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.