Category: Travel Log

The campsite last night was awesome. There’s absolutely no dew in the morning, and the soft pine needles made me sleep well. In fact, I almost overslept. But I did manage to get out around 6:45 which isn’t too bad.

Lots of mosquitoes came out late last night but this morning there are none. I refilled all my water last night so I am full and ready for a full day of hiking.

And today is one of those interesting days where I’m not sure how it’s going to end out. There is a section of road walking towards the end of the day. I have three options. Option A is the hike a short 18 Mile day and camp out before the road walk. Option B is to have a medium day of about 27 miles and try and get a ride into the town of Merrill and stay in a hotel. Option C is to do the entire road walk and a 32 mile day and camp at the county campground at the end. All three options are equal probabilities at this point.

The morning hiking has many ups and downs. The first landmark is called Tower Hill where there is a communication tower and it just happens to be the highest point on the IAT at just over 1900 ft. So I expected the ups and downs but what I did not expect is this area has been recently timbered so the trail is a bit beat up and not very pleasant to look at.

When I get to the tower it’s not very impressive. There isn’t a view and you’re just looking at a radio tower and a cell tower so there are actually two towers. But there is a bench so I sit and take a little break to have a snack. There are some workers there working on the tower and they look at me like I’m from outer space. I don’t talk with them other than to say hello.

The entire day is more of the same. There are ATV trails all over the place along with other trails like snowmobile trails and eventually mountain bike trails. Only a few sections are wet with dew so my feet stay damp but not really wet.

The major problem with the trails is the sheer quantity of them. There is some sort of intersection about every two or three tenths of a mile. And with so many intersections you’re bound to miss a turn. Throughout the day, I ended up missing three turns. Each mistake involved backtracking about a quarter of a mile for the first two, but the third was a big mistake.

I must have gone down a mountain bike trail for over a mile. When I came to an intersection with four trails I was puzzled to see strange colored markers and nothing yellow. Luckily there was a mountain bike trail map at that intersection, and indeed I have been on a black mountain bike trail for over a mile.

This is not good news when you know you have a potentially 32 mi long day. The mountain bike trail map does have the Ice Age Trail on it as well, so I find two options to get back on track without having to backtrack the entire mile.

One option has me angling a little backwards but directly towards the Ice Age Trail. The other option has me angling forwards and eventually meeting back with the Ice Age Trail. The forwards option looks like it has lots of twists and turns and could potentially have a lot of climbing, but I would waste very little mileage. The backwards option will cost me miles but get me back on the trail quicker. I choose the backwards option because there is less uncertainty.

It takes nearly 30 minutes to get back onto the right Trail. I was expecting it to be more like 15. So the scale of my mistake is actually larger than I thought. No matter I am on the right Trail now and I still have the possibility of completing option C before dark.

This section has two shelters. One looks brand new and one looks only a few years old. They aren’t really set up for overnight camping the way Appalachian Trail shelters are. But they would definitely do in a pinch. They are very well built.

I am doing a two coffee day strategy today. I drink half a coffee at 9:30 then the other half at 11:30. Then my third half coffee at 2:30, and the last half at 4:30. I make it a little later in the day because I know this could potentially be a really long day. But overall the strategy is a success. At no point during the day do I feel tired or sluggish, other than at the end of steep climbs, which is normal.

By the time I get to the last camping area before the road walk it is 4:30 which seems really early in the day to stop so I’m not keen on option A. Despite all the missed turns today I’m surprised I was able to make it this early, but I was hoping to get here a little earlier.

So right now option B has me getting at the first Park at about 6:30, and the option C campsite park at about 8:30. The days are getting shorter and it is getting dark around 8:00 p.m. so option C is not looking great.

I am road walking not quite full speed but very briskly. I don’t want to walk too quickly at the end of the day and overdo it. But at the same time I don’t want to waste any daylight.

I get to the park at exactly 6:30. I only have half a liter of water which is not enough to camp with but there is a hand pump at this park so I go ahead and fill both bottles and camel up at the same time. I open both Uber and Lyft at the same time and try to get a ride into town while I collect water. Neither ride service ends up being able to find a driver which is what I expected.

There are outlets here but they are not functional, and I just discovered that my battery bank is completely drained. Earlier in the day my handheld camera cut out in the middle of the recording because it had run out of battery and so I was charging it for about an hour while hiking. What I didn’t realize is then that one hour it completely drained all of the juice I had remaining.

My phone is down to 40%, which only gives me one day of usage if I conserve. Which means if I can’t charge at the next campground then I will be totally screwed for the next 2 days. The app on my phone is the only way I have to figure out how far it is from point to point, including road walks, camping, and water.

I load my pack back on to my back and get ready to head out for the last half of the road walk. But after only about 10 steps I hesitate and decide to see if I can find a taxi service. There is one so I call and they say they can have a driver there before too long. But they can’t elaborate on what too long is. I will wait 1 hour before giving up on them. That would mean road walking for an hour and daylight and an hour and darkness. Not ideal conditions but things are getting a little dicey here.

In the midst of all of this I also end up breaking my reading glasses. Now a Walmart is even higher on my priority list. After 40 minutes I start to get a little nervous. The park closes at sunset and the residents are all looking at me a little suspiciously. I think they are all assuming that I am going to try and camp here tonight.

Shortly thereafter I get a phone call from my Wisconsin number that I don’t know. I sure hope that this is the taxi service so I answer it. Indeed it is Larry from the taxi and he needs more direction on where this park is. All my fears have melted away with one phone call. His concern is getting to me before dark so he can find me. My concern is him getting me to before dark so I don’t get harrassed by the residents.

I had not made any reservations since I wasn’t sure I could even get into town. But now that I have a phone call I go ahead and book a room. There are three hotels in town, none of them I have points to get for free. So I choose the one that is on the same side of the highway as the Walmart. Cobblestone suites it is.

I checked the weather and all sorts of things in this 40 minutes before I got the phone call. It is supposed to rain beginning at midnight through noon tomorrow. My foot has been sore most of the afternoon, and seeing that there is rain in the forecast and I have a ton of chores to do, I decide to book the room for two nights and take a day off tomorrow. I am still 5 days ahead of schedule so I actually need to start slowing down and this day of rest will help a lot.

He arrived shortly after 7:30, with about 30 minutes of daylight to spare. The sun is just starting to touch the horizon. It is a 15-minute ride into town and he drops me off while there is still a little bit of daylight. I get all the quarters I will need for laundry but I won’t do it until tomorrow. For tonight it is only shower and dinner, and not even any blogging. Five soft pillows have my name written on them.

While the trail guide says today should have been a 28 mile day, my Garmin tells me it was 32 and a half miles. Those missed turns really cost me a lot of mileage. If I had to have hiked the full option C, it would have been a 39 mile day.

That would have definitely forced me to take a zero at the campground, which seems like one of the worst campgrounds on the trail according to the comments in the guide. I am really happy that I was able to get into town after all.

This map will give you a sense of how far I have come across Wisconsin so far. I started on the east side then made my way south. Then headed Westward and took the east side of the little loop in the middle. Now I am about done with moving more northward and it’s all about going Westward towards Minnesota.

Emotion of the day, Frustration

The morning today was fantastic. I was hiking quickly, I had plenty of energy, and the trail was manageable. It’s after my lunch stop at about 1:00 p.m. where things took a turn for the worse.

Missing a turn is common. I have probably missed half a dozen on this trail so far. But to miss three, especially on a day which could be well over 30 miles is disheartening.

The blazing was very inconsistent today. Nearly half the blazes were not the standard 2×6-in yellow box. They were using yellow painted arrows and all sorts of interesting things.

And after backtracking on the first two missed turns, it was a case of walking on a road and the trail jutting out 90° from the road not at an intersection. It’s not uncommon for trails to do this, but there needs to be a post or something visible along the path you’re currently on.

They don’t use posts in this section at all. Yet some other sections use posts even when there’s perfectly good trees they could use.

They also don’t use the double blaze properly. On one of the incorrect turns there was a double blaze pointing me to the left even though I saw a trail leading to the right. This one I discovered within a quarter of mile so it wasn’t too bad. But what looks like happened was there was an original blaze on a piece of bark that was peeling away and they put a new blaze on exposed wood making a double blaze when they really didn’t mean to. Well I fixed that double blaze for them by tearing off the bark with the blaze that had no point in being there. Perhaps this will save the next hiker the same headache.

Not knowing if I would be able to get into the town of Maryland or not was also frustrating. I didn’t expect to get Lyft or Uber service, but those first 40 minutes not knowing if the taxi would really come or not was very unnerving. I was not looking forward to the possibility of road walking in the dark for an hour.

It wasn’t cold last night but it got cold just before daylight. I didn’t have cell service so I couldn’t check the forecast to see what the temperature was but I’m pretty sure it was in the ’40s.

The cold weather makes me get up more slowly than normal. And today similar to yesterday. I was up and moving at about 6:45 which isn’t too bad. I wasn’t really rushing.

The first place I hiked through is Susan Lake area. As soon as I get to the gate I see a sign that says that the entire facility is rented out for a private group with no trespassing signs. The guidebook says that we have access even if it says exactly that. So I might try to run through like I own the place.

Everyone there is still sleeping. No one is camped out but they all seem to be in some sort of a large building up on the hill.

Someone commented in the guidebook that there’s a good campsite overlooking the lake. I find the spot and it is really close to the group building so it would not have been a good place to try and camp last night.

I keep on moving until I get lake access. This is where I will fill up water for the day. The lake water is warm but it filters clear and has no taste.

The entire morning is a mix of dirt roads and purpose trails for the first hour. But then it turns to road walking for about 2 hours. The first road that takes about an hour has maybe two cars that pass me. The second road about the same distance has only one car pass me. These kinds of road walks I don’t mind. They are both heavily wooded and heavily shaded.

It’s still a bit chilly so I hike with my gloves on. The rest of the entire day is a mixed bag of double track dirt roads, small ATV roads, pathways that look like they’re probably snowmobile trails, and some dedicated single track.

I started out wearing my dry socks because I knew about all the road walking early on and I decided I would only stop and switch it became wet grass. Luckily the snowmobile paths have very low grass and they’re already in the sun so my shoes are just barely getting damp.

But I know I have a river crossing coming soon. Some comments in the guidebook say to use the stones, one says cross on a log upstream, and the rest say just wait through it.

When I finally get to it I kind of laugh out loud. It’s barely a stream and more like a creek. I see the rock crossing and the log crossing upstream. Both of them look easy, but the rock crossing is right in front of me so I just walk right across. This is almost not even worth putting in the guide book as a river crossing.

After about another hour, the grass starts getting pretty wet, so I stop and switch to my wet socks. My timing was perfect because within 10 minutes my shoes and socks are soaking wet. I end up having to wear these for about 4 hours until later on when my shoes are dry enough to switch socks.

The trails of also become a little steeper and slow me down a bit. My energy is decent because I’m trying a new coffee strategy today. I make coffee at 9:00 a.m. and only drink half of it. I then drink the other half at 11:00 or 11:30. Then I make coffee again at 1:30 or 2:00 but only drink half. And then drink the other half at 3:30 or 4:00.

I think the strategy works because I have good energy all day and don’t really get tired until after 6:00. I will try this again tomorrow to see if I get the same results.

Late in the afternoon, there is a second river crossing. For this one, no one mentions a way to get across without wading. I reached it about 4:00 p.m. and it is indeed a wide enough river that there’s no other options. It’s about 30 or 40 yards across but less than a foot deep. I could use my flip flops but the banks are muddy so I decide just to use bare feet.

I grab a stick that someone has left on the bank to steady myself and make my way across the river. By the fourth step I regret not wearing my flip-flops. The rocks on the bottom are very jagged and pointed and very painful under your feet. There is grass in the middle that I step on and it does soften the rocks below. I was expecting smooth the river rocks but this is more like lava rock.

As I approach the other side I can see there’s a stream leading into the river. As I approach the bank the water turns ice cold and very painful on your feet. Now I have to deal with sharp rocks and frozen feet.

I make it up onto the shore and just keep walking up the grassy hill because I can see there is an opening. I’m glad I did because there are big concrete blocks to sit on to dry your feet and put your shoes back on. It would have been a royal pain to try and do that in the grass by the bank.

I take a little break, check my maps, drink my coffee, have a little snack. The cold water rejuvenates you but it’s now 4:00 and time for my last half of coffee.

The trail wanders out through a neighborhood onto a small street for about a half a mile. The trail crosses a highway and I can see a bar and grill about a 10th of a mile north. I remember reading a comment in The guidebook about the bar and grill north of the trail being closed. There are two cars in the parking lot but it doesn’t look active like it should at 4:30, so I keep crossing the highway and moving on down the trail.

About a mile from the highway as I am checking my map, I don’t see that same comment about the bar and grill. I have a little bit of internet access so I check Google maps and it says the bar was indeed open.

Now I regret not going to check to see if it was open while I was still there. And there’s no point in backtracking a mile just to go now so I guess it’s one that got away. But a cheeseburger does sound pretty good right now. At least better than mashed potatoes.

The trail now starts doing weird things like going straight up steep banks and then down the other side. This is not the kind of trail I wanted at 5:00 p.m. in the evening. It does start to sap my energy a little bit.

There are two campsites that I will reach about 6:30. There’s a tower on top of the hill that I would reach at 7:30. And two more campsites that I would reach at 8:30. I would doubt I will find camping at the top of the hill so that one is out. And I don’t really feel like hiking all the way until dark so the second set of campsites is out. It looks like the first two campsites are going to be my best bet.

I get to the second campsite right on time and poke around to see where would be a good place to pitch my tent. The official campsite is not bad but it’s a little dirty. But up closer to the trail there are thick blankets of pine needles and flat areas that look even better. I find one the size of my tent and this will be my home for tonight.

I set the tent up and then roll a cut section of log 20 yards from my tent so I can cook dinner. Mashed potatoes and tuna fish, yum.

Emotion of the day, I’m not sure

The morning was nice. The road walks were not hazardous. The early grass trails were not wet. The first river crossing was not existent, and the second one was exactly what I expected.

The afternoon trails were a little annoying. And missing the opportunity for a good dinner was a let down.

But at least the campsite is good, and it wasn’t a too difficult day today. The weather was nice and cool.

So what kind of emotion do you tag to a day that’s just like any other day? It was just the normal routine of hiking. So I guess the emotion would have to be – routine.

It was really cold last night. The forecast said 42 but it felt even colder. I had to wear my beanie and mittens to bed. And this was the first night I was inside the sleeping bag as soon as I laid down.

The cold morning had me getting up a little bit later. I am in no rush today and it would be nice to have the sun a little higher to warm things up once I get walking.

Hunting season started yesterday and I can hear shooting in the distance. I would also like there to be daylight before I’m wandering around in the woods.

I did not get rolling till after 6: 45. My first job for the morning is to head to the lake and fill up with water. There is a steep trail down to the water and there is steam coming off the water into the air. As I am filling up the water bladder, I can tell the water is actually on the warmish side. This is definitely not a stream.

But the water tastes good so I camel up and fill up both bottles. I really only needed to fill up one of the bottles, as I never touched any of the water in the bigger bottle. With the cool weather yesterday I didn’t need as much water as I thought.

The trail all morning is a mix of dedicated single-track trail, narrow ATV trails, grassy skiing trails, or muddy double track forest roads. There is enough tree cover over the grassy areas that it is not soaking wet so my shoes stay almost dry for the first 3 hours of the morning. But the skiing trails eventually get out in the open and the grass is soaking wet. Within 10 minutes My shoes are soaked and it’s after 11:00.

I’m feeling sluggish this morning, so I go ahead and make a coffee but only drink half of it. It definitely helps, but drinking the whole thing probably would help even more.

I stopped for lunch at a campsite on a lake that has a nice bench overlooking the lake. There was a section hiker there when I got there and we chatted a few minutes and then she moved on.

Lunch today is the French bread toasted with butter and garlic that I bought at the bakery in Antigo. They are pretty good, but they are bulky. I wish I could get these again but that was a one-time purchase. They are kind of like bagel chips but much bigger.

I also take the opportunity to take my shoes and socks off and let my shoes and insoles dry and put my dry socks on. It is now 1:00 so I feel safe that the grass should be dry now.

The next highlight of the day is a county park at Jack’s Lake. The trail enters the park and circles a really nice lake in an area with lots of evergreens. The trail then approaches the campground where I stop and refill my water bottles and take a little break. If I was going to be here longer I probably would have charged my phone too.

There is a small road to exit the park and enter the ski area. Next to the parking lot of the ski area is a warming hut. It’s a building with picnic tables inside and a stove/fire place. You’re not allowed to camp here but it would be an awesome break in the winter time.

The trail then heads down more ski trails and snow shoe trails. But in this area the bugs are insane. I have to use both bug spray and my head net and I’m still going a little crazy.

A few miles later another shelter shows up that is similar to the first one, but this is a wood fireplace instead of a gas one. This one also does not have electricity whereas the first one did. The mosquitoes are still bad in a few of them follow me into the hut so I still don’t get any relief from them. I might as well keep going.

I have finished all my coffee and the mosquitoes are still driving me crazy but I still have almost 2 hours of hiking to get to where I intend to stop. The afternoon just drags on. I don’t want to make a second coffee but if this happens again tomorrow I will.

The area I’m headed for is another park area on a different lake. Some of the comments in the guide says there’s a good camping spot by the lake. But when I’m still half a mile away, I see a good spot. There’s lots of pine trees and it looks like there’s plenty of flat areas. I make my way over there and there are indeed many good places to pitch the tent. So I find one as far away from the road as I can get and set everything up.

By now the mosquitoes are gone so I’m able to make my mashed potatoes away from the tent and eat in peace. I still have the honey bun that I bought at the bakery and so that becomes dessert. It’s just too big and messy to try and eat for breakfast. It’s quite good but I bet it was closer to amazing when it was fresh. It’s almost 2 days old by now.

The temperature isn’t nearly as cold tonight as it was last night. I’m in my usual shorts and t-shirt and when I get into the sleeping bag I’m actually too warm. This is more how most of the other nights have been so I should be pretty comfortable. But I know exactly where my beanie and mittens are just in case.

Emotion of the day, Tired

I was tired most of the day today. I didn’t sleep that well last night but that shouldn’t make that big of a difference since I rarely sleep well any night while I’m camping. I did only make one coffee and maybe I should have made two. It was a relatively long day from 6:45 to 6:30 and yet I only went 25 miles.

Ski trails are up and down hills so the hiking is slower, not to mention dodging mud puddles and tip toeing around wet grass when possible.

I hope I sleep well tonight because I have another 25 or 26 mile a day tomorrow. The thought of going over 30 right now just doesn’t seem realistic unless I overdose on coffee. But that’s an escalating battle that I will never win.

It’s just impossible for me to sleep past 5:00 in the morning. Breakfast doesn’t start till 7:00 so there’s no reason to get up before 6:30. So why am I awake at 5:00? I might as well get up and do a little bit more planning.

Walmart opens at 6:00 so I can go check on replacing my fuel canister and see if they have any reasonable shoes. The fuel canister I bought in Green Bay I don’t think matches the threads on my stove perfectly. It’s very hard to screw on without releasing a lot of gas and it sometimes comes off with less than a 10th of a turn and that scares me. Even though I have plenty of fuel I think it’s worth buying a different brand at Walmart and seeing if that screws on and off any better.

I hit the Walmart at 6:10 and there’s only one other customer in the entire store. On the shoe front, they have what I expected – their own off brands. The only shoes they have with an aggressive tread seem very stiff and heavy and look like they would cause me blisters within 5 miles. It’s not worth the $28 experiment, but the stove fuel is definitely worth a $6 experiment.

Back at the hotel I tried the new canister and it fits much, much better, Even though I now added an extra 100 g in fuel I don’t need, at least I don’t think I will blow myself up or have the stove fail when I need it to cook something I can’t cold soak. With what I have now I could probably just cold soak everything, but I do plan on getting more backpacker meals at the next Super Walmart if I end up going into the town of Merrill.

I take the stove outside on the old canister and just open the valve all the way to vent out all the gas. These things are dangerous to throw away if they have even the least amount of residual fuel in them. I was surprised at how long it took to vent a half a canister. It must have been 20 to 25 minutes at least. But I finally got it completely vented and felt okay about throwing the canister away.

Breakfast is what you expect at a Holiday Inn Express. Pre-made cheese omelets, a pancake machine, yogurt, and their signature cinnamon buns. There are bagels and toast and muffin like things but I usually steer clear of those unless everything else is horrible. Their juice machine had an orange guava passion fruit thing that’s pretty good, so I have one of those and one cup of coffee.

There is a Dunham Sports store a quarter mile away, but they don’t open until 10:00. I also doubt they will have suitable shoes for me, but at least they would be better than Walmart shoes.

I go ahead and start packing everything up, and to my delight, all my food does fit comfortably in my food bag except for the big bag of potato chips. I will have to carry that in the outside pocket.

I am already to go at 9:00 and make a judgment call that it’s not worth hanging out for another hour just for the slim chance of finding new shoes. I will take my chances that I will be able to have the shoes I bought in Green Bay shipped to a campground that I think I will be at next Tuesday or possibly even Monday. Anything else is too soon because it’s Labor Day weekend and nothing would happen until Tuesday anyway. I should be in the town of Merrill by Thursday, but two days it’s just not enough to get the shoes there in time.

So I strike out at 9:00 along the busy highway. There is no sidewalk or shoulder near the stores where I’m at, so I’m walking through the parking lot. I am beginning to think that taking this highway out of town may have been a mistake.

But as soon as the stores end, a big wide beautiful shoulder appears four feet paved and eight feet of gravel. Despite the large number of cars on the road this is actually exactly what I’m looking for – something big and wide and not sloped. I have about 8 mi to hike on this highway and even though the shoulder does narrow slightly to two feet of paved and six feet of gravel it is still more than enough to feel safe and hike comfortably.

The weather is very cool – about 52° with a strong wind about 15 miles per hour and scattered clouds. When the sun is behind the clouds it’s quite cold, but it doesn’t last long before the sun comes out and makes everything warm and toasty. It’s too windy to use the umbrella, so I put on sunscreen and just walk in and out of the sun and shadows.

The hike on the road goes much quicker and effortlessly than I expected and I am in the town of Polar by 11:45. This is perfect timing because the only thing in the town of Polar is a bar and grill and they open at noon. So I sit down in a shady spot to cool off and catch up on email and other tasks until they open.

I am the only one in the bar at noon when I go in and I’m still the only one at 12:30 when I leave. A burger and fries for $11 is about the most economical and reasonable meal I’ve had on this trip. I fill my water bottles and take off on more road walking, but this time they are all tiny back roads. For the next 6 miles of road walking I think I only see four cars.

Near the end of the road walk is an interesting house. There is a trail angel named Terry who has a million signs and all sorts of decorations outside his house. One of the signs says ring the bell, so I ring the bell. I am alarmed at how loud it is. No one must be home cuz no one ever comes out, but I spend a few minutes reading all the signs and just looking at all the decorations and taking in the sights.

After 5 minutes or so I resume my hike down the road for another mile until it turns into trail. And in this case trail means snowmobile trail. The trail begins following ATV and snowmobile trails for many miles, but I have no idea how many of next 30 miles are going to be just like this.

I know the next official campsite is too far, but I’m sure I’ll find something suitable along the way. My plan is to just keep hiking until about 7:00 or 7:30 and then look for some place to pitch my tent. I know there is a ski resort near that point where I won’t be able to camp for a mile or two. But I should find something before or after that.

Along the trail are notes for sites called frost pockets. To me they just look like sink holes or kettles. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be looking at. All I can see is a depression in the ground filled with trees and undergrowth so you really can’t tell something special is there or not. It’s not called a kettle so it must be different. 

The trail keeps switching between snowmobile trails, ATV trails, double track, or single track. Some of it is a little muddy and some of it is a little overgrown. It changes elevation sometimes gently and sometimes more abruptly. It’s a wide array of trail but it all looks pretty much the same and is easy hiking.

When I get to the end of the ski area it opens up into a large downhill area and a few buildings. I hear the water is off and I know there is a lake a few miles away so I don’t bother checking out the buildings. It is just a few minutes before 7:00 and I want to get to the next section so that I can begin to look for a campsite.

When I get to the exit of the ski area and cross the road, the next section is not marked as private property. Hooray! The only problem is the terrain is a little more steep, a little more rocky, and a little more thickly wooded with undergrowth. It may be difficult to find a site here.

But somewhere between the road and the lake I do find a suitable spot that is just big enough for my tent and clear of rocks. I have the tent set up quickly then go about eating my frozen and leftover burritos that I carried out from town.

Then I get the inside of the tent set up as usual and begin blogging. Welcome to the daily grind.

Emotion of the Day, Exhilaration

Having the weather be this cool all day long was really refreshing. Only where my hip felt touched my back was I sweating. My upper back stayed dry all day. And at the end of the day I don’t feel all sticky and clammy. My shirt and pants were dry by the time I finished dinner. Such a stark contrast to the heat wave a week ago.

The highway road walk ended up being perfectly fine with no issues. It’s nice to be on a section of actual trail that will last for more than a day. And the trail itself is not too bad.

I had fun eating lunch at the bar and grill too. The waitress was very curious about long distance hiking and the hiking culture. She only sees a hiker every few weeks. If her bar were on the Appalachian Trail she would be seeing 30 to 50 a day.

I was only planning on hiking 20 miles today. But the cool weather and the easy terrain just made them melt away. I think I ended up with about 26 or 27 for the day. That’s not bad considering I didn’t start until 9:00 a.m.

It was just a fun day to be hiking today.

I had to break my 6:20 streak so I purposely refrained from packing anything until after 6:20. But apparently my idea of sleeping in is leaving at 7:00. It’s just really hard to lay in a smelly tent in the woods and do nothing.

The morning is nice and cool and the sun is shining brightly. There is not a cloud in the sky. You at the forecast is for the high to be only 73°, which sounds divine.

I have a few miles of this Trail in the hunting grounds left to hike this morning. Although this end of the trail is actually private land. Once I break out onto the road it’s going to be roads all the way into town, except for one tiny section that is less than a mile.

The trail is somewhat unremarkable. It has a few hills, it has mostly hardwood trees, it has a tiny bit of meadows, and it has a few rocks strewn about.

After three or four miles of walking on roads with very few cars I come to the tiny trail section that was the stretch goal for last night. It is in a chunk of woods that have been recently forested. So that all is left is some straggly trees, a bunch of stumps, and weedy vines everywhere.

When I get to the designated camping area I signed the register but don’t bother to take the side trail to the actual camping spot. If I had busted my ass and hiked here until 9:00 in the dark last night I think I would have been pretty pissed off. The other camping sites have been pretty decent but this one looks lousy. So far on this trip I have been pleased with my campsite selections.

Soon it is back to road walking. But not until I sit on a stump and make powdered coffee. I am dragging a little bit this morning and would rather have the energy to finish the eight or nine miles of roads into town with a little pep in my step.

Coffee does work wonders for hiking. Within 10 or 15 minutes my pace is pretty brisk. The roads passed by a few dairies and a lot of corn and alfalfa fields. But here they are growing something that I have no clue what it is. They are making mounded rows about 4 ft wide with a deep ditches between them and then putting fence posts along them to suspend black shade cloth. I saw the same crop a few days ago but I’m getting a better view of it now as they are just putting up the covering. If there was someone around I would have stopped and asked them what they were growing. I didn’t think to take any pictures.

The roads slowly turn rural residential. Someone is trimming their apple tree and just dropping the apples on the yard. If I hadn’t just had coffee probably would have asked them if I could have had the apples. Finding apples has been a good pick me up in the afternoons.

I hit the edge of town at about 11:00. Hotel check-in is not until 3:00 p.m. but I can probably get an early check in but not this early. I have already spied a Chinese buffet on Google maps and it is my first target. It is only two blocks from the hotel.

I shift my hiking direction to take me to the main Street going through town so that I can see the businesses. In just a few blocks up the street I spot a bakery. If I can get some fresh baguettes that would be wonderful. The ones from Walmart just aren’t cutting it. They are intended to be taken home and baked so they can brown. When they are only partially cooked they just don’t have the same magic. But I am horrified to discover that they don’t have baguettes. The closest thing they have are sliced French bread with garlic butter toasted on them. Why not try something new.

Not many of the other businesses catch my eye. There are far fewer restaurants than I expected. But as I near the hotel it becomes suburban mall territory. Every fast food chain you can think of is represented. But I make a beeline for the Chinese buffet and get there at about 12:30. Perfect timing. I stopped snacking after I drank the coffee so that I would purposely be hungry for this.

Inside it is exactly what you would expect. One giant row of Chinese dishes and one row of the exact same chintzy desserts that all Chinese buffets have. I am here for the meat and vegetables. Three plates and I am done. On the Pacific Crest Trail I ate six plates. But that was after doing about a thousand more miles than I have done on this trip so far. Speaking of which, I passed the 700 mile mark at some point today.

After the big meal I want nothing more than to nap. It’s still a bit early to check into the hotel but I spot a gigantic tree next to it casting wonderful shade on the grass. I had straight there and veg for about 30 minutes reading emails and catching up on things. It was just what the doctor ordered.

I head into the hotel about 1:30 to see if they’ll let me check in early. They usually do and they do this time as well. I get change and soap for the laundry because that is chore number two. Chore number one is shower, of course.

While I am doing laundry I come back and clean other things in the room that smell to high heaven. The foam sleeping pad and the inflatable sleeping pad that I use both smell pretty bad. I sandwich my dirty clothes between the two layers every night. And it only occurred to me a few days ago that maybe that’s where a lot of the smell is coming from. They both get a thorough cleaning and drying.

I should watch the tent too but I’m just going to dry it out this time. Every time I come back to the room the first thing I notice is that it smells like hiker feet. There is still more cleaning to do.

And speaking of cleaning, my shoes now are officially dirty and they are officially smelly. 700 miles is about the right amount of distance to get on a pair of shoes. These have very little wear on the uppers, but I noticed the souls are starting to wear flat. This is why I have been slipping on the mud. I have a new pair of shoes waiting to be sent to me but now I have to figure out where they can send them that is far enough ahead of me that I won’t get there too early or the package be late and not be able to pick them up.

Today is opening day for the Florida Gators football team. I put on the game while I’m doing other chores and watch the Miami hurricanes destroy the poor Gators. I should have put the game on mute so I didn’t have to hear it.

The rest of the chores are planning out the next few hundred miles, shopping for groceries at Walmart, and grabbing a burrito at the taco joint next door. This Walmart did not carry backpackers pantry dehydrated meals. But I checked the website of the next one I will hit and the do. So for the next several evenings dinner will be mashed potatoes again.

Back at the hotel it’s more chores and blogging and watching some other team play football. I do turn the sound off this time. I have the next 6 to 8 Days planned but I still don’t know where to send the shoes yet. The West side of the trail has far fewer options than the East side did.

I will plan to leave the hotel no earlier than 8:00 tomorrow. That is going to have to be my version of sleeping in. They don’t start breakfast until 7:00 a.m. on weekends anyway.

Emotion of the day, Relaxed

Even though sleeping in really only equated to 40 minutes, that small amount of time set the pace for the day. I was in no rush to do anything or to go anywhere. And the only annoying part of the day was the small section of trail in the logged area.

I took a break under a tree when I got to town. I took a break under a tree after eating lunch. Most of my chores I could do laying in bed. It sounds like a day off if I wasn’t so busy. But I like keeping busy.

Apparently I also like napping under shade trees.

This morning I tried to wake at a slower pace and head out a little later than usual. I’m not far away from the town of hatley where the Dollar General is. They don’t open till 8:00 so there’s no point in getting there before then. But guess what time it was when I hit the trail? It was exactly 6:20 there is something either magical or cursed about that time.

It was supposed to rain pretty strongly during the evening but it was only a gentle rain for 30 minutes or so with very little wind. The tent would have been dry in the morning if not for the wet leaves dripping on it all night long. Nothing in the tent got wet but everything is clammy.

There is still a slight mist in the air that forces me to use the umbrella. The one mile of trail to begin the morning is dropping water from all the leaves. And then the next 4 miles are going to be road walking on my least favorite road that I was walking on last night.

The mist is strong enough the umbrella keeps both me and my pack dry. I have my rain jacket draped over the back of the pack to keep the back half dry since the umbrella won’t reach back that far.

There is enough traffic that I have to stop and walk down the bank when a car comes by. There’s just not enough shoulder to safely deal with the traffic. And with the grass on the shoulder being completely wet I don’t want to walk through it I just want to get off the road. So the three or four miles into town take a little bit longer than usual.

I make it to the Dollar General 10 minutes before 8:00. The Frito-Lay delivery driver and another customer are already waiting up front for them to open. There is no overhang on a Dollar General building to keep you dry so I have to figure out which side offers the most protection from the mist.

I might as well make it a productive 10 minutes, so I start eating things that are almost done so I can throw the packaging away. The can of Pringles is the first to go. The Gatorade electrolytes is the second thing to go.

When the store opens, I buy my supplies. A bottle of water, two coffee drinks, cheese and crackers, a can of SpaghettiOs. One coffee drink in the SpaghettiOs or breakfast. The rest is going with me for the rest of the next two days.

The town of Hadley is very small. As I hike through it the Dollar General is the only store of consequence to a hiker. There is a small post office in the center of town but I don’t think I need to mail anything back. On the far side of town are the things like gas stations that a town would need but it is too far for a hiker to bother with. The Dollar General is all I need.

The trail leaves town on a rail trail. It is still misting but the trees protect me and keep me dry. And every time I think I don’t need the umbrella and put it up a strong gust of wind will come by and shake all the water out of the trees. It’s just easier to keep carrying it and avoid getting wet.

After only a mile or two, the trail leaves the rail trail and becomes a dedicated trail. I will be on mostly dedicated trail for at least the next 10 miles. It’s a nice section of Trail. It’s not very steep it’s not very rocky and it’s not a meadow walk. But it is a little overgrown so I’m still getting wet.

When lunch time comes, I am walking in an easement on private property. I find a good stump to sit on and break out the Michelina’s I bought at yesterday’s Dollar General. The hamburger macaroni is not all that great. The chicken fettuccine alfredo was much better. I think I will stick with that flavor from now on.

The next stretch of trail is on a dirt road. Normally roads, even dirt ones, would be colored green and be connectors. But this road is part of the official Trail. From looking at the map and seeing how straight the trail was, I assumed it was just walking the edge of a field. It makes no difference. In the several miles I walked it there was not a single car anyway.

The next sign I come to tells me this is the Thornapple Creek section. This is one of the two sections that the folks at the IAT headquarters let me know would be closing on September 1st due to hunting. Good thing is only August 30th so I am able to hike through this section instead of having to road walk around it.

It is basically a giant private hunting area. It is also very swampy. The trail is very muddy and I’m finding my shoes are very slippery on the mud. I lose my balance at one point and have to step directly into a mud puddle to keep from falling. My entire left foot up to my calf is covered in mud. Oddly that foot isn’t really any wetter since it’s been mostly wet all day anyway.

The signage regarding the hunting closure was very confusing, so I’m glad that it wasn’t actually closed for me. If I was here two days later I probably would have had to backtrack at least some of what I hiked.

The trail exits into another mile or so of road to get to the next section. There are two nice benches when I get to the next trail so I stop and have a snack and try and dry out some of my wet things.

The bonus to this particular stopping location is that there are blackberry bushes filled with bright blackberries within arms reach of the benches. So I am drying my shoes and socks off sitting in my bare feet eating blackberries. I feel like a mobility impaired bear. I probably sat there for close to 30 minutes drying and eating.

This section of Trail leads to the Eau Claire River. It takes a while to get to the river but once it does it is a stunning site. There are large evergreen trees of all types lining the river making for a surrealistic hiking trail. And the river itself has lots of rocks and rapids in it. I don’t ever see any kayakers on it so it might actually be too many rapids for that kind of sport.

The trail crosses the river on a footbridge and now I am in the county park which was one of my original camping spots. But it is still early afternoon way too early to stop and camp. I am skirting the edge of the campground facilities the whole time and never really see anything but the river. I do probably see 50 day hikers in the park, though.

When I exit the park it is back to road walking. I have another long straight 4-mile road to walk. But to my surprise it is a dirt road and I do not see a single car for the entire length that I am walking it. It is one of the best road walks yet.

The next section of trail is on public hunting lands and is about 5 miles long. There is a stream in the middle of it so my plan is to go to at least this point and then see if there is a decent camping spot within the property. If I don’t find a decent campsite then I will have another 5 Mile road walk to an official disbursed camping area. It would be 8:30 or possibly later by the time I hit that official campsite, so I am hoping to find something in the hunting grounds.

When I get to the stream, it is an awesome stream. It is clear cool water, and there are so many rocks around that it is really easy to collect. There are also plenty of trees and hanging the bag to let gravity filter the water for me is a very easy task. I go ahead and camel up as I am filling up with 3 liters of water. This is probably my last water for tonight and all of tomorrow until I get to town.

The map shows this as swampland but it’s really just a stream and more of a bog than a swamp. There is a tremendous amount of rock work and puncheon boards to keep hikers feet dry. And I can tell that much of it is brand new. You can still smell the freshly cut wood on some of the boards. Very few of them even have muddy footprints on them.

The trail crosses another swampy area on a really long boardwalk. There will definitely be no camping on this mile of trail. But as the boardwalk ends in the trail ascends some of the higher terrain it is looking ideal for camping. I find a good site and notice a private property marker just a few feet behind the side I pick. I got lucky tonight.

The tent is still a little wet so I go ahead and set it up and let it dry while I cook dinner. I try a new technique with rehydrating the mashed potatoes by pinching the corners of the bag to try and force any dry bits from accumulating while I stir. It works much better and I only get one tiny little lump of dry potatoes. Tonight’s flavor was baby reds and I added some Irish butter and parsley to it. Some pepperoni and buttered bread accompanies my meal.

By the time dinner is done, the tent is about 90% dry which is good enough to start throwing everything inside and getting ready. At least the inside seems completely dry. Now let’s hope for good cell signal so that I can check mail and do the blogging.

Emotion of the day, Happiness

Not everything went perfectly today. I had a lot of overgrown and wet trail to hike. Between that and the rain my pants and shoes were soaking wet for at least half of the day. I also had to hike several more miles on a really busy road in the rain with everyone trying to get to work. And I slipped on mud and dunked a shoe in muddy water. These are not normally happy things.

But I got to the Dollar General and got everything that I needed for the next 2 days. I had SpaghettiOs for breakfast. Note to self don’t get SpaghettiOs with meatballs anymore. I had a coffee drink for both morning and afternoon so my energy level was high all day long.

And today was more trail than road. The really nice trail along the river would easily make anyone happy. The trail with all the mud didn’t even bother me. The later trail with all the rock and woodwork was very nice hiking.

The temperatures were cool all day, even when the sun did come out. When I sat on the benches drying out my shoes it actually felt good to dry myself out as well. That’s how the sun should be, a warming sensation – not a misery machine.

Other than the first hour of the day on the busy road I was in a good mood all day long. You don’t always get happy days like today, so I’m glad to have had this one.

I got up early this morning, started going through my routine, and I still couldn’t get going before 6:20. This seems to be some sort of magical time that I just can’t beat. Today I decided if I go 30 miles or 38 miles for the day. Leaving 20 minutes late means there’s one mile less that I can do today.

I have been lucky lately with finding trees to camp under. Packing the tent up in the morning means it is only dirty but not wet. The hardest part about packing up is picking slugs off the tent before I roll it.

The trail is pretty hilly this morning. The coach at the snow park warned me that this was going to be an annoying little section. He was right but it’s only about a half a mile of annoying ups and downs. There are far more lakes than it looked like on the map. And they have to take us by every single one of them.

Within the first 2 hours of the morning all of the trail sections are done for the day. My first Target is the town of Rosholt. It is just over 10 miles from where I can’t and has a Dollar General and might have some open restaurants.

The roads are pretty desolate and it is not bad hiking. At the town of Alden I am turning West to go into Rosholt, instead of continuing North. After going to town I will turn north and rejoin the suggested route that is it is making its way west.

The road into town is busy but there is four foot of paved shoulder and 2 ft of gravel beyond that. Within a mile it changes to a sidewalk all the way through town. I like sidewalks.

I first come to a gas station and need to rest a little bit. I sit outside and take my shoes and socks off to let my feet dry from the morning dew. There is no point in going in the store. Anything I need to buy in there I can buy at the Dollar General for half the price.

There is one restaurant in town called Granny’s place that is open. I head there and see that they are feeding the football team out behind the building. Inside the building there are only one or two tables occupied. I order a breakfast skillet and it hits the spot.

I keep walking through town to go to the Dollar General at the other end. I buy some granola bars, beef jerky, and some chips for the walk today. I also decide to try the frozen dinner thing again so I buy another Michelina’s. I also buy a pint of ice cream which gets consumed quickly.

Now I am back to road walking. As soon as I turn north I will be on the same road that the official route merges into. The scary part is that I will be on the same road for 4 hours. For solid hours, no turns, no bins, no change.

This road ends up putting me to sleep. So the solution for that is coffee of course. The Dollar General did not have anything convenient so I make another Cafe Bustelo. I will need to count how many I have left to make sure I don’t run out before the end of the trail.

I have pretty good cell service so I go ahead and check to see if the hotel I want in Antigo is still booked on the day I need. And just my luck they now have an availability.

Now is decision time. If I still want to try and do 38 miles today I can get the room a day earlier for a cheaper rate. But looking at how far I have left to go I don’t think it is possible for me to do 38 miles before dark. Sticking to the original schedule would still make for a 30 mi day. And it looks like I only have time for about 34 miles today.

So the decision is made. Book The room for Saturday and stick to the original schedule. I remember that I have a free night certificate so I am able to use that and not burn up 40,000 points on one room. That makes me happy. Today is looking better.

Or at least today would look better if I didn’t have to still look at this same road for another hour. I really want to get off this road.

Looking at the weather forecast it has changed just a little bit. Instead of just raining all night, it looks like it’s going to rain around 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. and then midnight onward. I doubt I can make the campsite before the rain starts.

And that is exactly what happens. I am a mile and a half in the campsite which is 30 minutes of hiking when the rain begins. I don’t want everything to be soaking wet because my pack is part of my pillow system. Rain at the end of the day is never fun.

But I got lucky this time. As I am wrapping my rain jacket around the pack to keep it dry I noticed that there looks like a restaurant up ahead. I quickly hike there and see that it is indeed a restaurant that wasn’t listed on the map. They have an awning on the side of their building so it looks like a great place to wait out the rain. It’s not supposed to last more than an hour.

But since it is 6:00 anyway I decide to go ahead and eat dinner here. It was a good choice, because I am able to charge my phone and battery bank. And in addition the rain stops about 20 minutes before I leave. Perfect timing.

This last road has been a four mile chunk on a busy highway. It is full of traffic of people coming home from work. But I only have a little over a mile left from the restaurant. The bad part is the shoulders are now soaking wet. So I have to stop and carefully walk down the shoulder about every minute for another car. It is the most annoying mile of the day.

I finally get to the trail section. It is less than a mile of trail but it has a designated campsite. The bad part is the map shows this to be swamp. I hope there will be dry camping under trees and not in grass.

I do see swampy areas around me, but the trail is high and dry among pine trees. This is exactly what I’m looking for. The designated site doesn’t really have flat camping areas. So I get a little creative and pitch my tent on the side of the approach trail. I will have some protection from the rain tonight.

Since I just ate dinner at a restaurant I don’t have to do any cooking tonight. Once everything is set up it is go straight to blogging. The cell signal is not great but it’s good enough to get the text going. But the images are a bit slow and sometimes through errors. But I have a freshly charged phone so what’s with retrying them so I don’t have to do it later.

That has been one thing I enjoy about doing this blog. and because I forced myself to write the blog every single day, I won’t fall behind and end up quitting the blog. Even if I have no cell signal I will dictate to an email and just paste the email at some future date. Pictures are harder and take about 25% of the total time it takes to write one of these blogs. But typically they take about an hour as long as the cell signal is good.

Emotion of the day, Relief

This trail is not like most hiking trails. On a trail like the AT or the PCT, I basically just figure out how many miles per day I want to go and I go that many miles plus or minus a few. There will usually be campsites nearby or I can just stealth camp in many situations.

But with this Trail the road walks dictate when you can stop. It makes it much harder to set a schedule and nearly impossible to alter it. That’s the situation I was in trying to book a room in Antigo.

based on the distances I can go in a day, I only have a very few set of options. In this 5-day stretch of trail there are only seven places to camp. That doesn’t give you a lot of options.

So with the Labor Day weekend looking up the one hotel I needed on the one day I needed it, this has been a nightmare section logistically.

I have been checking availability every day in the hopes that a cancellation would open up a room. I got very lucky today. I know I have a room booked. I don’t have to blast out a 38 mile burner. Or I don’t have to figure out how to slow down for a full day.

I got what I needed on the day that I need it and that is a huge relief.

I slept really well last night. It was probably the best night of sleep on the entire trip so far. I woke up at 5:00 so I started reorganizing and packing things early. I still have not gone through my food bag to see if I need food or not. If I do need more food then I have to wait till 8:30 for Aldi to open. That means I will probably not get to start hiking until 9:30 or possibly later.

Breakfast at the hotel is probably the worst of the trip so far. It is either Cheerios or Raisin Bran cereal and bagels. No protein whatsoever. And the orange juice machine shoots out water that isn’t even colored orange. The coffee machine is not any better. It ends up shooting out something that looks weaker than iced tea. It has a faint coffee flavor but that’s about it.

After going through my food bag and reorganizing everything, I figured out that I don’t really need to buy any more food. But the Subway next door opens in about 5 minutes, so that would be something delicious to pack out for lunch. So I go grab a sub and wrap it tightly and put it next to my umbrella.

I tried Uber and Lyft again just to see if by chance they have drivers that work the morning just not the evenings. No such luck, but the taxi is now open because it is after 8:00. I call for the taxi and by the time I get my pack and go to the front, he is already there. Way faster service than last night.

I am at the trailhead and hiking before 8:30. This is far earlier than I was expecting to be able to get out of this town and that is a good thing.

The first few miles are all walking in grassy areas adjacent to fields.I purposely wanted my damp socks on because I knew I was going to get wet this morning. I am not soaking wet, but my feet are definitely far from dry.

The morning is a mix of 2 miles of road 2 miles of trail 2 miles of road, etc.. On the second or third roadwalk I can see two walkers way ahead in the distance. By the time we are close enough to see each other, they are indeed hikers because they have backpacks and trekking poles.

It turns out they are The Honeymoon Hikers. They hiked the AT for their honeymoon several years ago. They have hiked many different trails including the Mountains to Sea trail which they said had the worst road walks they ever experienced. They have also thru hiked to the Appalachian trail four times.

We exchange emails because they have a complete list of all the trail Angels for all chapters. I only have the ones at the beginning in the end for getting shuttles to and from the trail. The list is massive and it will take a long time to sift through what I actually need. The hardest part is figuring out what section I am actually in at any given time.

They tell me the rest of the trail westward is quite desolate and they needed to rely on the trail angels quite frequently. They also said the trail is pretty wet in many places. I reciprocate on intel on the eastern side. After the 15 minute chat we part ways and they let me know of another hiker a day behind them named Eric.

I continue my road walk to the last trail section before it turns into a longer 10 plus mile road walk. It is 11:00 by the time I am just about done with the last trail section so I go ahead and stop and eat the first half of my sandwich. It is good, but not scrumptious.

By noon I am on the major road walk for the day. The roads all morning have been very desolate with only one car per hour in most cases. There are only two short sections on busy highways, but they pass by quickly.

I end up at a small bridge over a creek when it is time for the second half of the sandwich at 2:00. There is a concrete railing and it makes a great sitting spot to eat and take my shoes and socks off and let my feet dry.

My shoes are dry enough but the socks are still damp. I change into my dirty but dry socks hanging from the back of the pack before I leave.

I go ahead and mix my coffee, but I don’t drink it until 2:30. It is a Cafe Bustello plus a sugar packet. I am still amazed at how little time needs to elapse after drinking coffee and sugar before my energy level increases. 10 minutes is all it takes in most cases.

The weather all day has been divine. The temperature in the afternoon is almost identical to the temperature in the morning. There has been very heavy cloud cover all day, and I haven’t even seen the sun. This is perfect because the temperature probably never peaks above 72 or 73°. I only break a sweat on steep uphill sections. Most of the time I am cool and only barely clammy.

The big roadwalk section ends at a snow park. When I arrive it is full of 20 or 30 kids doing some sort of exercises. The leader of the group talks to me for 20 minutes or so and tells me about the various features in the snowpark that are available to Ice Age Trail hikers. The main thing I am interested in is a water. I started from the hotel with two and a half liters and I still have a half a liter. I have hiked 23 miles and only drink two liters of water. That’s how cool it is today. And that also included making coffee.

After I get my water bottles filled, the caretaker drives around and it’s time to chat with him. I chat with him for at least 30 minutes. He tells me some of the history of the park and how he had to convince the snow park to solicit the IAT to bring the trail into the park 30 years ago. We talked about all sorts of topics – the space shuttle, real estate, IT technology, and of course hiking and skiing.

Other than water and electrical outlets, the main attraction for IAT hikers is the shelter one mile up the trail. It has electrical lights and outlets. I will go check it out, but I’m planning on trying to go a little further.

I have spent an hour talking to people so far, but there’s still plenty of daylight left. When I get to the shelter there is another hiker with his hammock strung up inside of it. The Honeymooners said there is another hiker named Eric behind them and this is indeed Eric. In fact he already knows my name so that Honeymooners have let him know about me heading his direction.

Eric and I spend at least another half hour talking. He was considering hiking the Florida Trail so we talk about that for much of the time and how it is both similar and different to the Ice Age trail.

It is now close to 7:30 and I only have about 1 hour of daylight left. I was trying to go three more miles but it’ll probably be closer to two. I need to make sure I can get to an area that isn’t private property so that I can camp.

I am hiking it a really fast pace at this point. I tend to do that late at night just from the adrenaline. But I am so well rested from my three long conversations that I’m cool and don’t want to work up a sweat. I tried my best to slow down but it is nearly impossible. My body just wants to hike fast.

By the time I find my camping spot I have worked up a little bit of a sweat. So after I set up my tent I immediately go find a big rock to start cooking dinner on. It is essentially dark now, and I only need the flashlight for very delicate things. Most of my cooking I can just do in the dark.

I am trying to spend as much time as possible outside of the tent to cool down before jumping in. There are a few mosquitoes but not too many. At least not enough to drive me into the tent.

I only have mashed potatoes for dinner and I am still trying to perfect making the potatoes in the same bag they come in. When you pour two cups of water into it, there is only a half an inch of room at the top of the bag so you have to stir carefully. You also have to stir thoroughly because all the special flavorings are at the bottom of the pack. This is Wisconsin cheese potatoes and I don’t want a lot of cheese dust at the end of my meal. Even though I think I have done a good job of thoroughly stirring the potatoes I discover towards the end that I indeed have big chunks of dry cheese wads.

I still need more practice on this particular cooking technique. I don’t want to cook the potatoes in the pot because I don’t want to have to clean the pot. I am in Bear country and I don’t want to have to hang everything I own in the trees at night. As long as I only boil water in my stove pot I won’t have to worry about it attracting bears.

Emotion of the day, Happiness

Today was a really good day of hiking. Even though it was a late start it was an hour earlier than I was expecting. That definitely made me happy and set the mood for the rest of the day.

The thick clouds kept all of the heat of the sun away. And yet it never once felt like it might possibly rain. The weather today couldn’t have been more perfect and that also made me happy.

And discovering that I had enough food to make my next stop without buying anything else also made me happy. Buying the sub to pack out was just icing on the cake and something else to bring happiness and joy to the day.

Seeing three more hikers and having good conversations with them also made me happy. Talking to the two men at the snow park was also fun. I had nearly two hours of breaks just talking with people, started 2 hours later than usual, and I still managed 26 or 27 miles.

The weather forecast for tomorrow has also changed from being hot to being low 70’s almost identical to today. Tomorrow will be at least 30 miles so that is really good news.

How can I not be happy about how today turned out?

After a hot day like yesterday any amount of rain is welcome. Even the amount where your pants to shoes are soaking wet for 2 hours, and your shoes never dry all day.

I woke up at a normal time but I had a headache and a little bit of nausea. My caffeine consumption yesterday was too late. Detouring to that campground messed that part up.

I am unable to eat more than one bite of granola. I will just have to eat breakfast along the trail as I walk. The headache isn’t actually too bad but it’s just annoying.

While I woke up at a normal time it took me much longer to pack up. It probably took me an hour and a half to get out of camp.

It rain pretty heavily during the night. But before the rain came it was extremely windy. I thought the wind was actually going to collapse my tent. But all it did was loosen some of the guidelines so it was a little more floppy than usual. But everything inside State dry, and the only evidence that I was there was a dry patch on the ground.

The trail was what you expect of an area going through private property. It was a mix of fields, pine groves, hardwood hammocks, all snaking around planted fields and intersecting millions of other trails. After about 4 MI of this it finally deposited me on a road. I will be road walking until mid-afternoon.

As soon as I get out into the open I can see but the clouds are brewing thick and black. The weather pattern is here seem to have the rain coming from the northwest. And the entire north-south and West skies are black. I know what is coming I just don’t know when.

I walked for nearly an hour on the roads before it started to rain. It rained consistently for around 30 to 40 minutes. The rain was heavy enough that within 10 minutes my pants were soaked. My shoes were soaked within 1 minute. I hike with an umbrella as my primary rain protection. It was too hot and not worth trying to put a raincoat on.

About 5 minutes after it started raining, I could see someone walking on the road towards me. As he got closer I could tell it was another hiker. When we met, I found out his name is Randy and he is Yo-Yo hiking this trail. Yo yo just means you hike the entire trail in one direction, and then turn around and hike it again the other direction. Bless his heart.

After our 2 minute conversation, we both keep walking in our particular directions. My first confirmed through hiker sighting and I am over halfway done with this trail. Maybe I will see one more before the end.

About 30 minutes after the rain stopped, I came to an intersection with a bar and grill that is friendly to hikers. The timing was perfect that I arrived at 11:00. What is not perfect is that they don’t open till 12:00. They have two chairs out front so I go ahead and take my shoes and socks off and wring out my socks as best I can. I put on my flip-flops while my shoes and socks dry.

I wring out everything else I can that is soaking wet. I had a pair of socks on the back of my pack that I should have put inside my pack before it rained. Now I have two pairs of white socks. I was also drying a shirt on top of the back which I knew would get soaked. I just consider this a pre-wash cuz it was a dirty shirt anyway. But it is now holding a significant amount of water that I need to wring out.

By the time I finish all of this, the owner drives up and says she’ll open up in a couple of minutes. So they opened up at 11:20 after all, just for me.

The only thing on the menu here at Raisin’ Cane’s is pizza. So pepperoni and sausage pizza it is. It’s the typical Midwest cracker pizza but it is pretty good. I eat all the one slice and grab a Pepsi to go. This will be my afternoon coffee.

I managed to water up, pack up, and head out by 12:30. This is actually earlier that I was expecting. I will be road walking for the next two and a half hours.

Only 30 minutes after leaving the bar, I am getting very sleepy. It is to the point where I actually want to just lay down on the road and go to sleep. It is too early for the Pepsi but it is actually hard to keep my eyes open. I drag on for another 45 minutes but finally have to drink the Pepsi at 1:45. It took about 30 minutes for me to stop feeling drowsy, but it worked.

The entire six or seven hours of road walking today was on extremely remote roads, except for one quarter mile stretch. Other than that quarter mile I don’t think I saw more than a dozen cars.

The road walking finally ended as I reached Hartman Creek State Park. The trail was a mix of meadows and hardwood forests. There were a million other trails intersecting the main trail here, many of them mountain bike trails. I didn’t bother taking any of the side trails to the campground area as I was only an hour from my ending point.

The ending point I am shooting for is highway 54 that leads into the town of Waupaca. After the hot days my clothes are pretty ripe. There is an econo Lodge in town that I can get on points. If I am able to get an Uber into town I will go ahead and book it.

It is just after 5:30 by the time I reach the parking area at the highway. That one Pepsi really did its job. I check Uber and Lyft at the same time to see if they have any drivers. After 15 minutes neither service located driver so I check Google maps to see if there is a taxi in town. Google says there are two taxis in town so I call one to arrange for a ride. With the ride secured I go ahead and book the room.

It takes almost 30 minutes for the taxi to show up. I enjoy talking to the taxi driver on the short ride into town. It would have been a 5.6 mile walk and that would have been a make or break deal for going into town. But how can you pass up a free room and laundry.

When I get to the hotel I find out that they don’t have guest laundry. Who has an indoor pool but no guest laundry? Econo Lodge, that’s who. Looks like a soap and shampoo laundry again.

After I shower I do laundry immediately. My clothes will need all the time they can get to dry in the air conditioning. Next up is dinner’s across the street at Culver’s, then shopping at Aldi. But unfortunately Aldi is closed by the time I get there.

I will assess the food I have left back at the room to see if I should wait for Aldi to open at 8:30 or just wing it. I have 25 miles to go tomorrow and getting a late start at 9:30 might make that a miserable day. But luckily it’s supposed to be very cool temperatures.

Emotion of the day, Relief

It was a day of multiple reliefs. My headache went away sometime in the late morning I’m not sure exactly when. You always know when one starts but it’s hard to tell when one stops.

The rain was a very welcome relief, too. It was so cool and refreshing that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t until after 2:00 p.m. that the sun came out and warmed things up a little bit, but I was mostly in wooded areas in the umbrella did the trick so I was never hot and miserable at all during the day.

It was a relief knowing that I didn’t have to wait a full hour for the restaurant to open. The 20 minutes it took was the time I needed to get all my clothes run out so there was no time lost at all.

It was a relief that maybe 15 miles of road walking had hardly any cars on it. And it was a relief knowing that there’s at least one other person out here through hiking this trail.

And it was a relief knowing that I was able to get a ride into town and do laundry even if I had to do it in a sink. It wasn’t the best day I’ve ever had in my life but it was a pretty good one.

It was definitely hot today. The only forecast I could get said it was supposed to be 92 but they were measuring only 89. It felt hotter than 90.

Even in the morning it wasn’t exactly cool but at least it was bearable. I can’t even get in the sleeping bag at night it’s so warm. I did manage to stop sweating around midnight though.

I got a later start and didn’t actually start hiking until after 7:00 I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to hike full speed today with the heat but at least right now it’s partially overcast skies so it’s not too hot yet. The weather app says it’s 78 but I think it’s hotter than that already.

The first few hours of the morning are mostly trail hiking with just short road walks to connect them together. The first excitement of the day is hiking through the small town of Richland. They have one bar but it is far too early for it to be open.

But even cooler than that I saw two Amish buggies on the way into town. The first one was an enclosed type that you normally think of with the whole family inside. The second one was an open garage with two girls driving it. Both buggies were friendly and waved back.

I’ve been seeing bizarre scratches on the road surface for the last few days and was wondering what caused it. I thought maybe it had to do with snowmobiles or some kind of winter thing around here. But nope I’m pretty sure it’s horse hooves scratching the pavement. I learned something new today.

After leaving the town the trail follows a creek. I had already filled up at the creek that was only an hour after where I camped so I was full. I also took the opportunity to wash the shirt I was wearing yesterday so I can use it for tomorrow. It has been hanging on the back of my pack drying as I walked down the road.

There weren’t too many meadows to walk through so my feet have stayed dry all morning. But by 9:00 the heat and the humidity have me completely drenched. It feels like noon. Luckily I am in woods for most of the walk but I still have to use my umbrella even in the woods to shade me from the sun that peaks through.

I took my lunch break on some really nice benches at a distributed campsite. A section hiker came walking by and asked if I was through hiking. We talked for about 10 minutes and then she moved on in the opposite direction. This is the first bonafide section hiker I have seen in at least a week. I still haven’t seen any others hikers that I could identify. I’ve only seen five people that head backpacks on period.

The place where I am to stop at for water this afternoon doesn’t look promising by the comments in the guidebook. It sounds like a swampy mess. I find a campsite only a mile off the trail and decide I will go there to try and get some snacks and water.

By the time I leave the official trail to go to the campground I have about 1 liter of water left. That means I have used two and a half liters since 8:00 this morning. This campground will be the last water that I am able to get until lunch time tomorrow. I will need to fill up everybody having potentially even buy another one.

When I get to the campground and go to the store, assign on the door says it is only open Friday Saturday and Sunday. Oh crap today is Monday. I will see the campground in the direction to return to the trail and find a picnic table near an outlet and a water spigot. I fill all my bottles there and begin charging my phone and battery. I drink as much water as I can tolerate and keep refilling the bottle. I want to make sure I am retaining as much water as possible before I leave this place.

It is only a few miles from where I intended to get water at the lake. I am curious to see how good of a source it would have been. When I get there it is what I expect. It is a lake that has a muddy shore. It has plenty of water that probably tastes like dirt. And it would require waiting out 20 or 30 ft for it to be deep and clear enough to collect. I am glad I went to the campground despite them being closed.

I have only about two more road miles before a long section of trail where I intend to camp. Judging from the satellite view I have a place in mind it’s about a mile and a half from the trailhead, but I have four miles of trail to pick from.

Just before I get to the trailhead, I woke by a house where the lady has just come out to get her mail. She asks if I need any water. I have only drank a half a liter but I will definitely accept any offer of water. So I drink the rest of the partially filled bottle and give it to her to refill. Now I just managed to help the net effect of one extra leader of water. I will feel my comfortable for tomorrow’s hike.

When I get into the trail section, I can hear the voices and hollers of kids only a few tents of a mile behind me. There is no sense in even looking for a campsite until I am certain that they are no longer anywhere around. There are several good ones that I could have picked but I keep going.

By the time I get to the spot that I had scouted on the satellite view, the kids voices are nowhere to be heard. Now to start looking for a spot. This area seems okay. It is not real flat and the vegetation is a bit thick so I keep moving on.

I get to a section of woods that I know is the last woods before I will be entering a large meadow. This would be an ideal spot to stop. On the right side or pine trees {space} why depart and without any undergrove but the ground is a little too sloped. On the other side there is level ground but there is a little more vegetation.

I dropped my pack at a place that looks decent and decide to go see the edge of the meadow to see if I can see anything further down the trail. That was a good move because right at the edge of the meadow is a bench overlooking to meadow. And there is an even better spot only 20 feet away from it. So I go back and grab my pack and move it to the new spot.

I set up the tent first and then get my cooking gear and go to the bench to start cooking. Tonight it will be my last dehydrated meal of chicken and dumplings. I have some Irish butter and partially that I can add to it to jazz it up. Other than the chicken being a little tough it was actually really good.

I look over the maps for tomorrow’s hiking section. My schedule says that I’m supposed to take an Uber into a town five miles away to get a free hotel. The town only has 6,000 people so I’m not sure they will have Uber service. It’s 25 mi to that spot on the highway which is close to the distance that I did today. If I reserve a room and there’s no Uber service it is going to be a very miserable 5-mile March into town. It will be an equally unpleasant March back out from town the following morning.

I should be passing a small town with a bar and grill for a late lunch tomorrow. If I get there in time and have enough daylight to potentially make the 5-mile road walk I will go ahead and book the room tomorrow. I will let the weather and my water tell me what to do tomorrow.

Emotion of the day, Disappointed

Seeing the Amish buggies was not a disappointment, that was a bonus. But the heat was certainly disappointing.

Comments on one of the views in the guidebook said That the view was the most impressive at least going eastward. Going Westward it was hardly even memorable. I can think of a half a dozen views already that were better than this one. Maybe that means the Western half of the trail is going to be really boring. That would be disappointing.

It was disappointing to see that the lake I planned to filter water from would have been a difficult place to get water from. It was doubly disappointing to walk a mile off trail and a mile back to go to a campground that was closed for the next 4 days. But at least I was able to get some water, even if it was iron tasting water.

The bar for lunch in the hotel at the end of the day would suggest that tomorrow would be anything but disappointing. So if tomorrow ends up being disappointing then I will be whatever emotion goes way beyond disappointment. Hopefully you’re not all the way to anger. It’s too hot to be angry.