Over the Fourth’s long weekend, three of us headed up to go
backpacking through the Porkies. Since
Ali & I are still breaking in new gear and our compatriot was new to the
whole backpacking thing, we aimed for ~28 miles over three days. We were going to head out on the Lake
Superior Trail, connect to either the Little Carp River Trail or the Correction
Trail (we ended up taking the former for a longer loop), and come out on the
North Mirror Lake Trail.
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| Ali's Version of Indian Paintbrush |
The weather was spectacular on our first trail day. The lake was the calmest I’ve ever seen it,
and while our buddy was getting eaten alive (probably due to some patchy DEET
application and an even greater sensitivity to bites than I exhibit), the
mosquitoes generally left Ali & I alone.
There were a ton of other hikers out for the weekend; I think we passed
8+ backpacking groups and dozens of day hikers over the course of the weekend
(as opposed to the one solo backpacker/skier that’s been typical of our Porkies
trips). Though we were a little nervous
that we wouldn’t get a site on Lake Superior, everything worked out well. We had plenty of daylight hours left in camp,
and plenty of stable flies to pass the time with. (Thank goodness they weren’t really hungry
til the next morning!)
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| One of several different mystery white flowers |
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| Lunch Spot - Day 1 |
On the second day, the three of us turned inland. We had a mix of woods, pseudo bogs, creek
crossings, and lakes that kept the scenery varied. We also, unfortunately, had some gol-darned
nasty bitey flies for all of breakfast and the first 40 minutes of the
hike. (And we heard it every last time
our buddy was bit.)
The stable flies do
stay pretty close to the lake, so once we were into the woods, bugs were no
longer a problem. Additionally, once we
were well into the woods, we got to trek along the Little Carp, which was full
of spectacular little cascades. The
temperatures were a bit warmer the second day, so we made sure to take both
mid-day and end-of-day dips.
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| Lake Superior - Campsite #1 |
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| We had several river fords; none got our feet wet |
After lunch at the Overlooked Falls, we headed down into a
marshier area. Without the distraction
of a creek, Ali & I both started noticing our newly formed blisters a
little more; our friend seemed to be flagging as well. I started racing/slacking in order to gain a
bit of solitude, but we pushed on past the surprisingly scenic lake labeled
“Lily Pond” on our maps and made it in to Mirror Lake for the evening.
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| The Lily Pond |
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| Mirror Lake - Campsite #2 |
Mirror Lake was swampier than the Lily Pond, and I was
nervous about the night’s mosquito flock.
There was no need to worry though; a storm rolled in right around
dinnertime, and kept us hemmed up in our tent all night. The storm also managed to throw a couple
centimeters of water into the bottom of our tent (thank you leaking
side-of-bathtub-floor). Thanks to our 2”
waterproof sleeping mats and the fact that it was a warm last night out, we
didn’t lose too much sleep.
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| Mini-gorge |
Our last day on the trail was a pretty straight shot out to
the car. There was one really cool
miniature creek gorge that we hiked along for half a mile or so, but otherwise
the scenery was unremarkable until the Lake of the Clouds overlook. We missed the chance for a cool dip in Lake
of the Clouds (too reedy). However, we
did get to see a gazillion really cute baby frogs. The stable flies kept us from an alternate
Lake Superior dip, but our quick escape did get us back to Mad-town for supper.
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| Baby Frog |
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| Lake of the Clouds (at the end of our hike) |
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