually, I had to answer nature's call...however, by 9:30 it was only dripping here and there. John said he slept way better last night, which made me feel a little better that's for sure. We had some cold breakfast, but I did make some coffee to ward off the chill.
Before we left today we had to make a choice. Learning from past experiences, I had left us two options for today. Take the longer trail and spend one more night at Mirror Lake (about 9 miles with a 2 mile day four back to the vehicle) or take the shorter trail and be back to the truck this afternoon. John was having some blister problems on one of his toes and due to the rain, we opted for the shorter trail. That's fine by me, live to fight another day.
After all that rain the trail was a mess, very similar to my early May trip in Minnesota. Muddy, slippery and oh for the most part all 6 miles were going up in elevation. That's the downside of starting and ending at a place called Summit PEAK.
Oh yea and on the peak was a look out tower. Why not it's only stairs.
It took us right around 3 hour to get to the truck. Where we changed out of or damp(wet) muddy clothes and gear, popped a beer out of the cooler (still icy cold!) and had a celebratory end of trail drink!
On the way home we stopped for beer and pizza in Ironwood at Cold Iron Brewing. We were talking about burgers and pizza and beer for a good portion of the weekend, so this seemed fitting. Before we made earnest for home I did stop for some UP culinary treasure known as pasties. My Grandma would be proud. I remember getting them when we went with her to visit relatives so long ago.
John dropped me off at home and left to get some sleep in a real bed. Overall not a bad trip. We did around 30 miles total and had great weather 2 of 3 days. John got to experience backpacking. Will he want to do it again? I leave that to him. Knowing my recent run of bad weather outings, he may, just not with me...
Trip Video in process...
