Northern Hangout - June 11-14 - Chequamegon NF

[kwpapke]

Guide and descriptions to the Chequamegon section

Now that we seem to have settled on the Eastern end of the NCT Chequamegon segment, I'd like to get a better understanding of what section we are talking about tackling.

The link you provided above FF has a good synopsis, and one we can all share and reference.

Could you point out what segments in this guide page you'd propose we do? With travel time, car shuttling, unfamiliar trail, etc. I'm not sure we can do all 61 miles in 4 days.

Maybe Drummond to Mellen? That would be about 40 hiking miles, and give us meeting points and facilities at both ends. They appear to be about 1 hour apart by car, which is a tractable shuttle.

Thoughts? I don't know squat about this trail, so I'm only suggesting this after studying the guide and maps a bit.

--Kurt

[fin]

Now that we seem to have settled on the Eastern end of the NCT Chequamegon segment, I'd like to get a better understanding of what section we are talking about tackling.

The link you provided above FF has a good synopsis, and one we can all share and reference.

Could you point out what segments in this guide page you'd propose we do? With travel time, car shuttling, unfamiliar trail, etc. I'm not sure we can do all 61 miles in 4 days.

Maybe Drummond to Mellen? That would be about 40 hiking miles, and give us meeting points and facilities at both ends. They appear to be about 1 hour apart by car, which is a tractable shuttle.

Thoughts? I don't know squat about this trail, so I'm only suggesting this after studying the guide and maps a bit.

--Kurt

Let me look at some trail maps, and I will propose a couple of alternate plans. I won't be able to do that for at least a day, though - probably this weekend. I'm stuck in winter traffic in St. Paul right now - taking an hour to go 5 miles, accidents and spin outs everywhere.

I know that I would like to utilize either the shelters along the trail or possibly the campgrounds along the way. There is an old firetower lookout that I'd like to visit, and some rock outcroppings to climb that I can't remember how close they are to the trail at the moment. I'm thinking of doing a quick weekend pre-scout in April, as well. But give me a day or two, and I'll post my thoughts. Drummond to Mellen is approximately the section, though.

[kwpapke]

Let me look at some trail maps, and I will propose a couple of alternate plans. I won't be able to do that for at least a day, though - probably this weekend. I'm stuck in winter traffic in St. Paul right now - taking an hour to go 5 miles, accidents and spin outs everywhere.
...Drummond to Mellen is approximately the section, though.

Gotcha. Take all the time you need. I just wanted to get the ball rolling. Seems like the more definite plans you can make, the higher likelihood the trip is to actually happen.

Good luck with traffic. Just dialed up the interactive map, and looks like eastbound through spaghetti junction is the worst of it.

--Kurt

[fin]

Good luck with traffic. Just dialed up the interactive map, and looks like eastbound through spaghetti junction is the worst of it.

--Kurt

Took 2 hrs to get from downtown Minneapolis to the Wisconsin border. Took another 2 1/2 to get to Eau Claire. We stopped - way too dangerous to drive. I'll try to look at some trail maps tomorrow, as I probably won't be going in to work at all.

[Shug]

I'm thinking of doing a quick weekend pre-scout in April, as well. But give me a day or two, and I'll post my thoughts. Drummond to Mellen is approximately the section, though.

Hey, I was thinking the same thing ... in April or May....... Be fun to check it out ahead of time to know conditions and such.

[fin]

Hey, I was thinking the same thing ... in April or May....... Be fun to check it out ahead of time to know conditions and such.

I'll keep you posted as to my plans - mine will be a real quick hitter, Friday afternoon maybe(?), but Saturday for sure on the trail, Saturday night in the woods, and by Sunday midday back on the road. I want to check a few of the parking spots, the Three Lakes campground (never been to that one, only Beaver lake) as well as we plan out our stops. Want to do a push through early to check it out? I am particularily interested in seeing if there are any areas it would be ok to skip or sidestep, in order to get to the more interesting stuff and the better hanging locations. I'm telling you, Beaver Lake campground is as close to a wilderness campground that you will find in a Wisconsin State campground, and it would be a great place for one of our nights if possible. At least it was great the last time I was there. I'd like to utilize a campground type situation at least one night, and maybe the other nights stay right off the trail utilizing the 50' rule. But if the campgrounds are remote enough and there is no other traffic, it wouldn't hurt to utilize them on our June trip, and would severely cut down on the ticks by setting up in a campground.

The Lake Owen campground is huge, and has RV spots and a boat landing, and starting the first week of May will have a lot of Fisherman. We should avoid that campground, unless we want to show off our toys - not the wilderness experience that most probably want. But the rest of the trail should be about as quiet as you would want a trail to be.

I'm also contemplating on East to West or vice versa - it will depend on how much trail we are going to chew per day, and where the best stops will be. Have to look at that when I get to the maps. I'm particularily looking forward to the section between English Lake and Davis Lake.

I'll let you know when it gets a little closer when I'm thinking of hitting the trail. I will most likely plan to do Mellen to Drummond in the 2 days I'm thinking of.

[Oms]

Depending on the final plans I was wondering if I could join in? I'm in the Chicago area and would be willing to car pool. I'm in decent shape, so distance is not a problem. The time commitment is what concerns me.

[fin]

Depending on the final plans I was wondering if I could join in? I'm in the Chicago area and would be willing to car pool. I'm in decent shape, so distance is not a problem. The time commitment is what concerns me.

A 4-day weekend in June is too much of a time commitment? You are as bad as me! The Man (or your better half) must be keeping you down, too.

All are welcome. Just keep posted to this thread, and probably April and certainly by early May all the details will be nailed down. I would like to do a pre-scout before stamping it, as it has been awhile since I've been on this trail, even though the only changes I've heard about are positive ones like more parking areas and actually shelters along the trail. We can start a poll in April as to attendees, post our route/plans, and PM each other for car pool info. It will help a lot once you see the list of who is coming, as most people have their general location in their profile.

[kwpapke]

I wrote to Marty Swank, head of the Chequamegon NCT section and he sent me a nice PDF map. I've uploaded it to my tripod site (sheesh, why can't hammock forums allow PDF attachments a little larger!!):

http://kwpapke.tripod.com/11x17_NCT_Color_Map.pdf

This is a really nice map! It wants to print on 11x17 paper (I'm going to have to go to Kinko's and get a full-size), but you can scale it down to 8.5x11 paper for planning purposes.

I'll post more of his info shortly...

BTW, I also copied Joan Young, head of the NCTA, and I'm sure she'll want to do an article on her blog after we get back.

--Kurt

[kwpapke]

from Marty Swank <[email protected]>
to Kurt Papke <[email protected]>
date Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 9:48 PM
subject Re: Planning NCT group trip to Chequamegon section June 11-14,'09

Hi Kurt,

I will send a few email so that I don't clog up your system. I will start with the map that most of our chapter members use to find trail maintenance/fun events. This is based on a USFS map that our chapter funded the printing of last year. The Vicinity Map makes finding trail heads and other starting points easier.

Heading East to West I can list a few things to watch out for:

If you actually plan to start your hike from Copper Falls State Park, you would have to walk through the City of Mellen. There is a trail disconnect caused by a land owner that did not renew a temporary easement so this is now private property (along Bad River). We are working on this problem, but it does not have a quick fix.

There is a section of trail that goes through what we call Hanson Field that can be hard to follow do to tall clumpy grass. We are doing a trail re-route this year for this section (FR 188), but not until July 25th.

The first beaver dam that you come upon (east to west) in the Porcupine Lake Wilderness is actually part of the NCT. (You walk across the top of the dam). The trail is easy to follow once you get to the other side and you will pass by another very large beaver dam. Because this is a very active area for the beaver we have a hard time keeping up with downed trees so you may find a few down. We can not use blazing in the wilderness areas but do have rustic routered signs at most of the confusing intersections.

After you pass by Lake Owen you will hit a stretch of NCT that intertwines with the Drummond Ski Trail. Unless you are paying attention, it is easy to miss the NCT turnoffs.We will be installing carsonite posts at these crossings possibly on June 6th but that depends on information from the USFS on how extensive logging will be in the area.

My adopted section of NCT is from Two Lakes Campground to Porcupine Lake. This is very easy to follow but had the distinction of being hit the hardest by straight line winds in September 2005. Because this is wilderness, no reclamation logging took place so other than cutting a 4' wide opening for the trail, the trees are where they fell. It can be amazing and a little scary at the same time.

I will send you some pictures of highlights of what you will find along the trail.

Marty

Drowning is easy, it is breathing that takes all of the work.

Marty Swank, Chairperson
Chequamegon Chapter
North Country Trail Association
808 14th Ave. West
Ashland, WI 54806
715-682-2254 (evenings), 715-628-2313 (days)