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