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| It was threatening rain all day and though I took my raincoat and tarp (which I would have even if it weren't threatening, in case you're wondering) it only sprinkled a bit the next morning and so lightly I didn't even bother to put my raincoat on. But we all know that if I hadn't taken rain gear it would've poured. |
I was heading to a small lake in the CNNF so first thing I had to do, besides packing, was climb the hill.
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| The majority of this hill is not steep (and past the pines there you can see it dips a bit) but from the Tri-County Corridor at the base of the hill it rises about 400' up to most of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF) north of HWY 2. |
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| Nearing home for the night. |
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| Several weeks ago I made some Barbecue Spaghetti to dehydrate for bikepacking sorta following this recipe. Here it is on my alcohol stove starting to heat up. |
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| This is where I cooked and ate supper but then moved a few hundred yards to the place where I'd sleep. I've only ever seen a handful of bear and the ones I've seen have just about turned themselves inside out putting distance between us (this is bear hunting area) - but still I'd rather not have a solo, up-close, after-dark encounter - so I took some precautions. |
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| While supper was festering/rehydrating I had some time to kill so I wandered around and took a few pictures. |
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| ...and gathered some water from the lake to sterilize for drinking. |
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| ...and checked how things were going in the pot. Pot cozy design patent pending. |
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| Thankfully once things have finished rehydrating/sponge-ing up the hot water it looked much more appealing. |
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| View from my campsite. |
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| As things were getting dark I was fiddling with something on my hammock when a large sploosh sounded behind me. A beaver was letting me know that she didn't appreciate me hanging around. |
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| My nifty little solar light hanging from the ridgeline for the tarp (that I didn't put all the way up but if I had been awaken by rain it'd be much faster to drape my tarp over the ridgeline than start from scratch) lighting up my bed for the night. |
I slept well during the night. There aren't yet many bugs. I saw two mosquitos - the very fact that I could count them is testament to how few there were. Despite it dropping to around 40* F my feet stayed warm. My feet almost always get cold - but this time I took an extra pair of thick wool socks and zipped my down vest over my footbox - that worked.
The lake is not very big (you can see almost all of it in the previous picture) so soon after I woke up (or, more accurately I should say "when I got up" because the hammock was so cozy I stayed there a while after I was awake) I took a hike around the lake.
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| Even if I hadn't seen the beaver the night before there was plenty of evidence of them being around. |
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When I got back from my quick circumnavigation of the lake I cooked breakfast down by the lake and sat there long after I had finished eating just being at ease with the wild-ness of things. While cooking I noticed a loon out hunting for breakfast and watched for a long while.
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| After loon-watching I packed up to go. |
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| Bike loaded and ready to rock |
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| There are some trails nearby here that are made for horses but (as I had seen no horse trailers and had seen no horses) I went ahead and rode on them. For the record: 1) I'm not a fast rider (and these trails were rough which slowed me down even more) and was never close to going so fast that it would have been unsafe if I had seen a horse on the trail (and there were no blind corners or hills) and 2) I'm not going to ride them again and I'd encourage other bikers not to ride them at all - if you need another reason besides that it's not a trail for bikers they're too rough - it's not a pleasant ride. |
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| The ATV trail as it nears the Corridor and home. |
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