I had developed my hiking plan before I had concerns about
trail conditions. So I planned between 7-10
miles per day. All the forum folks
seemed to indicate very difficult trails (rocks, roots, and ups/downs). And I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to
carry the 35 pound pack. My training was
on rocky Texas trails, up to about 11 miles per hike with a heavy day pack, and
a couple of 10 mile/day overnight backpacking trips with about 30 pound
packs. Anyway, I needed a loop out and
back from Rock Harbor, so I decided on Lane Cove, Daisy Farm, West Chickenbone,
Hatchet Lake, McCargoe Cove, Moskey Basin and Three Mile. I was wavering on Three Mile or Rock Harbor
for the last night, but left the decision up to the last day. I wanted decent mileage (doable, but not too
long) and to hit as many good campgrounds as possible.
Since the forums all indicated Rock Harbor trail was
difficult due to rocky conditions, I took the Tobin Harbor trail out of Rock
Harbor towards the Mt Franklin trail. It
was a pretty typical ‘state-park’ like trail.
Most of the time the trail followed the edge of Tobin Harbor. It had some moderate blow-down and a few
patches of light snow (2-4 inches). It
was a nice walk to get acclimated to the pack and weather conditions (sunny). By the way, except for the ridge lines and
some walking along Lake Superior, you are pretty much protected from the winds
on the trails. I was wearing my light
rain jacket as a wind-breaker and to add some extra warmth. Where Tobin Harbor met the Mt Franklin trail,
I met a gentlemen resting with his pack off.
He was going to Three Mile that night, to evaluate how well he could
handle his pack and the trails.
I headed north from there on the Mt Franklin trail, and
pretty soon came to a boardwalk across a marshy area. Blow-down covered the last 20 feet of the
board-walk. The tree had fallen parallel
to the walkway and just a few feet away.
Not many options here but to carefully force my way through it. Kind of funny, the photos show a relatively
dry off-walk area, but I don’t remember thinking it was an option to get (or
fall) off the walk. I was thinking about
going back to Three Mile, but I made it through. At least one other couple did too, as they
caught up to me later on the trail.
The rest of the Mt Franklin trail was pretty uneventful up
to the Greenstone ridge. Some forum
contributors make the Greenstone ridge climbs out to be pretty tough, but I
found them to be less of a challenge than expected (thankfully!). Some of the climbing is pretty steep, but
it’s not continuous, and it really doesn’t last that long. I should say that I hike solo by preference,
as I don’t normally go at a very fast pace.
On a moderately easy trail, I’ll get a max of about 2.5 mph.
Heading down from Greenstone ridge to Lane Cove was a little
different. The initial part of the trail
was pretty steep, and there was some residual snow cover. One stretch of about 40 feet, covering the
reverse direction of a steep switchback, was covered in deep snow. My trekking poles went most of the way in
before hitting rock (I’m about 6’ tall). I went through it slowly, without my
feet hitting the trail. Sometimes I
would go over my knees. But it didn’t last long. The rest of the trail was less steep, but it
seemed to go on forever. I did see lots
of moose scat, and on Tobin Harbor trail, some wolf scat. But squirrels were the only thing I saw on
the trails that day.
Just before I got to Lane Cove, during a water break (I used
bottles instead of a bladder), a young couple passed me. They ended up taking site #1 while I took
site #6, so I didn’t see them again till back at Rock Harbor. Lane Cove otherwise was completely quiet.
The campsite at Lane Cove was very nice, with a soft mat of
vegetation on the damp ground. I set up
the tent (solo TarpTent Notch), filtered some water with my 2L Platypus Gravity
system, and then prepared dinner. The
new JetBoil Sol Ti system heated the two cups of water for my freezer bag meal
in just moments. My older system was white
gas, and the JetBoil way outclassed my old stove. With the Platypus, I usually filtered enough
water to fill my water bottles for the next day and about 3 liters extra for a
bladder I was carrying (used for cooking and drinking in camp only). I emptied
the bladder every morning before leaving camp.
The water here was perfectly clear and tasted great. The Notch has two vestibules (large), but I
only used one for my boots, water bottles and pack. I never saw the squirrels (except for one
audacious squirrel at West Chickenbone), mice or fox that were reportedly
threats to small unattended objects and food bags. I used an Ursack (with an odor-proof liner)
to protect the food from the critters, but it sure seemed overkill here.
One weight trade I made was to not bring a pair of camp
shoes. I was wearing full leather,
Gore-Tex lined, hiking boots. They were
great on the trails, but a bit heavy.
Unfortunately, when I took them off to get in the tent (or at other
campgrounds in the shelters), I didn’t want to have to bother putting them on
again for any night trips. So I usually
hit the sack early, wrote down notes for the day, and read for a while.
My shelter and sleeping system were a little different than
what I’ve used in the past. The Notch
tent used my two trekking poles for support and only four
stakes/guy-lines. I had two places near
the pole attachments for two more tie-outs, but I hadn’t added lines to
them. This left the tent a bit saggy
across the peak between the poles. Since
I used it only three days, always in sheltered locations, this wasn’t a
problem. The tent came with a bug net
and a bathtub floor that was suspended beneath the tarp tent itself. The net had zippers on either side for side
entry via the two vestibules. I used a
regular sized Thermarest NeoAir Xlite inflatable pad under my quilt, and slept
in most of my clothes that night. The
Weather Channel (TWC) says it was 43 that night, but I was plenty warm. It stayed light till about 2215 (10:15 pm) or
so, but this night, I got to sleep early.
Sometime in the night it started raining pretty steadily, and didn’t
stop till about 1100 the next morning. The tent kept me dry, though there was mild condensation on the bug netting.
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