Day 21... (that is THREE weeks) - mile ~ 242.4

Where to start... I guess where I left off... This is another post that is an ENTIRE WEEK

The night I built my first camp fire... which was tough because it had been another bi-polar day that could not decide if it wanted to rain or be sunny, well that night I had built the fire had it going strong, just in time to spread it out and have it be extinguished by the thunderstorm. It did serve multiple purposes for me, a total mood pick-me-up and a fiery tick death bed. Not to be confused with snap, crackle, pop - just pop, pop, pop is the sound of ticks dying.

The next day the weather could once again not decide what it wanted to be... but for the most part, pretty sure it did not get above the mid-50s for temperature and it was windy. So inside the trees when I had my long sleeve on it was hot, then in an open/windy area it was too cold to be comfortable. I did a lot of outfit changes, which is annoying when wearing a pack. I camped just outside of Cornell and it was Jenni's and my first night camping separately. She really wanted to get into town it had been one full night ;)  since our last town and I didn't want to do the miles so we split up. So we learned we can in fact be independent of each other. Probably good for both our sanity since 24/7 with someone for three months can be a bit much.

The next morning there was a little bit of road walking and then a short 1.5 mile section before I got into Cornell. I heard my phone get a text so I checked it and it JUMPED... no joke - it just LEAPT from my hand and landed face down on the gravel side of the road. I looked at it facing down and thought "Well that's not so great" Picked it up and at first thought I was lucky, but then I saw the hairline crack the length of the screen. BOOO. A few hours later another crack jutted out of that and finally the phone seemed to settle down with gaining cracks with one final half-moon crack along the edge. So that happened. Gooooood morning to me. Its working fine luckily and will hopefully keep going like this for a while. I previously mentioned that I had met myself before... so I DID buy a phone that comes with one free screen replacement, Its just I have only had the phone about six months so I was hoping I could make it a bit further.

The log 'stacker' in Cornell

Once into Cornell, after walking by the big crane / log stacker, I stopped at Stacker Café where I proceeded to order breakfast for eight, which I ate (well... most of it). That is actually where I finally uploaded my last post.

Jenni joined me at the café and we had a nice chit chat and then we were off... onto the road walk portion. I just google mapped the sections and if we had done the road walk which takes you on the country roads it would have been a total of ~39.5 miles from Stacker Café to the entrance of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. However, if we just went the straight shot along hwy 64, it cut that road walk down to 24.5 miles. We did the 24.5 miles.

Looooong road walk

Took two days and one night of camping near some farm animals that totally knew we were there. In addition to farm animals seeming to threaten a stampede at any given snorting or pawing moment, that night the birds, specifically Wilson's Snipe were out. Snipe are real. This brings me to the 'send kids on snipe hunt' joke... the joke may be on you because they could potentially come back with one if they were a savvy child, and what would you do then... you would have to say good job that's what (watch the movie UP - that kid is sent on a Snipe hunt).  Snipe sound like some sort of maniacal clown laughter and they were out it force. Check it out at this link: Snipe Call Jenni kept laughing so much at them it was pretty funny and at least it took our minds of the farm animals and dogs barking.  With all this going on, it also got cold. As in BELOW FREEZING. So we were pretty chilly that night. Our sleeping bags are 15 degrees, but a general rule of thumb is to add like 15 degrees to the lowest temp when you are a woman, so our bags are more comfortable around the 30 degree level. I'm a cold body. That better be the last stinking freeze Wisconsin! Get your weather patterns figured out! I dreamed of my poncho liner that night.

Speaking of dreams... I have recurring dreams about ticks and tick removal. The ticks get continually larger in my dream. The last one I woke up from I remember removing all sorts of weird ticks on top of the tons of normal ones. The last one being this inch big bright blue tick with super long legs. My dreams are taking me places I don't want to go. On top of that, I am reliant on my phone camera to help me check for ticks, to put it simply... My phone has seen things.

Okay, so the morning after freezing it did start to warm up fast but we were slow moving and not on the road, still hwy 64, until 1030. We stop at Gilman at Kourtney's Kettle for lunch and to charge our phones. The really great thing about hiking the Ice Age Trail and about that trail magic I mentioned is that a lot of people do this without even knowing its a thing. We got our lunch and at the end of the meal the waitress comes up and asks if we want a slice of watermelon.

Trail Magic Watermelon

My first of the year. I am really missing my normal intake of fresh food. Tuna packets, granola bars, and the freeze dried meals are not my normal type of food. That watermelon was heaven. People are so good.

We hit the 200 mile mark so at the restaurant I made a little tribute to it!

No camping for us that night, because my mom picked us up! And we were planning to only be in at her place one night, but when given the option of two nights, we could not resist. Mom cooked a really yummy meal. Jenni said she hadn't seen me eat so much the whole hike, so it must have been being home, but I ate a ton.

Mom's home cooking!

It was quite a treat to sleep in a familiar bed. The next day we took our packs to hike, but they didn't have the overnight stuff in. It was a slow day for both of us. It was also one of the hilliest days yet. What a treat to have a 10 pound pack instead of a 33 pound pack. After the 25 miles of road walk, my feet were pretty swollen - its much harder on them than trails/hills. The day was beautiful and really well marked and the weather was made for a t-shirt. Saw our first Wood Ducks and walked over a small beaver pond.

That night Jenni and I went into Walmart in Medford to resupply after another yummy meal and cookies! I bought too much... again. But on the way there we pulled over in Stetsonville for some funny photos. The night before I had The Great Outdoors playing in the background and I reenacted one of my favorite scenes. Dan A's face in this scene is priceless. He holds it for waaay too long and its pretty horrible acting and I love it for that.
 


This brings me to Friday, the 22nd - also known as - the day we actually meet other people on the trail/in the camp sites. First time in almost three weeks.

Mom and I where she dropped me off

Mom dropped us off and it was no I emerged from the woods to cross a fire road and a car was just parking at the side of the road. Three nice ladies pop out and start chatting and it turns out they are all widowers and they are taking a walk to a memorial bench for the late husband of one of the ladies. I tell them about myself and learn a bit about them and I am on my way. I meet up with Jenni (who is normally in front of me because she is faster) and we stop by the bench we believe to be the one the lady is looking for. Jenni suggests waiting so we can get a photo of the three as a group. We wait (not long) and chat some more with the ladies. She was pretty tickled to meet us and hear about Warrior Hike. Its because of the work her husband and all the volunteers do on the trail that we are able to even be out there hiking. It kind of showed a ongoing legacy for him in my opinion. Gives a person that warm and fuzzy feeling.

We are not alone

After parting ways with the ladies, I walk into the populated camp area. There is already a fire roaring in the fire pit and two people are around it, two more are down the way a bit and later on another guy joins us after his hike. WHOA! I chatted for a bit while eating and my feet were getting sucked dry by mosquitoes. I now use Cortisone 10 for body lotion. It was really great to visit with others and hear stories, but I retreated to my tent and mostly just listened out of the bugs grasp and warm in my sleeping bag.

Saturday morning we get going around 10 after a slow morning (seems to be a pattern huh). I was the first one out on the trail and saw a porcupine over a small hill right on the trail. Before walking that section I started filming and got the porcupine climbing a tree. His (or her) spiny tuckus is ridiculously cute. We got out of the trail on a fire road about two miles from our potential pick-up location and I called the VFW - who was out looking for us for about an hour. Felt so bad. Cell reception was limited to non-existent. I was walking around with my hand in the air. Funny how I got cell reception throughout the last two days in the middle of the forest out in nowhere land, but as soon as I get to a road and near a town, cell reception is zilch. These towers aren't planned well (although if I had a forest emergency its nice to know I have cell reception)

The Westboro VFW picked us up and it was a great visit. We immediately went and got a beer and chatted, but then went on our way to Camp 28, a hotel right across from Rib Lake. We checked into our room, cleaned up and went to the restaurant and ate a delicious meal.

Supper at Camp 28 restaurant with the Westboro VFW and Auxillary Members

In front of Rib Lake

The group was so much fun to talk with and share stories. The next morning Kreg, who was the one had found us the day before took Jenni and I back to the trail, but we had extra visitors that morning. The night before I had received a facebook message and four people, hikers Jenni knew through Hiker forums, came up to surprise her! Too bad she had woke up sick at the weeee hour of the morning! I almost had to ruin the surprise on her adamant proclamation of not going to breakfast and not getting out of bed all day. Well, upon the high spirits of the new visitors and the idea of slack packing a small six miles, she managed :) Three of the four visitors are recent thru-hikers of the Appalachian Trail. It was really great to hear the stories and compare it to what I have seen here (we have more bugs, except for the portion in Maine). Anyway, awesome surprise by visitors from South Dakota and Minnesota.

Insta' Friends!

The news in The Chronicles of Natalie's Feet (might be my new blog name) I also hiked in my NEWLY DELIVERED SHOES.

Which seem okay, but my left foot is weird and low cut shoes get under that bone that sticks out and it gets to be excruciating. Hoping to pick up some shoe inserts in Madison that raise up my heal and make everything better. Glad I only had six miles the test day with them. Also, here is photo of my toes. Right foot... loosing toenail next to big toe - not a surprise, this isn't the first time for that. But my left big toe looks good! Not normal, but good! Doesn't really hurt anymore either, but I don't really touch it.

Going to lose some toenails

We all stopped at Mondeaux Dam Recreation Center, where I was excited to try their supposedly amazing pizza, but Dad was waiting for me when I got there and the idea of driving my own car and the call of home and not being hungry after a huge breakfast at the hotel, I left the group early. I went to my Dad's, ate a yummy supper and the next day I was on my way to Madison to do Aaaaarrmy Training.

"If you want to know where your heart lies, look to where your mind goes when it wanders." Unknown

The mud path known as trail

Lillacs! My favorite!! Smell so good, especially when I stink so bad!

Glacial erratics - big rocks dropped by the glacier

Some landscapes look like effigy mounds may be present, but very hard to tell.

Trilliums turning pink with age



Our new permethrin treated shirts to help with ticks

Cairns people build for fun

A non-trail related blog. Five days in the real world.

As a heads up, I talk a lot of military in this post... I tried to explain it though :)

All smiles together!

After getting off the trail, I spent the night in my own bed and then took off for Madison Memorial Day morning. I had to go 'home' to Madison for a board to become an officer in the WI Army National Guard. Brat fest was still going on in Madison so I stopped by that, sat with some friends and some friends of friends and ate two delicious brats (my first of the year) and one SUPER delicious cob of corn. Cannot wait for more corn fests by the way.

After that, I took over a room at my friend Kathryn's where I would be for my time in Mad Town. All my stuff is currently in storage until I move into my apartment in August.

For a bit of perhaps boring background on my military career: I was (I can say that now) a Master Sergeant but have been working on my direct commission since October 2014. After being notified last week that I would need to appear before a board to determine if I would be accepted by the WI National Guard as an officer, I had to make plans to get off the trail for a little longer than originally anticipated. Little did I know I would have the board and be told minutes later I was accepted and then be whisked away to swear in as an officer. WHIRL-WIND!

Going from enlisted to officer! Sworn in by an officer I was deployed with!

I then worked on some stuff to make up my drill time and started to toy with the idea of having a small pinning ceremony to go from Master Sergeant to Second Lieutenant.

The next day was when I started to stress about the commissioning ceremony. I didn't want a big-deal thing and I had never been commissioned before... :) so I didn't really know where to start. After working out a bunch of details, I felt like it was morphing into something I didn't like so I was about to call the whole thing off and just have someone pin me real quick in some never-used office and be done. There were a million details to work out it seemed like and to pull it together so quick and it still be nice, meanwhile the only uniform I had was a very well-used just recently through a deployment - not nice looking thing and there was no time to get my Class A uniform converted from enlisted to officer.

However, the day was still amazing. Went to lunch with a great friend and upon walking into the restaurant, the only others sitting inside are friends one of whom was one of my prior bosses who I wanted to pin me the next day! Small world!

Similar restaurant tastes!

So I asked Kristine if she was available Thursday and/or Friday for the little shindig. The next great thing about that day was getting to meet (not-so)-little-man Tucker who is about six months old and getting to see his pretty darn great mom ;)

So adorable! 

By then end of the day, I had pretty much decided I was not going o mess with the ceremony and would do it in August when I was done hiking. And then my friend Tammy called. She was going to be my first salute. A first salute is something a new officer does with an enlisted Soldier who is normally in someway important to them. She recently got promoted to E7, Sergeant First Class, but had not been pinned officially and she asked me to pin her. Tammy and I go back to riding the school bus to elementary school together, and joining the military, moving to Madison together and becoming roommates plus another 10 years of memories since. To share this day with her, and have my first action as an officer be to promote such a near and dear friend was such an honor, privilege and how-did-timing-ever-work-out-for-this opportunity! I was going to make this ceremony happen. That night while waiting for the longest ever oil change I devised the plan and made some phone calls. The next morning after some amazing people jumped through hoops, we had the ceremony held over lunch period from the class I was in. I was pinned by the two of the greatest mentors in my military career, I received my first salute from one of my best friends, got to promote an amazing NCO, and all in front of a group of people who took time out of their schedules to show their support. Everyone present in some way touched either my, Tammy's, and most likely both of our lives and military career in a positive manner. It was humbling to see all their faces in the room. Sharing the day with Tammy and everyone present is more than I could have EVER hoped for and I feel it was meant to be as the timing was so perfect and impossible to have ever been planned if we had actually tried. Even with the stress of putting together the planning puzzle in addition to the shabby uniform, it was a highlight of my military career.

Getting pinned by the two of the best mentors a person could have asked for!

My first salute! I held it extra long which was great for photos, but it also took me an extra moment to realize that I am the officer! I drop the salute first!!

Pinning a FANTASTIC NCO and a FANTASTIC friend. I threw her rank and woops, hit someone in the leg with it! Those little things can really spin!

Silver dollar coining! A tradition for first salutes.

AND second salute

After the oil change I went to REI, and walked out of the store and checked into the poor house. Ha! love that place, but it does a number on the wallet. I bought some inserts for the NEW SHOES I had received. https://youtu.be/hmbUNF1Q4R8  I recommend listening to this linked song because I was singing it to myself for most of last Sunday. :) Thank you Ahnu! One of Warrior Hike's sponsors. I bought some inserts to lift my ankle out of the shoe a bit so they don't cause excruciating pain the that bone that sticks out at the ankle, not the shoes fault, just my ankle build. In case the inserts are painful, I decided to just buy a new pair of shoes as a backup. After trying on about five pair, I stuck with Asolo. I love the ones I have and they won't put that pressure on my ankle, plus they last for a heck of a long time. When I put them on I thought "now these are a familiar and happy feel." I also bought ANOTHER pair of $22.00 underwear. Soooo ya, as a follow-up to a previous blog, they are in fact worth it. The under armor ones I have I dislike. I also got some new dehydrated meals to try out. nom nom nom. After REI, I met my five day roommates for supper and we actually got to catch up and talk... oh - AND eat yummy yummy food - to include cheese curds. Kathryn and Peter are seriously the bestest ever. Not only do they provide shelter, and meaningful conversation and friendship, but they also provided a delicious celebratory meal :)

To top things off, the evening after the ceremony I got to go see a past roommate during her going-away party.

Another great timing, stars aligning in the atmosphere thing to happen. I just happen to be in Madison the week she is. The weather was beautiful and I, who am rarely early to events devised the plan that if I showed up before the party's start I might get one-on-one time with her before other guests arrive. We haven't had a chance to see each other since I got home from deploying and showing up early TOTALLY WORKED! We had a good 30 minutes to chat and I helped her set up the area and also walk to pick up a grill. We were walking about a half mile back to the park with this grill and two separate guys made comments "Hey! Is that a Weber? - big smile?" (it was by the way). However! That got Genya and I thinking... and for any single ladies out there - the answer is so simple! Just walk down the sidewalk toting a grill along! Seriously! I bet a model could walk by, but the girl with a grill would probably be the one approached. It may work with other things too... maybe a band saw or something. Just a tactic. You can thank me at your wedding. 

After the party I met back up with Tammy and actually got to catch up. We ate supper from the food carts staged on the east side and got three cupcakes for desert to go and headed back to her apt to sit by the pool and watch Tammy's daughter swim and splash around. Gotta love that little, expert cart-wheeler!

The cupcakes were mediocre like most cake in my opinion, but still a nice treat :) Seriously, when is pie going to get in on these desert places. They have frozen yogurt places, and cupcake or macaroons... Pie reigns superior. Face the facts people and start up a pie place!

Tomorrow is my last day of work down here, I am looking forward to lunch with some good friends and then leaving directly to go home to my dad's place before hitting the trail Saturday morning.

Quote of this blog is just a movie title that I find fitting right now. "It's A Wonderful Life"

Day 14 - 167 miles (and so much to catch you all up on!)

Well, it has been over a week since my last post... And here's the quick rundown as to why... The first few days it was too soon to repost and I was tired then no connectivity, then went in to a friend's, then bad mood, and then another VFW visit. All this walking makes a person busy!

Prepare yourself, this is going to be a long blog.... Aaaaaaand, GO!

First of all, we had our best wildlife day eva! Here is the story on how a sandhill crane saved my life: so no sh&t there I was, walking down a mucky path after we got a very late start one rainy morning (we are talking 1230 here folks) and a sandhill crane sqwaks and flies away about 20 feet in front of me... And I'm all - coooool and grab for my camera... But its of course gone way too fast. As it flies away I saw something run up a tree. At first I thought it was a raccoon, which I haven't seen yet, but upon further inspection I notice TWO small faces looking at me. One on each side of a tree about midway up. It takes me a second to think and I come to the realization its bear cubs. At that moment I begin to wonder "where's momma??" while simultaneously backing up. Momma was on the other side of the trail. If that sandhill crane would  not have flushed I would have been between momma bear and her two cubs. Now I like adventure, but not when it can eat me. Jenni was behind getting water and although I had my camera out, she came down the path and I had to warn her... The picture I didn't even realize I took is below BUT IT PROVES I DIDN'T MAKE THIS UP. I also saw a 30+ point buck and when singing Disney tunes, birds landed on me. Totally happened I swear.

That same day we saw a fox, and although I didn't see any beaver, there may have been some in the area.

Chomp chomp chomp

(confession!: I earlier said I saw a beaver... I was most likely wrong as I learned today talking with nature interpretive center guy... it was more likely an otter - just as awesome!)

That day we ended in tiny town Haugen where we signed the guest book at the general store that Jim the owner is very proud of. It goes back a long way and is an interesting read. The store has been there forever and was so nice to have on the route. We bought a pizza to split and then Jenni dropped in face down when cutting it. Ha! So we ended up at the bar next door where they cut the pizza for us.

Wah wah wahhhh

Next day comes around

and we are all jazzed up because its the day we hit out 100 mile mark!
We also got interviewed by the Rice Lake newspaper. We were on the Tuscobia Trail the whole day, an old railroad path.

This guy just did not care we were near him

Was pretty uneventful except for seeing the porcupine!!! I've never seen one before in the wild.

That night it was supposed to get cold so my long time friend Aaron came to pick us up and whisk us away to shelter. I haven't seen him in a few years and he and his wife Virna showed us a great time. First we went to Walmart WHILE HUNGRY. I bought a ton of food. Then Aaron took us to an artesian well outside of Spooner. You just go up to this ever-flowing spicket of pure, fresh delicious water. Yum!

So much better than the brown tannin-rich stuff we have been filtering... which doesn't filter the taste all that well. Anyway, then Aaron grilled us some mean bacon cheeseburgers, and we topped the night off with a pontoon ride.

Burger master

The next morning I picked up my food bag, its ridiculously heavy so I had to leave a bunch behind... (Don't shop hungry!) But I did keep the oberto bacon jerky! I can eat bacon any ol' time now! Can life be sweeter?! Aaron weighed our bags with a luggage scale... I've been dropping stuff out of my bag since starting this... It came in just under 32 pounds with three liters of water and three days worth of food... But since starting I have probably tossed or sent home about five pounds worth of stuff. Widdling that weight down!

Funny faces!

He cooked up some bacon and french toast and then Jenni and I were off to the races. Of course we did make Aaron drop our bags about five miles further than us where a nice guy let us put them on his porch so we could dooooooo... Slack packing!

After that wonderful night Jenni and I were jabbering away because I also learned I have my board to become an officer scheduled for the 25th of this month. That's new info, good, but new, so I will be off the trail for a about five days at the end of the month between that and drill. Oh National Guard, why must you make me have responsibilities? With all the jibber jabber we missed a turn AGAIN and ended up at the fish outside of Birchwood. Well we take the obligatory funny pose pictures with big fish and then start down a BLUE blaze trail.

This kiss was NOT worth 1.8 miles

In all we tacked on 1.8 miles just for some fish pictures. I didn't realize this until after the fish or instead of me kissing that fish, my picture would have been me throat-punching it. Fish have throats. So I'm fuming my way down the blue blaze trail (white are loop trails, blue are alternate additional routes..  Like this one went into town because the yellow trail didn't.) We did make a tongue twister after seeing a bench... Try it out: blue blaze bench. Say that one three times fast ;)

BLUE BLAZE!!! I'll get you someday!

That night we keep walking until we hit our goal... A shelter and we camp inside it. We wake up with dry, dewless tents for once and got to dump our trash and use the outhouse... Which was awesome because I had chilimac for supper. The bugs were crazy-thick but only annoying.

That's a lot of bugs

There was however zero phone connectivity for me. I know I said that it was a good dewless morning, but here is what happened.... I set my backpack on the picnic table seat... The bag was empty except for my side pocket where my can of bug spray is and my flag. My bag tipped over, the flag fell out, I went to pick it up, and the bug spray slipped out.... On. My. Toe. I cry a few times a year at least. I am emotional and movies get to me, frustration gets to me, heck sometimes its just tears of joy or laughing really hard... But I have not cried from physical pain in a very very long time. If I had been able to walk over to my phone to take a selfie,  you would have seen my cry face. Jenni later said she just thought I was hyperventilating... But I was crying. I then proceeded to stub my toe about 10 times that day. Its was the first time in about three days where puss started to ooze out of it again and my sock was plastered to it. Thought it was going to get infected. I also got lost three times that day and Jenni reaaaally got lost in a clear cutting area so I went back to try and find her adding on at least 1.5 miles. Then because the day had been so amazing up to that point, it downpoured on us before we got to camp so we had to set up in the rain under some conifers. My clothes, my tent, my hair, just everything was soaked. Worst day on the trail yet. Although I had connectivity to blog, I didn't have to humor. That night I almost cried again, this time from emotional turmoil, but dad always seems to call at the right time.

The next morning we packed up our sopping wet gear, put on our sopping wet and cold clothes, and got the hell out of dodge via more mucky trail and one very large and fully stocked cow pasture. The cows were all heifers and young-ish bulls who obviously wanted some food from us. They followed us all over and one of the young bulls I had to be all assertive with. He was trying to be manly and kept charging, probably in a playful manner... My walking poles help me walk, act like machetes through thick pokey briars, and also stop young bulls in there tracks ;)

Curious cows... And bulls

With my boots totally soaked I walked I my sandals the three road miles into Weyerhauser... i.e. the town with the nicest people ever!

Wet shoes...

We get to town hungry, wet, and smelly. Go to a bar and eat a yummy lunch then head across the street to a small park area and proceed to do our best to make it look trashy by spreading and hanging our soaking wet gear out all over.

Looking like bums who feel off the train

It was not sunny, so its taking a long time to dry and after about an hour or two a guy pulls up across the street at the fire dept on a lawn mower and says we can use the local ball park pavilion to camp at and he will open the bathrooms for us (which had real toilets and a sink with hot water- score!).  About a half hour later a girl comes out of another bar with a big pizza and says the owner had it made for us! Yum!!! We looked like complete bums I guess. Getting stuff like this is also called 'trail magic.' Its very common on bigger trails like the Appalachian Trail. People will leave food, water, soda, or set up a grill and cook for people hiking just because. Its a part of the hiker community's way, and its accurately named, because its magical.

Thanks Porky's Pub for the free pizza!

After such a horrible day on the trail, Weyerhauser really cheered us up. We ate some pizza, put some in zip lock bags for later and packed our mostly dry gear up. That night we drank a few and talk with the locals while our phones charged at the bar. I kept switching out paper towels in my boots to try and get them dry. Then we headed to the pavilion and go to sleep. In the morning,  a curious neighbor lady came over with the tiniest dog in the world. I'll miss you Weyerhauser, and I will always love you.

Love this town!

The next morning Jenni and I were up at 6am and she went to get us coffee at the gas station. We were on the road by 8 and it was all road connecting paths... Very tough my my feet. We walked about 15 miles that day total before getting picked up. We took a break around mile 12 because we walked into a 5k fundraiser for an adorable little girl. I had seen the sign for it in Weyerhauser but didn't think we would walk into it. People were running and we stopped at the bar where it was held, bought some yummies from the bake sale, got a soda and were on our way.

Jenni bought sugar cookies shaped like fish with pretty frosting and one was missing an eye... we both blurt out at the same time "must be a cave fish!" (Cuz fish in caves normally have little to no eyesight) its nice hiking with someone who gets each others corny jokes.

We got picked up by two guys named Jim from the Bloomer VFW. Then we went to the VFW and met a third Jim. Next we went to the park where the high school wresting team was having a pig roast and I kid you not met three more Jims. We met all kinds of people but only had to remember three guys' names. After pig roast it was laundry time and then we went to general dollar to get food for the trail. I haven't been in a dollar store in a long time, not because I'm 'too good for it' but because I didn't know they were kind of awesome! It had groceries and my beloved epson salt. (I think I need to bring epson salt back - Calgon, take me away), this stuff is a miracle to my feet. Might be a door to door salesman i believe in it so much. My feet were so swollen last night and today my toe felt a million tines better and my feet slid into my shoe like the first day of the hike.) After shopping we went to Main Street Cafe for pie - best pie ever!! I love pie. Ended our night at the Twi-light motel in Bloomer and slept like a clean rock.

Arguably the best pie place  in WI

We were finally out of Rusk county... The wettest, not very well marked trail county and into Chippewa. Its rained off and on but at the camp site tonight there was a fire pit.

I couldn't resist, had to build a fire. The trails were beautiful today and it was so unbelievably green it was like looking at a photograph that the green had been enhanced on.

No filter or photo adjustment, just intensely green

 The rain and heat is turning up the chlorophyll. We putzed around at the interpretive center for an hour or so, played with snakes and saw all sorts of live and stuffed animals.

It rained, the frogs are very loud outside and I swear I heard animals near my tent, but nothing has attacked.... yet.

"I don't know what lies ahead, but I want to keep going forever..." - Fuyuni Soryo

Forgot to remove the freshness packet in my chilimac, still ate the meal, still alive....

Doing the 1970s crying Indian commercial immitation for Earth Day. (You-tube it)

This moss looks like Squidword!

Trilliums!

Part of my morning meal... Daily vitamin, joint stuff, and ibprofin