New Hiking Partners!, Tuning Up the Bike, And Shin Splints

59*, 30.11 in and steady barometer, 36% humidity, VAR 5 mph wind, fair

This weekend has been busy for me. We not only cleaned house from top to bottom and put up new curtains, but I took the dog and a neighbors kid on their first hike with my husband (who normally doesn't join me on these types of outdoor excursions). We had a good time (even though I have a shin splint from exercising so much more lately) and I learned some new wildflowers:
Cutleaf Toothwort, Spring Beauty, and Rue Anemone, alone with seeing plenty of wildflowers I already knew like trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit. What a great place the dunes are for spring wildflowers!
Here the Kid is studying poison ivy, something he didn't know how it looked.
Enjoying a healthy trail snack.
Contemplating...
It was a short hike as I wanted to make it fun for all 3 of my companions so that they wouldn't be discouraged from coming again. The kid is very excited to go on his next hike and I am glad to be able to share my love of nature with a youngster who hasn't had much experience with the outdoors.

Today, Sunday, after dreaming about buying a touring bike in my sleep, I just had to get my bike out. I tuned it up, oiled and tested it and even pimped my ride a bit with a basket so that I can go to the farm when I want and carry my produce home easily and comfortably. I've never tuned up a bike before...I'm mighty proud of myself for doing it myself. And if you want to feel freedom.....the first ride feels fantastic and it didn't aggravate my shin splint at all as I use different muscles to peddle then to jog, hike or walk the dog. The high I felt after the short ride was fantastic to say the least...I was floating on a cloud.

I spent the rest of the sunny day weeding the garden, cleaning house, and icing my shin splint down. What a good weekend :)

A walk into history.

33*, feels like 27*, 70% humidity, SW 7 mph wind, cloudy, WINTER STORM WATCH , FLOOD WARNING

The day promised to be beautiful so I could not stand to remain at home, I had to go out and do at least a little bit of exploration! I did not know exactly where I was going to go today, just that I was going to go along hwy 12, through the dunes area and pick a spot that was open for walking as some places are closed in the winter. I stopped at the first place not 20 minutes from my house yet I had never really stopped to explore it before because I know the trail is not long enough to tide me over. Still, with my recovered injuries, I think a small hike is what I needed, though the soul was willing for much more! I took the Bailly Homestead/ Chelberg Farm loop with the little spur trail to the historic Bailly Cemetery, about 3.4 miles all together.
I was surprised at the amount of snow here, it would of been possible still to do some snow showing, at least in the beginning of the hike before the air started softening the snow. Even so, the hiking was not hard as the path had been trampled by others passing. As I came to the Bailly homestead site, I startled some deer who had been grazing in the grassy area. They had cleared spots of grass from under the snow. I watched them bound off then set about exploring the historical buildings. There were some cabins in which Bailly used for his fur trading business. Bailly was the first non-native settler to this area.
This was his house (or at least a replica of it)
The trail then led me through a mixed age forest. There were gigantic oaks, dying off and lots of younger trees. Mostly deciduous with a lot of sugar maples, and a few coniferous evergreens scattered here and there.
I came to the spur off shoot trail with a sign that said "Historical Cemetery" but to my surprise, it was unlike any cemetery I've come across in the woods of Indiana, or anywhere for that matter. This is the Bailly cemetery, the resting place of the first settler here.

The place reminded me of some kind of odd fortress and it sent my imagination reeling.
I could only wonder what kind of person would be so great, so loved, to have such an edifice built for him. Or perhaps he was just rich and eccentric? I'm going to have to satiate my curiosity come summer, when the ranger station is open and perhaps buy a book about the local history here and find out the in depth story to this.
I back tracked along the spur back to the trail, and followed the loop over bridges, up and down stairs, through thicker but soft snow in classic dunes terrain that I've come to know and love.

After a while, I started seeing signs of fencing and farming. And I started seeing these sap collection buckets. I peeked inside, and the sap doesn't seem to be flowing today, though I would think that with today's warm up it would have been.

I came to the Chelberg farm, Swedish immigrants. This place is home to some working farm animals and I was greeted first by this overly friendly barn cat. He's obviously a well loved (and fed) fellow and insisted on making sure he got petted.
Not far from the Mr. Stripes, I saw some work horses. Big dark horses, but friendly.

The trail leads you right though the little barn.
The Chelburg farm. I think it is a neat place indeed!

I did wish the trail was much longer, but for all that I did not get bored. It was very neat seeing these past relics and on such a pretty day too. My leg, thanks me for not going further. though it does not hurt so much, it aches now. But I'm sure with time it will go away.

Icy Walk

I was wanting to get out and hike one of my secret trails, a forgotten and very over grown trail that no one else seems to know about, but the trail to that trail had been flooded during the winter, then iced over. I could not get to this trail without risking falling through some pretty serious ice and so I had to turn back and do the easy little loop instead today. My ankle, the one that had been injured from the fall on ice earlier in the year held up OK but I did feel it so I know I am going to have to really work on it before I tackle any major backpacking this year. I took a few pictures of the ice along deep river. You can see how the water levels have changed by the different levels of the ice shelves. The river is still higher then normal as it is right now. The building is the back side of the Deep River Sugar Shack where they make maple syrup.

American Slice

The town of Sisters, Oregon annual outdoor quilt show and festival.

Cat Hair

1*, feels like -19*, W 20 mph wind, partly cloudy, BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY, WIND CHILL ADVISORY, WINTER STORM WATCH

Remember, if you are out and about walking this morning, that cat hair is an essential part of staying warm. Make sure you have some on your balaclava---

Extreme Weather Swings

10*, feels like -12*, 91% humidity, W 36 mph wind, snow/fog/wind, WINTER STORM WARNING

I took a walk earlier, when it was warm out. Near 50*. Two hours ago it was 51* for the high. Look at the temps now! Blizzard like too.

Good time to look at old photos and journals for fun!

Junk food binge--

Oops. I seemed to have enjoyed myself just a bit too much yesterday!



But, that's just one day, and if you think about it, one day of binge is just a drop in the....
... in the overall span of my life. Yeah, it's no big deal.

Tried to go walking this morning, drove to the park but couldn't get in. Almost got stuck in the snow. Should of just walked around the neighborhood instead. I had just wanted a more interesting scene.

Morning walk

The big fishing pond not quite frozen.

Frozen beaver pond.

Abandoned bird nest in the honeysuckle brush.

Cold and windy. Trail flat and paved. 40 minutes.

Critters noted:
Cardinal, Blue Jay, Juncos, Sparrows, grey squirrel, domestic cat, domestic dog (With no owner in sight,I picked up a sturdy thumping stick just in case).

Morning Walk. Fall in Full Force.

Maple leaves against Eastern Cottonwood bark.
The foot bridge to the maple syrup sugar shack where they make maple syrup in the spring from trees tapped here.

River View from the foot bridge.

Leaves on the footbridge. Colorful Confetti.

Autumn Walk

I've had a bad cold/flu for the past couple weeks that involves a LOT of mucus and coughing my lungs out so I have had no energy to get out for some real exercise other then yard work and moving around at my job. But today was too perfect to stay at home, and so I took a short and slow walk at the park to take in some fall colors and this is what I found:



Nice, eh?

Prosecuter's Webshots Slidshow

Trap Hillls 2007

Trip Report Part 3

Sunday Morning

It was pitch black outside. If there was a moon out I could not see it through the trees though I saw a few stars. With my headlamp, I resumed the trail feeling OK and ready to hike. It was 4 a.m. according to my watch, Chicago time. I followed the trail blazes stopping at each tree to locate the next with very little difficulty through the forest down then up a gently graded hill until I reached a stream where I stopped to filter water as I was out and to try to eat some breakfast. I managed a piece of string cheese and a small handful of dried berries. After nearly losing pieces of my water filter into the stream, I packed up and headed to the trail again which promptly crossed the stream. Here I lost all traces of blazing. But to my left, was obviously a trail. This had to be it as sometimes the trail curved around without warning and you had to be eagle eyed to spot it.

The trail widened out, and was obviously well used so I continued down it. It was kind of rocky, steep and the footing tricky in the dark but I figured I was making pretty good time, much better then I had been yesterday. I passed some gated dripping mine, where I could hear the echos of water trickling in the darkness, startled a couple of birds from a conifer, and a pretty big rabbit got out of my way in a hurry. After a while I thought I saw lights ahead, you know the gentle glow of a lamp inside tents. I was excited. Perhaps this was camp! I was rather proud of myself for finding it in the dark. But as I neared, I saw that it was only my light reflected back at me from reflective rectangles on a gate that crossed the trail. There was a sign that had a little hiker on it, so perhaps this was still the trail? I KNEW I should of gotten my map out, but I didn't. Lesson learned. I walked a little further and the hill bottomed out in a graveled and very wet parking area nestled at the base of cliffs and between forest. It was very cold down here where the chill had settled. There were 2 pick up trucks, a blue one and a red one. The red one obviously belonged to someone with off road vehicles so crossed that one off the list of possibly being one of our group's cars. The other might of been Mataharihiker's, but it was only a guess. I had no idea what her vehicle had looked like. I set out to wait a while, my knee was hurting anyway, so I laid out my blue pad, propped myself against my pack and tried to take a nap.

Being too cold to nap, and the cold ground making my injury ache, I stood and walked about a lot. I watched the sun rise, as the sunlight colored the rocks and yellow leafed trees but it never reached down where I was. I longed for the touch of the warm sun rays. I questioned myself whether I should keep walking to the road the parking area was attached to, several times. Once I heard a car pass somewhere down the hill. I took off my cold wet boots and changed socks, tried to warm up and debated on getting into my sleeping bag or getting up and going to the road. But that question was answered for me when a white van drove up.

There were two men in the front seats who pulled onto the grass and got out. I struggled stiffly to my feet.

"Are you just coming or going?" The driver asked. I hadn't asked them their names, I wished I had as soon as they had left me.

"Actually, I have no idea." I told them. "I'm kind of missing my group. I got hurt yesterday and had tried to catch up this morning and took a wrong turn"

They looked at one another making a silent, psychic decision. They offered to help me, and I showed them my map, where a logical place for someone to find me from the group would be. "We have cars parked here" I said. "I can wait for them there, someone from my group will be sure to go there." It was the historic town site. Settled, they grabbed my gear and threw it into the van shoving hunting gear aside to make room. I climbed in beside my gear behind them, amid a cooler full of drinks and food, and guns all over the place. They turned the heat full blast, I guess my chattering teeth was loud enough to wake the dead. If you have a few hours to wait for your friends, we could go to lake of the clouds for some drinks and food" they offered. I laughed, "no thanks, they would hate me if they were searching for me and I was out having a good old time in town"

"Do you have enough food and water?"

"yes. Plenty" I said as the driver took us onto Victoria road and drove like a maniac. Every bump we'd hit we'd nearly hit the ceiling with our heads.

I asked them where they were from, they were locals and they plied me with questions about seeing any game, them asked if I had a gun, and if not, why not.

"She's probably one of those vegetarian types who's against hunting" the passenger said, a thinner, dark haired man with a hawk nose and sharp eyes.

"I've no problem with hunting" I told them. "I've wanted to learn to hunt for a while."

"Its us hunters who keep this place funded you know" he said. "Its us who care about this place. Still, you should carry a gun. There are bears"

"The bears are shy, they are hunted here" I told them, not worried about bears.

"That doesn't make a difference if you get between mom and her cub. In fact just last week sometime a hunter was in a tree stand, up went cub, mom climbed up after him and killed that guy."

In no time at all, the driver navigated us into territory I recognized, past a familiar clear cut. and to the town site where they grabbed my gear and propped it against the closed visitor center. The driver reached up into an apple tree and plucked an apple for himself, took a bite, proclaimed it pretty good and plucked a couple of them for me which I would of loved had I had a decent appetite. I offered gas money, which they declined, saying that they would hope others would do the same for them, and they took off. They had bird and rabbit to hunt and they had been eyeballing the clear cuts when we drove past.

I stretched out my wet gear on the wooden porch, where there were hundred of dead lady bugs scattered, and the sun beamed perfectly down on me and my stuff. It felt so good! I took a couple bites of apple and tried to eat some more food. I managed half a tortilla with some mustard spread on it. I was enjoying my warm spot and meager lunch when Prosecutor drove up with Dhutch as a passenger. Prosecutor had a grin on his face. I guess they were glad to have located me. We talked a few minutes, and he explained the change of plans for the night's camp. He talked me into being dropped off with him a mile from the nights camp. It's only a mile. An easy mile. Much better then staying at the shelter here. OK, I was convinced. I let him zip me away from my sunny spot. We met Mataharihiker at another road exit, picked her up and dropped her off at her car, perfect timing!

For the most part, the mile WAS easy, would of been a quick jaunt up a nicely graded hill for one with two nicely working legs. It started out flat, then wound its way up and around an oak covered hill. For the most part it was well blazed, though I did have some downed trees to climb over and hidden rocks to watch out for. By the time I made it to the top, Prosecutor had already set up his bivy and tarp in the best spot on the hill. I came into camp and he was ready to go back down for a beer run.

Alone, I set up my tent which took far too long, and threw my stuff in. I tried to rest, but the ground made my leg ache, so I stood and walked around instead. Mataharihiker soon joined me up on the hill and took her time "farting around" as she called it, putting up her hammock shelter. I watched her out of curiosity. Two hikers not related to our group came through camp and talked for a few minutes. They'd been out for 6 days, retirees that didn't have to worry about going to work the next day. Lucky bastards. Soon enough members of our own group began to show up. Mugsy was first. "Cockapooooooooo!" I called and he stampeded into camp ahead of his trail partner Chinmusic who was glad to see me and greeted me with a pretty good hug. I don't quite remember the order in which people showed up, but everyone was together perhaps for the first time this entire trip, in camp. Prosecutor started a fire, and it started to rain and get cold and windy. Though I wanted to hang out and socialize, to hear Randall's crazy story telling, the wind and damp and sitting on the ground was just too much for me. I went to my tent and listened from there for a while. I ate a snickers bar to warm up, and snuggled in for the night occasionally waking to loud laughter and roaring from something Randall was saying.

I spent way too much time in the horizontal, and got up early Monday morning. I packed up and skipped breakfast and got an early start after watching the sunrise from the hill and as soon as it was light enough to NOT get lost. I knew I would be slow and I cursed several times when I kept stepping into holes hidden by fallen leaves. Still, I must not of done so poorly as I was still the first to the car shortly followed by Chinmusic and Mugsy and everyone else except for Mataharihiker who likes to take her time in camp.

We said our good byes, packed up and squeezed into vehicles. It would be a long ride home, but it gave me plenty of time to reflect on this crazy trip.

Trip Report Part 2

Saturday Morning:

I got up before first light and began to pack up inside my tent as I had crap sprawled out everywhere in hopes to dry some things with no luck. I packed things wet. Outside the tent, others had already gotten up as early risers. The stars were out. It would prove to be a nice sunny day for us. I ate a granola bar for breakfast that REALLY sucked and that I will never buy that brand ever again in my life, finished packing up and hit the trail before anyone else. I stopped at a near by stream to pump water before continuing on. The trail this morning was very tricky to find. You would be on it one moment and not on it the next. Blazes were few and far between with lots of downed trees, broken marks, and lots of game trails criss crossing the hiking trail. I had to do a LOT of backtracking. The trail was not especially steep, but it was difficult footing none the less, that wore me out after a while. The footing was made more treacherous by all the leaves hiding things that wanted you to break an ankle and everything was slick. It was interesting the different things the trail took me through. Sometimes it went through these relatively flat areas where I could go into cruise mode, sometimes, there was lumpy ground, with large puddles to trudge through and lots of downed trees, other times it was strait up hills or down them, along ridges, and along rocky bluffs with views, where I ran into a couple members of our missing group, Hubcap and Chinmusic with his most awesome trail dog Mugsy. One place the trail turned into a very rocky section, and climbed over the bottom of what looked like a rock slide area. The rocks were loose and this is where I tweaked my right knee and fell pretty good. Here i had to sit a while to let the shock of that go away and to wrap my quickly swelling and bruised knee with an ace bandage. I took some pills, some pictures of the crime scene, and forced my way on. It was just shortly after this in a wooded semi flat area that I paused for a moment that a couple of our group caught up to me. Dhutch stopped for a smoke and I took the time to take my pack off and guzzle water. They hurried on and I started again soon after. More and more group members passed me up as I was going a snails pace now, it had to be less then a mile per hour it seemed like.
The trail returned to nice views, crossed a couple streams that I was hoping would be Gleason Falls where everyone had talked about stopping for lunch. No one was stopped there so I continued on until afternoon. Really dragging, I stopped to try to eat something and forced down some dried berries, a piece of cheese and part of a tortilla. It helped some, but I still was going a snails pace. I finally came to a bigger stream and saw most of the group there, either filtering water or exploring the side trail to the falls. I SO wanted to see the falls, I'd been looking forward to them all day but as I dropped my pack to filter water I knew I did not have it in me to use the extra energy it would take to walk up there and back with the way my knee was feeling. At this point I had quit having fun and I wanted only to get to camp. It couldn't be much farther NOW, I said to myself. A few more miles at best....
Those last few miles seemed like hundreds of miles. Hill after hill of poorly marked trail and backtracking. Everyone was way ahead again until I came down a steep hill and saw them crossing a road bellow to a clear cutting area. I called to them bellow and Randall answered, he was drawing an arrow in the road to direct everyone the right way through. I hurried down the slick hill falling only once to catch up to a few at a stream filtering at the bottom of the hill. I followed with then through the clear cut which nearly killed me as I could not bend my leg and climb over the trees very well. I held off cursing a lot, and just gritted my teeth as Jimmy waited for everyone to get through. This last part was what really did me in that day. I knew then I would likely not make it to camp as they all hurried ahead again. I kept lying to myself to keep me going. I'll stop at 4:30 and find a spot, I lied. I'll stop at 5. I'll stop at 5:30 unless I smell camp fire. It's just one more hill.... I could go no farther and it was getting close to sunset so I found a rare but tiny flat spot that was mossy and looked comfortable enough, sheltered from wind. As I pulled out my tent, I realized I was on solid rock under that cozy looking moss. A solid mass, that would hold no stake. I dragged my tent further back butting in between two trees where I could at least get a few stakes in. At this point I didn't care any more. I threw everything inside, changed into dry clothes, tried to eat but barely got anything down again and guzzled more water. It was almost dark when JimmySan showed up at my meager camp. He offered to carry my stuff for me to camp, to convince me to join the group telling me it was .9 trail miles according to his GPS over a stream and a couple hills. I just couldn't, besides, no body carries my gear but me. Could you imagine the grief I would get from Trail Talkers if I allowed anyone else to carry my gear? No way! So Jim went on his way after I told him I'd get off the trail in the morning with Mataharihiker and Dhutch and planned to get an early start to not keep them waiting for me.
It was a warm night, at least and I was comfortable so long as I kept my legs propped high on my pack all night. At one point I heard an animal scream, then coyotes yipping right outside the tent. Soon after some kind of bird started 'laughing' and sounded almost like a hysterical woman. The pills for the pain made me nauseous so about 4 am I had enough, packed up and set out to make it to the real camp.

Trip Report Part 1

Thursday night: I left work at 11 pm with my husband who drove me over an hour into Illinois to my friend Jim's house where I would surf his couch for the night.

Friday Morning: Woke up around 5:30 to get ready for the trip. We hoped to leave at 6 am as it is a long drive up through Wisconsin to the UP of Michigan. "Randall" was the first to arrive this morning, and then the late comer, "Hubcap', arrived 15 minutes after 6. We loaded our gear into the back of Jim's pickup in black bags to keep everything from getting wet. A good thing as it rained the entire drive up to the UP. Jim played Neil Young music on the radio the entire drive, and we had good conversation. We stopped 2 times for food. Randall wanted donuts and we all had a good laugh when we spotted a naughty novelties store that advertised videos, sex toys, and bakery goods. I don't have to mention the cream filled donut jokes the guys were making... We did not shop there, instead we went into a gas station and got some breakfast before hitting the road again. For lunch we stopped for fast food. Though I didn't eat much. I was actually kind of car sick on the ride up the entire time and would have to look strait ahead or close my eyes sometimes when I got too queasy. The fall colors in Wisconsin were amazing. Reds, golds, browns, dazzled us as we drove by despite the doom and gloom of the wet weather. By 4 we had reached the Old Victoria Historic Site that was our start for the trail. Randall, Hubcap and I tumbled out of the truck and pulled on rain gear and packs. I think I got soaked just doing that. Good thing I was especially anal about putting everything in water proof bags inside my backpack! That would prove to be a real lifesaver :). Jim left with the truck to go meet "Dhutch"at the other end of the trail and Randall and Hubcap decided between themselves who would stay and wait for them. I am a slow hiker and wanted to hurry on to camp so I let them volunteer. I could of sworn Randall had decided to stay, so I said I would go on ahead while the 2 of them seemed to be chatting. It was still raining and I didn't like standing still in it getting cold. It was much better to be moving in the rain. The blazes were well spaced and the trail easy to follow up the hill. Though the trail was sodden and wet, I was so far enjoying it. I saw Jim's pick-up zoom by through the trees where the road must of been and waved but he didn't see me.
I made my way to an old building that looked to be some old mining building that was pretty cool. I took my time playing around there taking pictures and trying to locate where the trail went from there, half expecting the guys to have caught up to me by then. Studying the placement of the blaze, I decided the trail went right through the doors of the building, and low and behold I stepped out the other side and it was there, though partially hidden. I walked down a curving hill around some more ruins, little more then part of a stone wall, and really had to start paying attention as the blazes seemed to either be missing or covered by lichen. I came to a gravel road and found the blazes again on the other side and it took me a short distance along a road and Vitoria town which was nothing but what looked like a few homes. I crossed another road and saw a painted blaze just down the road. I followed that not realizing that this was a forester's mark instead of the real blaze which happened to be ten feet away and the same color exactly. I should of known better. I followed these blue marks along the edge of a clear cut, scrambling over downed trees, branches, scrub and rubble. The terrain became steeper and steeper as it went back into the woods. I managed to half slide and climb up several steep hills, then with a wrong step slid down an impossibly steep ravine. Standing in almost knee deep rushing water at the bottom I had a real OH SHIT moment of panic, especially when I realized that steep side was too muddy and steep to climb out, and so was the other side. Almost sheer walls. The fact that I could of easily broken a leg did not escape me either. I considered my options. Calling for help, blowing my whistle. None of those would do me much good as I could see. The only way to get out would have to be by my own means. If I followed the stream down, it would likely take me to the big lake, if I followed up, I could maybe find a less steep way to climb out. This is what I did. I was soaked to the bone, and needed to move or end up freezing, so I scrambled through the water a short distance and began to use small trees to help climb out. At last!!! I climbed up onto a narrow ridge between that ravine and another and brought out my map and compass while I caught my breath to try and figure out where I had gone wrong. I followed that ridge back to the clear cut and cross-contryed over to the other side where I saw power lines, power lines that I knew parallelled Victoria road. Once I got to the road I followed it back down hill to where I had taken the wrong blaze and low and behold, 10 feet past the false blaze was the real blaze! Boy did I feel like a dope! From there I hurried along until I smelled the acrid smoke of a campfire just being lit and saw "Prosecutor" standing at the top of a hill. He waved and I waved back. CAMP!!
I was sure the others were there before me, but to my surprise, my party wasn't there yet. They MUST be lost too, I thought, kinda worried but sure they would find their way out like I did. I met "Cow Patty" and "Mataharihiker" and set up my tent. By then it had finally stopped raining and I could set up without worrying about getting my dry gear wet and the things I was wearing could dry out a bit. I enjoyed the amazing view, warmed by the fire, and had something to eat and drink as we related our day's experiences.
As it grew dark, Prosecutor went out to try to direct the others into camp. Matiharihiker set up a small lantern in a tree to guide people in but after a while still no one came. Prosecutor had gone all the way back to the road but found no one so he'd come back.
After a while, tired of being damp, I changed into dry clothes and snuggled to sleep in my bag. I woke up shortly after when I heard Jim's voice and Dhutche's voice. Boy was I glad to hear them! I left my warm cocoon-y goodness and went to visit them around the fire a moment, making sure they were OK. I was worried about them. Jim said he knew where everyone was camped, and that put me at ease. What a start!