Brule River State Forest Backpacking

All of October, Ali and I have been waiting for the slightest weather window to open up in the UP so that we could get some fall-colors backpacking in before the season comes to an end.  Thanks to another rainy autumn, that plan just didn't work out well.  Since the Hoofer's Whitewater Fall Colors trip (where the leaves were a week or two shy of their peak), the Porcupines and the Bayfield area have been thoroughly drenched and unfortunately chilly.  If we were only dealing with one of those conditions, this post would be about hiking in the Porkies.  With 60-80% chances of rain and highs in the 30s, there was no way we were making the 5.5 hour drive.

Since the best hiking/biking options were out, we started looking into other options.  The North Country Trail holds a special place in our hearts and minds.  The only section we'd previously been on is highly touted and is a mosquito-infested swamp.  After the jaunt up there a couple years ago, the bites on the backs of my legs had fused into one giant, angry, itchy red sheet (and that is no hyperbole).  Perhaps usefully, we were willing to overlook that experience and the complete lack of information on the DNR website and head up to a section of the NCT that goes through Brule River State Forest in NW WI.  This 20 mile section is just a bit west of the last section we attempted, and all the blog info we found suggested that it too was marshy and tick/mosquito-filled.  Thank goodness we were heading up in November!!

Bug-free on the NCT

Friday night, we grabbed our gear and started the 5hr drive up.  We ditched our bikes at the southern terminus of the section (for us, County Road A ~4 miles NE of Solon Springs) and drove up to Brule, WI for the night.  In the morning, we grabbed our muffins and bananas and hit the trailhead on Samples Rd, where we found a pack of trail runners.  After some hemming and hawing about the proper way to get on the trail, we headed off in the right (thank you Ali) direction.  Now, when we were preparing for our hike, we spent 2-3 days trying to find a map of the trail with distances and campsites listed.  It took forever, but we eventually discovered this.  You might notice that the only campsite with a calculable distance is the Highland Town Hall Campsite at 13 miles.  Luckily, that's the one we were aiming for anyways.  For any other hikers' reference, Winneboujou is ~0.9 miles in; Paul Schoch was around 5; and Jersett Creek was ~16 miles from Samples Rd.

We were hiking through a mix of recently-logged, mixed coniferous, ready-to-be-logged, scrubby young oak, and currently-being-logged woods.  The old cut blocks have been growing on me since moving up here; there's just something oddly serene about the needle-covered ground and straight rows of older trees.  The water sources at the first couple of sites looked like they'd be lovely bug-breeding grounds in warmer seasons.  We were hiking on a slight, Wisconsin-style "ridge" that provided some quite pleasant vistas.  Though almost all of the deciduous trees have dropped their leaves, the stripes of conifers, birches, and eastern larch were rather striking (particularly when set against a lake).

Claw truck

Thanks in part to the chilly, overcast weather, we made great time in the morning:  roughly 10mi by noon.  The first several miles I was taking frequent breaks to fiddle with my boots in an attempt to (a) find some sort of support for my joints and (b) not start bruising my foot/getting hotspots.  I've probably complained about this before, but I'll complain about it again:  if you intend to take your shoes on any kind of outdoors adventure, do not ever get Keens.  Neoprene in a water sandal is really unfortunate/foot-funk-encouraging, certain toe guards on boots just apply toenail-bruising pressure, and no one who hikes long distances in Keen boots ends up with happy feet/joints.  Ranting aside, we reached Highland Town Hall Camp by 2:00 and decided to keep moving so (a) we wouldn't be so close to the road, (b) we wouldn't hear the weird industrial sound coming from the other side of the road, and (c) we would be able to stay warm.  That turned out to be a great decision; the water source seemed to be turned off for the year at Highland.

The weird industrial sound turned out to be the "lumber sale" that the permit-issuing ranger had mentioned.  ("It shouldn't really affect you.")  Apparently, "lumber sale" is code for active logging.  We had hiked by areas full of slash and areas with marked trees, and we finally came upon the interesting (and really scary) little machine doing the logging.  We watched for a while as it would grab the base of a tree, lift the tree away, set it down sideways in between the rows of other trees, strip the branches, and chop it into 8ft(?) sections.  Then, a second little truck would come over and shuttle the logs over to a big ol' pile. The pile was about 2m off of the trail, the logging machine was about 80m off the trail when we passed.  The slash suggested the logging machine had been within 5m of the trail earlier that day.  I don't mind the logging in State Forests.  WI has a big paper industry, and similar to the National Parks/Forests splits, the Forests are expected to have some industrial productivity.  I do find it a little amusing that this was the best place for a National Scenic Trail.

Peeking out from our campsite (There was a lovely sunset the night before)

The last three miles into camp took us 2 hours; my ankles and now knees were feeling miserable!  The terrain hadn't been challenging in the least, but the meandering (and slight) ups and downs started feeling pretty bad, even if they did help us lose the lumbering noise pretty quickly.  Camp was a welcome relief; the chili pie and hot jello drink helped stave off the cold, even if our weak fire couldn't battle the cool, damp conditions very well.

Our early bedtime helped us get enough sleep for the next day.  We had wolves, owls, and distant coyotes serenading us through the night.  The wolves definitely came as close as our water source, but they were wandering around a fair amount.  Though the forecast said we wouldn't be below freezing, our hydration pouches told a different story in the morning.

We tried to stay in our tent for a while on Sunday morning and let the sun do its job.  We were well awake by 9 and on the trail as soon as we got the ice melted for breakfast.  Our four miles out took a while, but the sky was clear, and the woods were lovely.  We got off of the trail before the 2.3mi boardwalk, but we had enough hiking for the day and a 19mi bike ride to look forward to.

Jersett Creek

The first 6 miles of our bike shuttle was spent on a "packed" sand road.  We fishtailed at least once every 100m.  I think the area was pretty.  When I could tear my eyes off of the sand, the scenery made me feel like I was in some exotic Adventure Cycling write-up.  The isolated feeling continued even when we turned onto a (paved!!) county road and then a (beautifully paved!!) state highway.  There was no traffic and very few developed properties.  I really, really couldn't ask for a better bike ride to end a hike.  (Did I mention that it was largely downhill and that my knees didn't mind the ride?)

As soon as we loaded the bikes onto the car and grabbed our packs from the end of the hike, we headed off to celebrate as all outdoors-folk should:  with Norske Nook pie.  Even though the leaves had already disappeared for the year, there are certainly worse ways to end a not-snow season in Wisconsin.