Sunday night:
Jaxon and Gabe slept in my back yard so their mothers would not have to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get them out the door on time. Chase and Matt planned to ride over together in the morning with Bro. Berg. Bro. Allen was also planning to arrive in the morning with William.
Monday:
We departed at 4:00 a.m. from Bro. Oliver's house. Bro. Allan was driving his large van. Bro Allan, Bro. Oliver, Matt B., Gabe, Chase, Jaxon, and William were in attendance.
We ate breakfast as snacks as we went. The weather was cool and misty across michigan as we traveled. We arrived at the Grand Sable visitors center just before noon on monday. We obtained our permit to stay in the back country and ate our lunch. After making final adjustments we left the trail head around 1:00. The mosquitoes were thick and the weather was cool and wet. The rain was not actively falling but everything was wet. In the first few miles our pants and shoes got wet from the grass and plants. We had to check our map and compass after a few miles to get ourselves oriented because there was no sun. It felt like we were traveling north east but we were really traveling west (which was the correct direction). We hiked about 9 miles before arriving at Au Sable point camp site. We were cold, wet and tired. We set up camp filtered water from lake Superior, cooked dinner and skiped rocks on the beach until about 8:00 then headed for bed.
Tuesday:
We woke up late and made a fire. All the wood was sopping wet. To get the wood to light we had to use some of the alcohol fuel from Bro. Oliver's stove. We tried to dry out our boots without much luck. We had a 12 mile hike this day. We passed the Au Sable light house and started the hike down 12 mile beach. The trail ran along the top of the dunes for most of the way. The weather was wet and cool again. Gabe struggled on this day, moving slowly and not feeling well. He collapsed several times along the trail and left Bro. Oliver and Bro. Allan worried about him. When we arrived in the area of our next camp site around 4:00 we had some trouble finding the site. We had to hike half a mile off the Lake Superior shore to the shore of Trappers Lake where the camp site was located. We set up camp in a misty rain and cooked our supper. Our water filter failed at this point. We managed to filter a few liters at a very slow rate (10 minute per liter instead of the 2-3 liters per minute we expected). We treated some water with iodine tablets but after neutralizing the iodine and adding a propel drink mix the water was undrinkable.
Wednesday.
The weather was wet and cold again. We did not have to move our tents so we were able to leave Gabe at camp to rest. We left william and Bro. Allan to keep an eye on him. The rest of us hiked south of beaver lake along the edge to the beaver basin wilderness area to little beaver lake. We were able to fill up our water bottles at the drive-in camp ground there. We returned to camp by hiking up to lake superior and along the lake superior shore to our camp. The weather was so wet and cold that we spent the evening in our tents keeping warm and dry. Gabe was very discouraged and wanted to go home. We did not have any way of sending him so he had to press on.
Thursday.
We broke camp early, around 8:00, in the misty rain and got on the trail headed to the Coves camp ground. We expected to meet up with Bro. Smith sometime in the morning. He would be starting from Little Beaver Lake Camp Ground and joining us. We would use his car on friday to get Bro. Allan's van to the end of the trail. We started out on the Beaver lake trail for a few miles before heading north to the Lake Shore Trail. We met an other group of hikers at the Lake Shore Trail who told us Someone looking to meet up with us had passed by and was headed for Seven Mile Camp (about 4 miles past the junction where the trail to trappers lake splits off). We continued on, Bro Smith knew where our camp was supposed to be so he would find us eventually. We only had to hike 6 miles and Gabe seemed to manage ok. We finally reached the end of 12 mile beach and started along the section of the lake shore featuring the rocks of Pictured Rocks. We reached camp about lunch time and set up tents. Several scouts were out of water again so we took another trip to little beaver lake camp ground. This time a 6 mile round trip. We kept an eye out for Bro. Smith along the trail. Chase and William made the hike with Bro. Oliver while the others came part way and then returned to camp to wait for Bro. Smith. The weather seemed to dry out a bit and we were able to build a decent fire and dry out some sleeping bags, shoes, tents an clothes before heading down to the beach for a bit of fun. We returned to camp and headed to bed around 8:00.
Friday.
We started out around 8:30 for our last day's hike. Bro. Allan headed to Little beaver camp ground to get Bro. Smith's car and use that to get his van to the point where we would exit the trail. The rest of us headed out. The weather was dryer and somewhat warmer. A cold wind blew off the lake until lunch time. While we ate our lunch the wind died down and we enjoyed some time along the lakeshore in the sun for the first time all week. The cliffs were more impressive as we went along. Many stunning views and overlooks. Gabe was much stronger, strengthened by the promise of heading home by the end of the day. We reached miner's castle, our ending point, around 3:30. We wearily loaded into the van and drove back to Grand Sable to get Bro. Smith's car. The drive home took us until just after mid-night.
The boys had a good time and learned several good lessons. They all finished the trail, even though it was wet, cold and muddy.
Friday
No comments:
Post a Comment