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It’s been almost a month since I took my annual backpacking trip with my cousin, Father’s Day is coming up, and my baby girl is graduating kindergarten….. Life is good. On that note:
Posting a shortcut to all the pages for each day of the trip. Separating the videos and pics too.
Super happy and grateful to be able to share these with you. Continue reading for the links
Headed back to the beautiful LAKE IN THE CLOUDS, only this time we are approaching from the opposite side. Got some real gems here, tons of majestic and natural beauty. Bittersweet that the trip is ending but had a blast the whole time. This is another successful adventure in the books.
A continuation of Day 5 as we chill, it rains, and the day passes. Very fortunate to have taken this trip and this path. Super grateful for the tradition of backpacking every year with my cousin Bryan. I am privileged to have see the sights and made the memories
Day 5 was exciting. We were rested and ready from lay over day, our trip was backtracking so it was a place we had already been through (swampy and flooded out), and we had to re-cross our bridgeless river area. Rain was in the forecast so we made haste! Luckily it held out, we were able to find camp and make it as well as gather wood before getting blasted. Also made a hot fire that withstood the downpour. It was a night of reflection for sure, and we tried to stay up for the northern lights. Unfortunately it got cloudy around midnight and we tried to hold out but we not able to see aurora borealis.
Make sure to check out the story after we crossed in river!
Not much to explain here....had a lazy day, explored the local area of our campsite, took a day hike to a very underwhelming waterfall, visited Lake Superior, got firewood, listened to music, got wasted, and relaxed. Lot so music and definitely pigging out on trail snacks...YUM!
A little rhyme scheme coming your way.....ya see, I rhymed 4 with store (take that EMINEM). Come join us as we navigate the lazy lay over day and recoup
Honestly today was the day we saw more people on the trail than any other day. Obviously at the time we didn't know that, and I'm writing this part in hindsight from my cozy computer chair several days later.....BUUUUT this was the spot we chose after MUCH deliberation. Since the place was filling up we needed to tread lightly, technically did not have reservations here so the last thing we wanted to do was make camp and then get booted out by folks who did it right and paid for a site. The winds of fortune blew our way though and we found a nice secluded site atop a hill. The hill totally killed the cool superior winds for the most part, so we just got set up and found PLENTY of firewood. I had to do some engineering on our firepit to make it radiate heat better but that was our biggest hurdle and after the last two days or hiking and the soar feet setting in I aint mad about that.... CONTINUE READING for more.
Starting this part off at 8:40. Is that late or early for your backpacking? Honestly, depending on circumstances.... it can go both ways. Got a fun day planned ahead. Defintiely DID NOT ANTICIPATE the cold superior winds. Originally we wanted to sleep super close to shore but impending hypothermia totally shot that idea down. I wanna hike not freeze to death! On the plus side, we crossed this super sketchy log I'm calling the AMERICAN GLADIATOR bridge. CONTINUE READING to follow us and we reach Lake Superior
Before leaving the Lake in the Clouds sites we came across only what we could assume was the last civilized toilet of our journey. Sadly that proved to be true cuz it was cat holes from here on out. Here’s a little insider knowledge though... CONTINUE READING for the crash course
This was definitely our most challenging day. You'll often find the first few days (at least for me) are where we build in the easier hikes. Sometimes it possible and sometimes it is not but if you think about it.... Your packs are at their heaviest and your body is getting acclimated to the minutia of backpacking for several hours. As times goes on you eat food and use your disposable materials so packs get lighter (or in my case things get burned in the fire haha). Today we had elevation, a sight-seeing destination, some back-tracking, semi difficult terrain and max mileage so all of that together put some work on my aging body (plus I'm not in peak physical shape as my counterparts so there's that). IT was a b eautfiul hike nonetheless, we started early and strogn because our last weather report indicated midday rain and our goal was to put in as much distance as possible before that point. Day ended up with super minimal drizzling towards the last hour or two but nothing substantial or catastrophic. We hit government peak and the storm clouds rolled in at the tail end of our lunch, overall we were super fortunate. Continue reading for more, PLUS a bonus picture of my nude chest (sorry in advance:-) )
Day two was an interesting day (I suppose each day was interesting in its own right). Had another big day ahead of us. Made the hike from Lake in the clouds to Government Peak and then land in Mirror Lake for some beautiful shoreside camping. Had a lovely view and a clear canopy for stargazing. Before our day got started though we took a little aside, the map we got of the Porcupine Mountains indicated a historic mine not far from our Day 1 campsite. Naturally before we rolled on outta there we had to find it…… oh boy and we did. The weather forecast was constantly changing but before we lost signal we downloaded the “current forecast” and it indicated we would have rain in our future….
Day two was the hardest day of the hike, it had the longest distance traveling with packs and the biggest changes in elevation. So we were preparing to hike at least half of the day in rain gear. 8-9miles depending on if you go by the map vs. The trail heads/markers. MIRROR LAKE HERE WE COME!
I think for the photos I'm going to say as little as possible unless there is needed context or a good story behind them. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say!
Had a really easy day today,when all was said and done we ended up doing like 10 miles. Since we explored the ridge and peaks by LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, we left our backpacks at the car in the overlook parking lot. After completing about 90% of our mileage for the day we got our packs and proceeded to descend into the lake below. We scouted the area for the best site prior (which was nice) so wr just set up camp off the beaten path. Twas nice. Perfect night outside. Perfect day. Nice little warmup and intro for our bodies as well. After setting up camp and exploring we got firewood and just chilled until midnight. No cell signal so I couldn’t call my daughter :-(
Just a little Check-in/ update. The place we stayed was cozy and nice. No bedbugs or shady happenings so THAT'S A PLUS. Honestly this little spot has mad WHITMORE LAKE vibes and I'm not mad about it
I'm going to be throwing in these Jumps to the individuals posts so I'm not overly congesting the VLOG/BLOG timeline with multiple photos and/or vids. So please please please click CONTINUE READING for more on each one!
Doing our Long stretch of driving currently...It can be tedious but it is necessary. All good things take time. Plus it's a chance to catch up with my cous on the happenings. As we get older we see each other less and less, so it's important that we keep this tradition going. ALMOST 10 YEARS OF CRAZY BACKPACKING annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyways, here's some random pics cuz I'm riding shotgun and passing the time
