North Country Trail

So, a couple weeks back, Fish, A-, and I headed up to a section of the North Country Trail - a (future) 4600 mile trail that runs from New York to North Dakota. Though we were planning a 40+ mile weekend, car trouble got us to the trailhead late (2pm), and we had to settle for 31 miles (alack :-D). The Marengo River/Porcupine Lake section we did is in the Chequamegon National Forest, and man is it pretty up there. (There would be some awesome roads for biking.) I think we had some of the best "hills" Wisconsin has to offer, and the rolling terrain was covered in birch forests. Outlooks were grand (with just enough rockiness to give a good view); the streams were pitch black (as is much of the water in northern Wisconsin); and even the small logged patch was entrancing (perfectly straight rows of tall pine with such soft beds of pine needles in between). We booked it on the way in; luckily, we still had super-long days, tons of food, and a full can of bug spray. The mosquitoes were intense, and with light, short rains both Saturday and Sunday, they were all up and hungry. We got to East Davis Lake at mile 15.5, right as the sky was getting dark, and we got food going, water filtering, and the tent set up before we needed headlamps. Fish was being attacked by gal-dern-nasty-bity-flies and responded by building a surprisingly awesome fire (with the help of A-). We devoured some hippy pasta, trail mix, and various other foods, and life was good. Except, that is, for the fact that our water filter wasn't filtering water all that quickly. We had a rather epic evening of back-flushing the filter (which worked for a little) and then going through every maintenance thing possible before realizing that tiny algae were clogging the first of the filters. We wiped off the primary filter every couple of pumps and still didn't have enough water for the next day by the time everybody was pretty well wiped. We threw our food in a backpack (and bear-bagged it), threw some water in the waterproof food bag to let the sediment settle, and gave up for the evening.
Thankfully, the next morning, enough sediment had settled in both the food bag and the lake to fill everybody's bottles and get breakfast and lunch fixed. While we had hoped to make Porcupine Lake (4 more miles) for the loons, there was a solitary loon on East Davis Lake. Made the morning that much better. We set off at a more leisurely pace, checked out all the best vistas again, and ran out of bug spray. We developed our own personal flocks of mosquitoes after lunch, and the last 7 miles were pretty hellacious. I half-jogged (with a full pack) just to keep some positive lies going about how I was losing at least a portion of my mosquito herd. With three miles left, we hit Beaver Lake, and the ensuing swim gave us some excellent respite from the bugs. When we got to the car, everybody jumped in (I dare say A- was the calmest among us) and we had upwards of 30 mosquitoes hop in the car, too. After the hike, the back portion of my knees was one thick, swollen mess of mosquito bites (not to mention the hundreds of other bites on my arms, shoulders, calves, etc).
Other interesting stuff of the trip: Fish took on a turkey (and won); I met my first batch of stinging nettle (and didn't exactly win); and the northern woods are apparently chock full of wolves (though all I saw were deer by the road and birds). All in all, the woods were absolutely gorgeous and well worth the trouble. I'll just have to have 2 cans of bug spray next time. :)