A couple of weeks ago my buddy John (and Trixi the dog) and I had a free weekend so we decided to meet up. He lives in NY, like NY,NY and I live in MI so Minister creek is about 1/2 way and we've been there before so its easy to find in the middle of the night after a long drive.
I got there about 2300 and he got there at about 0200! He just slept in his car but I was already snug in my hammock.

Saturday A.M. dawned cold and snowy..well just flurries but still pretty cold. Across the street the game wardens were releasing a momma bear they caught in a nearby town so we hung out a while to watch her come around. She was really slow to shake the drugs off and it took her a while to get her feet under her but she eventually made it.

Finally on the trail and I broke in my $3.00 ebay special American flag external pack. We hiked along the river (not the official trail) but it's a nice walk. Hiked in a few miles and set up shop next to the creek.. Nothing puts you to sleep like like a hammock and that creek!

We gathered some firewood etc then went for a little day hike.
Cooked dinner over the fire and just sat around chatting. Until some of the rocks we used for our fire ring exploded! It was no joke, a shower of red hot coals flew out in about a 10' circle. It was a bit scary and dangerous, we were lucky we didn't get hurt. These rocks had been used before as a fire ring so I would have thought they were safe, but I wondered if they pick up moisture from the snow etc?? So after the explosions we went to bed.

Sunday morning was a beautiful day and we just got up and hit the trail knowing we had a long drive home (about 7 hrs). On the trail we ran across these cool Ice crystals that looked like they had extruded out of the ground and some had even picked up some small stones. Very cool.
Got back to the cars, drove out to Marienville fro lunch then hit the road. Lots of driving for an overnight but ya gots to do what ya gots ta do.