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Despite being very tired, I was awakened a couple times during the early
morning hours by the blustery conditions outside the tent. The wind sounded
like a freight train barreling through the forest. It started off in the
distance and moved closer and closer to the campsite. When it reached our
site the trees would shake, the leaves would whistle and the tent would
shudder under its fury. Then, as quickly as it arrived, it would disappear;
the loud noise giving way to an almost eerie silence as the wind raced through
the forest and faded away over a distant ridge somewhere out in the darkness.
Several seconds later the whole process began again, only this time, the
wind had shifted direction and it just passed by our site instead of directly
through it. This pattern repeated itself over and over as I attempted to
go back to sleep. At approximately 3:30 a.m. I was awakened again but, this
time it was by the sound of steady precipitation pounding the tent's rain
cover and an occasional barrage of water drops falling off of the leaves
as the wind blew through the trees.
At 9:30 a.m. the wind was still blowing strong and water was still falling
off the saturated leaves, so much so, that it sounded like it was still
raining. The weather didn't appear very favorable for hiking so we stayed
in the tent until 11:30 a.m. When I finally unzipped the tent a wall of
cold air invaded the once warm interior. I looked at my thermometer and
noticed that the temperature was between 40 and 45 degrees. As I stared
out over the lake all I could see was a gloomy, gray sky and sheets of mist
and water blowing horizontally across the surface from one end of the lake
to the other. When I stepped out of the tent it was immediately evident
that the short sleeve shirt and hiking pants I was wearing would not be
warm enough for today's conditions. I put on my fleece top, raincoat and
rain pants and we began to discuss a change in plans. We certainly did not
want to hike all day in the cold and rain, arrive at our destination with
wet gear and then have to sleep in wet clothes and sleeping bags. We had
planned to hike west from Mirror Lake to one of the campsites near the intersection
of the Correction Line and Big Carp River Trails, however, after a little
discussion we changed our destination to the Union Bay campground off of
M-107 on Lake Superior. If it continued to rain we could at least stay dry
by sleeping in the car, and we would have access to bathrooms with running
water and warm showers. The combination of rain and wind made our fingers
so cold that they slowly became stiff and hard to move. We packed as quickly
as possible, ate a small snack and were on the trail by 1:00 a.m.
We made our way over to the North Mirror Lake Trail and began our hike toward
the Union Bay campground. A short time after starting down the trail we
came across a large swampy area that appeared

to
be the remains of a vacated and partially drained beaver pond. The only
way to get to the other side was to walk on the two parallel planks that
dissected its length. In several places the planks were completely submerged
under water and made for tricky walking while other places were elevated
enough to keep our boots dry. The beavers that lived here had been very
busy because there were dead trees and tree trunks scattered over a large
area. The skeletal remains of what were once large, magnificent trees made
this area look like a tree graveyard. Now, many trees, still bearing the
beaver's deadly gnaw marks, had been reduced simply to large trunks protruding
from the swamp. Some trunks were still upright, but others had fallen on
their sides in the water leaving their hulk-like root structures sticking
vertically up in the air to dry out and turn a pale shade of gray from the
bleaching effect of the sun.

I guess Murphy's Law even works in the middle of nowhere because by 1:40
p.m. the wind and rain stopped, the sun began to shine, blue sky started
to appear through the breaking cloud cover and the temperature rose to just
over 50 degrees allowing us to shed a couple layers of clothes. If we had
known the weather was going to turn out like this we would have stuck with
our original plan and hiked west on the Correction Line Trail. As luck would
have it, this change of plans actually allowed us to have more time for
sightseeing on Friday than we would have originally had. So, in the end,
it all worked out for the best.
The trail crested a ridge a short distance past the intersection with the
Government Peak Trail. From this point the trail began a long, steep descent
of approximately 500 feet in elevation over roughly ½-¾ mile.

We
were glad to be heading north on the trail because coming from the south
would have definitely been a quad-searing ascent. Not only was the trail
steep in this area it was also covered with slippery mud, exposed tree roots
and jagged, loose rock. Together, these conditions made for an interesting
route down. Even though quite a few sections of trail in the park were wet
and muddy this section took the cake because it combined all the normal
nuisances with a very steep grade. Actually, my description of this trail
could sound like an excerpt from a twisted Dr. Seuss book, "Tan mud
here,

brown mud there and slippery red mud everywhere. Tree roots in the trail
and large trees over the trail. There are many types of rocks, how many
do you see? I see small rocks, big rocks, dry rocks and slippery rocks,
and even a few jagged, injury waiting to happen rocks". This steep
descent was approximately 1-1½ miles from Lake of the Clouds. On
the way downhill we passed a deep gorge several yards off the trail to the
west that was probably 30-40 feet deep. Scott Creek, a branch of the Big
Carp River, flowed through the chiseled gorge and created a nice waterfall
as it rushed over the jagged rocks at the bottom - it was quite a sight!

By 3:30 p.m. we had arrived at the bridge over the Big Carp River where
it flows out of Lake of the Clouds. We contemplated staying at one of the
campsites near the lake instead of going to Union Bay, however, when we
walked past the sites we discovered that most were close to the lake and
were pretty wet and muddy. Had we stayed at Lake of the Clouds our gear
would have most likely become

soaked and caked in mud because the sites were so waterlogged from all the
rain. We walked over the bridge and began the final push up the steep grade
on the north side of the lake. After a couple switchbacks and a few rest
stops we topped out on the Escarpment Trail, roughly 150 feet higher than
the lake below. We hiked west for a short distance until we were once again
at the Lake of the Clouds overlook. The view was much better than it had
been on the first day; it was now sunny, the sky was blue and the trees
and vegetation below showed off vibrant shades of green. We walked back
to the car, drove over to Union Bay campground, picked out a site, set up
the tent and began to spread out the wet gear to dry before the sun set.
We cooked dinner and drank some hot tea to help fight off the chill that was descending upon
the campground as the last sliver of sunlight disappeared below the horizon. It was now about
45 degrees but the weather report for tonight predicted lows in the 30's with a frost warning.
A peaceful silence crept across the campground as people began to settle in for the night and
the only sounds I heard as I lay in the tent were the muffled voices of people talking around
their campfires and the waves crashing on the Lake Superior shore.
Final count for the day:
Several small birds, a few chipmunks and two people on a day hike.
Miles covered today: 5
Total trip miles: 28.75
Day 6
This page last updated on 02-25-2016 @ 11:24 AM