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Northern Hang, NCT, Wisconsin
Well, Here's my take on the trip. My trip started by being shut down and not able to go. I wanted to go from the beginning when I first read about it but the weekend looked to be filled up and then my supervisor was taking some vacation the Thursday-Friday of the trip. I watched jealously as the plans were being made and was developing a major case of the "no piney woods for me blues." The Wednesday before the trip our weekend plans were blown up and now I could see a little glimmer of hope and I even caught a slight sniff of that sweet pine needle smell. I asked my wife if she would miss me(she didn't really answer that part :laugh:) and she said "you're crazy, go have fun." She's a good one!
So, I packed up Thursday night late and was able to hit the road Friday evening when I got off of work. It was about a 6.5 hour drive to the trailhead. I got there a little after midnight and hiked in about 25 minutes to where the gang said they would be. I walked into the site and only saw a tent, no hammocks. I went down the trail a little further to the shelter and still no hammocks. I knew the Swedish settlement was up the hill a bit so I headed up that way thinking maybe there was more room and that's where they'd be. Strike three! Nobobdy there. I was beginning to think, this might end up being a solo trip, which is alright because any night out in the woods is a good night but I really wanted to meet and with these people. I headed back down the hill and set-up at the shelter area, hung my food and put a little note on a tree to let people know I was there if they happened to pass by. I went to sleep about 2:30 in the morning, hoping I'd find them in the morning.
About 6:30 in the morning, Mr. Green comes by, wakes me up from my short nap and let's me know that they were back at the first spot I checked. They were all back behind the tent that I saw which happened to belong to our only earth dweller Dennis. From there it was meet and greet, breakfast around the fire, checking out people's rigs and so on. After a while we packed up and headed out on the trail a few at a time. I had the privilege of hiking for most of the day with Fishin' Finn.:D We kept expecting everyone to catch up as we weren't breaking any speed records but they never did. As Shug said in the video, "they were lollygagging."
Even though I didn't get to hike with everyone else, it was a great day. Dutch, Finn, Sarahgirl and I went all over Northern Wisconsin and finally found some real Wisconsin "Cheesehead" pizza. Dutch didn't think it was real pizza as it was cut in squares not like a pie. It was a good time as well. The last night's fire was fun, just sharing stories of hiking, family, friends and checking out gear. I enjoyed every bit of it and got quite a bit more sleep that night as Finn, Sarah and I set up down close to Lake Three. Heard a couple of bears, saw a lot of bear crap, saw some pretty lakes and streams and locked that smell of the woods in my nostrils and hung out with some great people for a short time. It was great, I only wish I could have been there for the whole thing.
Thanks to all of you who were there, I look forward to the next one!
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