Northern Hang #2 2009, Superior Hiking Trail Trip Report

Wow, what a great trip! Worth every second of the long drive up and back. Met some great people, ate some great food, enjoyed some great scenery.

A couple of hi-lite pics of Shug and Stormcrow having fun at the Cascades during our lunch stop: :scared:
http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery..._028_thumb.jpg http://www.hammockforums.net/gallery..._025_thumb.jpg

The trip synopsis from my point of view...

Arrived Thursday at around 4:00pm with the intention of camping at site 21. Met Stormcrow, Fin and Mr. Green at the parking lot who informed me that everyone was down at site 13. I gathered my gear up and hiked on in to 13. On the way there I ran into Stormcrow's brother, who was wandering around looking for everyone. Together we found the elusive fork in the trail and made it to site 13. We camped that night with the sounds of the river providing a beautiful lullaby!

Friday morning we hiked up the river to the cascades and enjoyed a ncie relaxing lunch on the sun-warmed rocks. From there most of the group hiked the Humpback trail out, but Fin and I (and Pizza, I believe) took the Middle Trail out. We gathered food and supplies from the parking lot and then dispersed back into the woods, spreading out between sites 20, 21 and 22. Food, drink and stories were shared around the central fire at 21. It was a fine night! Awoke at around 4:30am to the realization that the weather had turned cold, windy and snowy, but all was warm and snug in the hammock. The Little Underquilt That Could.

Saturday morning I enjoyed a bit more conversation and a nice breakfast. Then it was time for me to hit the road, as real life decided to intrude into my wooded playland. Back home and back to work I went.

I'd like to thank EVERYONE for great conversation, sharing of knowledge and all the gear talk!
Special thanks to Stormcrow for making me a woopie sling, and thus teaching me how to make my own in the future! Teach a man to fish...
Special thanks to Shug for taking quite a bit of time to talk gear with me. I learned allot! You bring a special kind of light and fun into the world, Shug.
Special thanks to Fin for a ton of gear knowledge I gleaned off him when he wasn't looking! ;)
Last, special thanks to all the cooks! Friday night's feast was awesome! The sweet potato/apple/concotion, Fin's Froot Soup... Mr. Green's meatballs... slaw...etc etc etc...

JerryW, I really wanted to ask to see your DIY gear. I'm bummed I never got to ask you about it. Next time!

Can't wait for the next hang.

sir_n0thing


EDIT: a couple of videos!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thr33

Thanks to all who made it up to the northern hang and made my first hang out a memorable one. I hope to be hearing from a lot of you as I grow in my knowledge of the hammock and look forward to lots of pictures, especially the thumbs up from Jo Fish.

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Good to see you actually did register! Nice choice in a name too, coming from a guy who likes to put numbers in his name as well... ;)

sir_n0thing

The trip looks like a blast. Isn't it amazing the camaraderie that the Hammock Forums brings? Glad things went well for all the new folks that joined the trip. Fin, you are a very generous person the way you help everyone out. You deserve a "hammock bar" (like stripes) on your arm :). Thanks for sharing your pics Jerry. Hope to make the next one with you all.

Jerry ..... just got to my hotel here in Merrilville, Indiana for the night and just perused your pix ....... WOW .... feel like I was there again. You really got some terrific shots and you have a wonderful eye for some landscape detail.
So much did I enjoy everyones company.....

Funny .... I thought sir_n0thing would be a craggy old man and he was a HIPPIE-DUDE!!!! We had a darn good laugh on that one.

Nice to see the old faces from the NCT Northern Hang.... WalkingBear, Kayaknut, Animalcontrol, Finn, Stormcrow, MrGreen (oysters man!!!), Saragirl, ..... and all the new faces ...Pizza, Snipen, Three, Justin (Dimetri Sumpin'), Vanessa, sir_n0thing, Booya our over-sleeping wanderer!!! (good on ya!), Stairguy, JerryW., Jofish and the visiting Beep and Sandy .... is that everyone?????

What a time, I am nursing a terrible head-cold and it was totally worth every sniff. Fun to hike with all of you.
All the new guys and gals did soooo well in the cold, were prepared and never whimpered.

Statue of St. Urho ....ran all the grasshoppers out of Finland.
Attachment 5957

Mr. Green and Booya
Attachment 5959

Stormcrow, Mr.Green and Three by Manitou
Attachment 5958

Finn, WalkingBear, Pizza & Sir_n0thing
Attachment 5960

I'll get my video out soon .......
All secure in sector seven,
Shug

Here is a go at my trip report. I'll apologize in advance for the lack of videos; I'll leave that to Shug ;) Oh, and its a bit long, so I won't be offended if you don't read it and skip to the pictures!

Thursday
Me & Kayaknut made the 7+ hour journey up from southern Wisconsin and arrived at Bensen Lake just before dark. I really can't thank you enough, Kayaknut, for driving me up there & back. I really tried not to doze off too much (a weakness of mine!) and I hope I was good company for the long drive.

We met up with stairguy in the parking lot near Bensen Lake. We later learned that the rest of the crew was camping down along the river elsewhere in the park. So that first night we three set up our hammocks, sat around a fire for a bit, and then went to bed.

My set-up:
Warbonnet Blackbird, 1.7 double
Yeti (3 season) underquilt
DIY top quilt
Walmart ccf pad under legs
MacCat Deluxe Spinn tarp

Friday
I woke up Friday a bit on the chilly side. I don't know how cold it got that night but looking at the local recorded temperatures it likely got down to the upper 20's. But that wind was also whipping off the lake at a pretty good clip too. I had a few cold spots throughout the night and got up early with cold feet. So what did I do? I tossed on my day pack and took a walk around the lake, of course. It was beautiful! The walk was only about 1 mile, but the sun was coming up and it was perfect. Warmed me right up.

Since we weren't doing the meet & greet until dinner time, I decided to go on a day hike to check out some of the trails of the park that we wouldn't be hiking with the group. So me & Kayaknut headed out. We checked out a few vistas, the Cascades, and hiked along the river. There we met up with the group that stayed by the river the night before and that was where I first got to briefly meet a bunch of people. A little further down the trail, Kayaknut decided to head back to the campsite but I wanted to hike some more so I did a few more miles on my own. Not too much in terms of wildlife, but just before I got back to the camp I did see a grouse. It was really nice getting in some solo hiking time. Sometimes I really like that "alone in the woods feeling. I would say that I hiked about 6 miles.

When I got back to camp, I couldn't find a lot of people and it turned out to be a little bit earlier than I expected so I hit the trail again. I did another short 3 mile loop. I saw a couple woodpeckers (and heard a few more) and met a snake at one of the few underwhelming overlooks. There was a really neat bog along this trail that I spent about 20 minutes just sitting by since it was so cool.

Dinner was crazy with all the food and meeting so many new people. A bit overwhelming, but fun. The yams & apples were delicious, as was the froot soop, and the cheesecake (esp. as a dip w/ peppermint patties!). I'd also like to thank fin for the sweet glow-in-the-dark patches. Quality stuff.

To combat what was forecasted to be an equally cold (and possibly snowy) night, I broke out my Speer TopBlanket (which I brought in case my top quilt wasn't enough) and jerry-rigged it as an additional underquilt, making sure it covered the footbox well.

Saturday
I woke up Saturday morning nice & toasty. Success! The extra boost from the TopBlanket really helped. And, as an added bonus, we had a light covering of snow on the ground. It made everything look even better.

With a group as big as ours, it did take a while to get everybody packed up and the vehicles all shuttled. But that did give me time to try one of the venison dogs, which was perfect for breakfast. Mmmmmm.

We next headed on our hike down the Superior Trail. It was really beautiful. For a while, I was hiking out front and it was amazing to see the fresh snow on and around the trail all pristine & unperturbed. Stormcrow soon passed me although we did hike together for a little bit just before lunch.

We had our first lunch on Lilly's Island in Sonju Lake. I remember it quite well because those winds were really blowing hard and the only way out to the island was a 2-plank wide boardwalk with water on either side. Me & Stormcrow found little nooks to duck the wind and grab something to eat. Just as we were leaving Shug, Mr. Green, Animal Control & Vanessa caught up to us. We then proceeded to have our second lunch at a much less windy campsite just off the trail.

After lunch I set off to finish the last 2+ miles quick as I wanted to get set up so that I could cook dinner. To make a long story short, we set up camp near Egge Lake (animal control & I were actually off in the woods for shelter) despite the bad forecast of more snow and temps in the teens.

Sunday
Well we didn't get snow and I'm not sure how cold it actually got, but with the same set-up as the night before I was nice & warm in the morning. Best sleep of the trip. After a quick chat & some packing we started our 2.5ish mile hike out. It was a pretty nice hike and I again got to hike a bit of it by myself, as I often like to. At the parking lot we said our goodbyes and headed off.

It was only coincidence that further down the road we ran into Mr. Green. A short while later he directed us to a "State Park" (couldn't find a name...) where we drove to a great view of the Lake Superior shoreline. Good stuff. Thanks Mr. Green!

Kayaknut & I also made brief stops in a couple Wisconsin State Parks on the way back; Amnicon Falls and Pattison (which has the highest waterfall in Wisconsin). Sadly, my camera battery was dead by this point, but Kayaknut graciously allowed me to borrow his camera so he has those pictures for now.

Just to wrap up I'd really like to thank everyone who came to this hangout. It was awesome! Its no easy feat that the quality of company matched the beautiful surroundings, but you people are top-notch. I really look forward to future hangs together!

more pictures

and some more

and the last batch from me

Thanks all for sharing your trip reports, pics and videos!

Looks like it was a great time:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JerryW

Thanks for all the comments on my pics.

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Well deserved. I didn't take enough pictures, again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JerryW

I can't stop thinking about what a great time I had.

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These trips hang with you for awhile - they leave an indentation on your heart, a smile on your lips, and a song in your soul.