Day 14 (Grand Portage)
Chuck K - Paul said this one's for you...
We woke up at 4:15. Oy, that's early, but I hadn't slept that well and was awake. The tent pad was badly slanted and I had a hard time getting my sleeping pad level without sleeping right on top of Steve. It was also cold! Not just cool, but cold! Grand Marais had a low of 38 and I believe it. With my summer bag (rated to 45) and uninsulated Big Agnes REM air core pad, I got a wee bit chilly overnight, and that's after I had put on my poly-props. Throw the anticipation of the Grand on top and I was ready to go when we started hearing the birds chirping.
So, we got up and started putting the packs together (and tried to stay warm). We were pretty jazzed about the cool weather - I can't imagine what a 8.5 mile portage would be like in 90s and humid (OK - I can cause I did a post-trip hike with a loaded pack in this heat we've been having) but still, cool is good. We got the packs put together - I felt bad for Steve cause the light pack was a little heavier than we had planned. My heavy pack was a load - my guess is 100-105 lbs, but I was hoping to keep Steve's lighter after we got rid of all the food. I made myself eat some breakfast and we loaded up on water. We planned to carry 3-4 granola bars and a liter of water per person on the portage.
We started the portage at 5:24 AM. The path was pretty dewy and it took a bit to get heated up. We were both in shorts and long sleeve wicking shorts, so temp was fine but Steve's hands got a big cold from having his hands on the aluminum gunwales. We took a quick break to warm our hands up and moved on. The plan was to stop every mile or so for a rest break. I was ready to put the pack down after the first mile. I'm not a morning person and I have a hard time working out in the early morning. Based on the first mile, I thought it might be a long day. I had done a lot of pre-trip hiking with an 85 lb portage pack, but it didn't seem to be helping as we started.
I had my gps on me and we had the McKenzie maps of the portage so we were able to track our progress pretty well. Looking at the topo we could tell the portage would drop about 600 feet of elevation over the 8+ miles. Early in the portage we passed a sign that marked the high elevation sign for the portage. All downhill (about 700 feet worth) from here, right? :) The portage itself was in pretty good shape. A few trees down, but nothing like the Foul Portage from the day before. It's not a huge wide trail, just a small path through the grass and woods. At the higher elevations there wasn't much mud. There were planks over most of the wet/muddy areas and the planks were firm and dry. We had dried out our boots the day before and though the dew was getting them a bit damp, they weren't the soggy, heavy bricks we had the previous days. Unfortunately, we wouldn't keep our feet dry for the entire portage...
About 2 miles in we came across a beaver pond where the busy rodents had backed up a stream into a good size pond. The USFS (or whoever maintains the Grand) had put up a nice, wide boardwalk (complete with rails) to cross the pond. I'm thinking "awesome! stay nice and dry." Well, about half way across the pond the beavers had re-routed and added onto the dam so there was now some water across the boardwalk. I skirted the water as best I could using some beaver chew that was sitting on the boardwalk but still got one foot wet. Well, 1 dry foot is better than none, so I moved on. The rest of the boardwalk looked dry and I was looking ahead when the board I stepped on sunk to about mid-calf into the water. Doh! So much for the dry foot. We finished crossing the beaver pond and climbed up a short incline, set the packs down, and took our boots off to wring out our socks. We'd have wet boots the rest of the portage. Kudos to my Fox River X-static liner socks and Smartwool light hikers (and the Merrill boots) - no blisters or sore feet all trip. The mosquitos had woken up by then and there were swarms of them hovering around us. Thanks to Muskol I didn't get a single bite on the Portage and they weren't really an issue.
After the boardwalk we had about 2 mile to go before we reached old highway 61. The pack seemed to carry better this stretch and I was starting to wake up a bit and the energy level was starting to ramp up a little. We hit old hwy 61 a little after 8am. We were over half-way through and I was feeling pretty good. I believe the sign here said 3.7 miles to the stockade - which wasn't sounding too bad any more. The last few miles had been better and I was able to get the pack situated where the pain was one I could ignore. After a couple minutes on the back, there really isn't a comfortable way to carry that much weight, even with the Granite Gear Superior packs (I wouldn't use any other). So it becomes a matter of finding a pain you can deal with. I'm thankful I did so much pre-trip road work with a pack as I was used to the discomfort and could push it to the back of my mind. I felt like I got off easy just having one (albeit heavy) pack to carry. Steve had some problems getting the canoe/pack combo dialed in with the weighting of the pack and was adjusting the CVCA yoke pads at breaks. I offered to swap but he declined. I did carry Penelope for a few rods just to say I carried a canoe on the Grand. :) It's interesting what goes through your mind when you do a long portage like that. You find rhythms in your stride and the sway of the packs, and your mind will latch onto a mantra to keep the rhythm. There were some strange phrases that popped up in my mind as I hiked along. Probably (ok definitely) the most odd was 'Yevgeny Kafelnikov', former tennis champ and now poker player. For some reason that odd collection of syllabels kept me going in rhythm for a good mile or so. Very strange. Another sound clip, which was probably the theme song of the trip, was Woo Hoo by the 5678s (from Kill Bill and the Vonage commercials). But I digress... old hwy 61. We took a little longer food/water break on the side of the road and enjoyed the warming rays of the sun. All the work had finally given me an appetite and I ate a bunch of jerky - figure better in you than on you. A truck drove by and we got a salute from the driver. I thought that was pretty cool.
After 20 minutes or so we shouldered our packs and canoe and moved on. With the portage over half over at this point I was feeling good. We had about 2.5-3 miles from old highway 61 to the current 61. This was the easiest stretch for me. My energy level was much higher and I was getting the pack dialed in and feeling better as the day went on. I hit a good spot in the next mile and was singing along as I walked and started enjoying the view and the challenge of the hike. Steve was pretty surprised to see me perking up and singing as we went along. I don't think he was getting stronger as the day went on, but I was feeling it! The trail was a little thinner during this stretch, but still in good shape. Very few trees down here. Shortly before we hit hwy 61 we went through a pretty stretch of pines. We got to hwy 61 and crossed before taking another break. At this point we had less than a mile to go. I was still feeling really strong and energetic. As we went on and got closer to town, we started hearing sounds of civilization. I pulled the GPS out - we were less than 200 yards from Lake Superior! Soon we saw the stockade - our destination. We strode into the lawn in front of the stockade and set our gear down along the parking lot. We had done it! I pulled the camera out and our small Nalgene of Jack Daniel's and we made a toast to the trip - 236 miles, 14 days, 8.5 Grand Portage, and one hell of a good time.
This concludes the trip. Our day was not complete - we still had to find our car, drive to Duluth for a Big Boat Oatmeal Stout at Fitgers, and make our way back home, but I'll recap that and final reflections.
We woke up at 4:15. Oy, that's early, but I hadn't slept that well and was awake. The tent pad was badly slanted and I had a hard time getting my sleeping pad level without sleeping right on top of Steve. It was also cold! Not just cool, but cold! Grand Marais had a low of 38 and I believe it. With my summer bag (rated to 45) and uninsulated Big Agnes REM air core pad, I got a wee bit chilly overnight, and that's after I had put on my poly-props. Throw the anticipation of the Grand on top and I was ready to go when we started hearing the birds chirping.
So, we got up and started putting the packs together (and tried to stay warm). We were pretty jazzed about the cool weather - I can't imagine what a 8.5 mile portage would be like in 90s and humid (OK - I can cause I did a post-trip hike with a loaded pack in this heat we've been having) but still, cool is good. We got the packs put together - I felt bad for Steve cause the light pack was a little heavier than we had planned. My heavy pack was a load - my guess is 100-105 lbs, but I was hoping to keep Steve's lighter after we got rid of all the food. I made myself eat some breakfast and we loaded up on water. We planned to carry 3-4 granola bars and a liter of water per person on the portage.
We started the portage at 5:24 AM. The path was pretty dewy and it took a bit to get heated up. We were both in shorts and long sleeve wicking shorts, so temp was fine but Steve's hands got a big cold from having his hands on the aluminum gunwales. We took a quick break to warm our hands up and moved on. The plan was to stop every mile or so for a rest break. I was ready to put the pack down after the first mile. I'm not a morning person and I have a hard time working out in the early morning. Based on the first mile, I thought it might be a long day. I had done a lot of pre-trip hiking with an 85 lb portage pack, but it didn't seem to be helping as we started.
I had my gps on me and we had the McKenzie maps of the portage so we were able to track our progress pretty well. Looking at the topo we could tell the portage would drop about 600 feet of elevation over the 8+ miles. Early in the portage we passed a sign that marked the high elevation sign for the portage. All downhill (about 700 feet worth) from here, right? :) The portage itself was in pretty good shape. A few trees down, but nothing like the Foul Portage from the day before. It's not a huge wide trail, just a small path through the grass and woods. At the higher elevations there wasn't much mud. There were planks over most of the wet/muddy areas and the planks were firm and dry. We had dried out our boots the day before and though the dew was getting them a bit damp, they weren't the soggy, heavy bricks we had the previous days. Unfortunately, we wouldn't keep our feet dry for the entire portage...
About 2 miles in we came across a beaver pond where the busy rodents had backed up a stream into a good size pond. The USFS (or whoever maintains the Grand) had put up a nice, wide boardwalk (complete with rails) to cross the pond. I'm thinking "awesome! stay nice and dry." Well, about half way across the pond the beavers had re-routed and added onto the dam so there was now some water across the boardwalk. I skirted the water as best I could using some beaver chew that was sitting on the boardwalk but still got one foot wet. Well, 1 dry foot is better than none, so I moved on. The rest of the boardwalk looked dry and I was looking ahead when the board I stepped on sunk to about mid-calf into the water. Doh! So much for the dry foot. We finished crossing the beaver pond and climbed up a short incline, set the packs down, and took our boots off to wring out our socks. We'd have wet boots the rest of the portage. Kudos to my Fox River X-static liner socks and Smartwool light hikers (and the Merrill boots) - no blisters or sore feet all trip. The mosquitos had woken up by then and there were swarms of them hovering around us. Thanks to Muskol I didn't get a single bite on the Portage and they weren't really an issue.
After the boardwalk we had about 2 mile to go before we reached old highway 61. The pack seemed to carry better this stretch and I was starting to wake up a bit and the energy level was starting to ramp up a little. We hit old hwy 61 a little after 8am. We were over half-way through and I was feeling pretty good. I believe the sign here said 3.7 miles to the stockade - which wasn't sounding too bad any more. The last few miles had been better and I was able to get the pack situated where the pain was one I could ignore. After a couple minutes on the back, there really isn't a comfortable way to carry that much weight, even with the Granite Gear Superior packs (I wouldn't use any other). So it becomes a matter of finding a pain you can deal with. I'm thankful I did so much pre-trip road work with a pack as I was used to the discomfort and could push it to the back of my mind. I felt like I got off easy just having one (albeit heavy) pack to carry. Steve had some problems getting the canoe/pack combo dialed in with the weighting of the pack and was adjusting the CVCA yoke pads at breaks. I offered to swap but he declined. I did carry Penelope for a few rods just to say I carried a canoe on the Grand. :) It's interesting what goes through your mind when you do a long portage like that. You find rhythms in your stride and the sway of the packs, and your mind will latch onto a mantra to keep the rhythm. There were some strange phrases that popped up in my mind as I hiked along. Probably (ok definitely) the most odd was 'Yevgeny Kafelnikov', former tennis champ and now poker player. For some reason that odd collection of syllabels kept me going in rhythm for a good mile or so. Very strange. Another sound clip, which was probably the theme song of the trip, was Woo Hoo by the 5678s (from Kill Bill and the Vonage commercials). But I digress... old hwy 61. We took a little longer food/water break on the side of the road and enjoyed the warming rays of the sun. All the work had finally given me an appetite and I ate a bunch of jerky - figure better in you than on you. A truck drove by and we got a salute from the driver. I thought that was pretty cool.
After 20 minutes or so we shouldered our packs and canoe and moved on. With the portage over half over at this point I was feeling good. We had about 2.5-3 miles from old highway 61 to the current 61. This was the easiest stretch for me. My energy level was much higher and I was getting the pack dialed in and feeling better as the day went on. I hit a good spot in the next mile and was singing along as I walked and started enjoying the view and the challenge of the hike. Steve was pretty surprised to see me perking up and singing as we went along. I don't think he was getting stronger as the day went on, but I was feeling it! The trail was a little thinner during this stretch, but still in good shape. Very few trees down here. Shortly before we hit hwy 61 we went through a pretty stretch of pines. We got to hwy 61 and crossed before taking another break. At this point we had less than a mile to go. I was still feeling really strong and energetic. As we went on and got closer to town, we started hearing sounds of civilization. I pulled the GPS out - we were less than 200 yards from Lake Superior! Soon we saw the stockade - our destination. We strode into the lawn in front of the stockade and set our gear down along the parking lot. We had done it! I pulled the camera out and our small Nalgene of Jack Daniel's and we made a toast to the trip - 236 miles, 14 days, 8.5 Grand Portage, and one hell of a good time.
This concludes the trip. Our day was not complete - we still had to find our car, drive to Duluth for a Big Boat Oatmeal Stout at Fitgers, and make our way back home, but I'll recap that and final reflections.
posted by the.mrrr at 11:48 AM
1 Comments:
What happened to day 8 thru 13?
...and I know what you mean about the mantra - me too! and you're right, it's always something wierd.
Wierd.
Baptiste
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