The time for my usual end of summer trip came up faster than expected. Somehow I "lost" a week and had to scramble to get to the Cabin. Normally I would come up on a Wednesday and stay for a good 10 days. This year I rushed to to come up on a Friday and stay through the following weekend. This means the trip ran from 10 August to 18 August. Overall the weather ranged from rainy and cool to warm and clear, all within a week. As usual, the trip was great.
I left Cleveland on Friday, 9 August after work at about 4:30 pm. Driving on a Friday in the summer is much worse than driving midweek (even in the summer). Though not terrible, it was still noticeably more annoying with more traffic than I like. In the end it did not delay the trip that much, I still arrived at 12:50 AM. I encountered spots of rain along the drive. It continued on and off for the rest of the night.
The work on the chimney had been completed at the beginning of June. Despite having been up at the end of May, the Cabin was messier than anticipated. There was a lot of the "standard" debris on the floor in the main room of the Cabin. Typically this builds up over the long winter months, so this was surprising. Also, the grass was quite high and it seemed greener than the previous year. Despite this, the water level of the creek (and as observed in subsequent hikes) did not seem high at all.
As usual, after opening the Cabin I had the traditional shot of Krupnik. The firebox had been repaired and things looked great on the inside. The only issue is that there is no chimney cap, instead it was only "covered" by duct tape, thus while it was raining some water came into the firebox. Other than this, it looked good on first inspection. As is also usual, I wound down and spent the first night in the Cabin.
The late arrival meant sleeping in late. Being the weekend and cool and rainy I stuck around the Cabin to do some work and napping. The new fireplace and chimney looks good. I confirmed that water was coming in through the chimney due to not having a cap, yet. Otherwise I did not see any leaks. The main project for Gentlemen's weekend will be to cap the chimney, flash and seal around the chimney, fix the roof from the fire, and, if time, reinstall the insert in the fireplace.
For dinner I decided to try making stromboli at the Cabin. Partially to help the dough rise, partially to dry out the Cabin, and mostly because I wanted to, I got a fire going in the insert. It really was not cool enough to be necessary, but it was nice having it. Baking in the oven is always a challenge. The door does not necessarily stay shut and you can never be sure of its temperature. It is also necessary to cover whatever you are baking to avoid soot from collecting on the food. I ended up baking it for about 50% longer than usual. It came out great.
Sunday was similarly cool (and still the weekend) so I again stuck around the Cabin. I had set up the hammock the night before and had a great sleep with rain falling over night. The day started cool but warmed up as it proceeded. I mostly just did some more cleaning from the installation of the new chimney, both inside and out. There is more to do.
The Perseid meteor shower was peaking. The optimal viewing time was too late for me, but I stayed up (i.e., was up past 10 pm) to see what I could. There was a thin layer of clouds and I stayed at the Cabin (which has a very narrow field of view) so conditions were not ideal. Despite not seeing significant signs of mice, I had brought up some new traps and decided to set them. Trying to see meteors was made extra difficult since the traps kept going off! I say one meteor, but caught 6 mice! All were caught in the new traps (spoiler alert: this is a trend that would continue) with most caught near the small couch by the wall rack with the fishing poles. I do not know where they were coming from. Perhaps they were living under the Cabin, and only come inside to "look around". This might explain why there did seem to be some extra "debris" inside the Cabin despite the fact that I had been up at the beginning of June.
The day started warm and I was ready to go out hiking. Coming in from sleeping in the hammock I found I had caught 3 more mice. I decided to start out heading towards Sitka Lake. As usual I took the "short cut" through the woods to the back trails and headed past the ruined trucks and through Camp Oscar. I wanted to try to hike around Sitka Lake. The map shows there is a road that goes all the way around it. The east side has a standard two-track access road, but, it turns out, on the west side it is an overgrown logging road that is hard to find and follow. Knowing it was there helped.
From Sitka Lake I headed north to a previously unexplored area. I was able to visit another new camp (no name) in a very nice location with a bridge across Klondike Creek. It appears to be at the corner of where two private lots intersect making it hard to know what was the private lot and what was owned by the lumber company. It appears they have recently made some roads on their lots and have a wide open field with a trail camera. I ended up continuing even further north to the south side of the Sucker River and hiked along a previously unmapped road that took me back to Old Seney. Calling it a road is a bit of a stretch, but it was at least hikable. Overall this was a 10.5 mile hike. I went to bed early (before 10 pm) but still ended up catching another mouse (number 10) before heading to bed. They become active just when it gets dark.
I slept in once again and came in to find 2 more mice trapped (for a running total of 12 mice). However, one trap was missing! The trap by the small couch was gone. It occasionally happens that a mouse is not killed by the trap, instead just being partially caught by it, however, the traps are large and in narrow places so the mouse cannot usually move them far. In this case I could find it nowhere. I have no idea where it could have gone. Perhaps we will stumble across it some day.
It was another warm day and I decided to hike out to the Barfield Lakes. The road off of McCloud Grade continues to be in worse and worse shape. There are many deep holes filled with muddy water. The bridge across Porter Creek is still mostly collapsed and I do not see how any one can drive any vehicle over it.
At the lakes I found a family that had driven from their camp west of M-77 off Adam's trail coming the long, long way through Grand Marais, east along H-58, then south to the lakes. Though much longer, it is a much easier trek. We chatted for awhile where I learned the gossip of town. Apparently the direct access road to their camp runs through a private lot. The dog of the owner of this lot got hit by an ATV, so, their solution was to put up a gate and lock it. (This may be along snowmobile trail 88 since it seems he will open the gate for snowmobile season.) This was causing a lot of problems and there was a meeting in town where the topic would probably come up. Even in the middle of nowhere it seems like only the lawyers will come out ahead.
With more than enough gossip I headed back along the road to where it ends. During the May 2024 trip I had verified that the road does, in fact, end. I had the bold plan to find where it picked up again. Though I knew it ended, the map suggested it would pick up again on the other side and head to Tank Lake road. Ideally I would find this road and then find another road that took me north of the Barfield Lakes which I could than follow to get back on the usual trail south to McCloud Grade. It was a nice idea ....
The road ends in a dense, marshy forest. You might have thought that I had learned, again from the previous trip, where I hiked through a dense, marshy forest. Alas, no. Wandering around, crossing and recrossing where the road was shown on the map I found nothing. There was nothing that even looked like there could have been a road there. The better part of judgement finally kicked in and I turned back after an hour or two of struggling through the forest. This meant I had to struggle through the forest some more. It was a very difficult hike to, in the end, only go a short distance, but it was the right choice. Fortunately I made it back to where the road had ended after arduous work. This still left a long hike back to the Cabin, but at least it was over a known, clearly defined road. In the end it was a 13.5 mile hike in 7.5 hours, but the middle part was hard going for a short distance.
Another morning, another mouse (total of 13). I also found that the gas was out so I changed the tank. There is 1 empty tank, 1 full tank, and the newly attached one.
I planned to hike toward Mitchell Lake. I had started exploring the east side of the lake during the May 2024 trip but it was cut short due to weather (the thread of rain). It would seem this is an ill-fated direction to hike. Retracing steps from this previous trip, heading out the fork off McCloud Grade along the old 443 I hit the old logging roads and was well on my way. The day started warm and kept getting hotter. Eventually it was too much for me. Once I hit Harding Trail I decided to head back along the roads which are much easier to hike than pushing through overgrown logging roads. At least I did find 4 more rail road spikes. The hike was only 6 miles. When I returned it was 80°F outside! Fortunately it was about 70°F inside the Cabin so I could cool off. I ended up in bed by 9pm!
Another day and another hike planned. The day started cool and with a zoom meeting. With the meeting done I headed to just north of the bridge on Old Seney. The day began to heat up, but fortunately there was enough of a breeze to make it bearable. Off to the west is yet another unexplored road. This one was in pretty good shape, for a dirt road. Interestingly a large tree has fallen over part of the road. Rather than removing it the road was instead just rerouted around it! This road is in surprisingly good shape since it is used for fishing. Being just north of the Sucker River it appears to be a preferred staging area. In fact, there are a few parking areas along the road. The drivable part ends at a small creek. On the map, this is about as far as the road was shown. Not surprisingly, it continued on, albeit in a less pristine state.
Continuing along the road followed the north side of the river. Crossing Haverstock Creek it wandered around until it connected into existing roads much further to the west. I kept looking for a way to cut south and cross the Sucker. There were no obvious paths and certainly none that looked like they would lead to an easy crossing. Even hooking into the existing road the section heading toward the river ended abruptly as it got close to the river. More bushwhacking was ahead of me. Of course the forest was dense near the river and I kept breaking through to see if there was a way across. As always there were a number of downed trees, but none of them had fallen nicely to allow for a crossing. I eventually gave up and started looking for a way to wade across. It is something I had considered in the past, but had never done.
The challenge with wading across is the difficulty in finding a place shallow enough and yet still accessible. There are a number of sand bars which are ideal for crossing, at least on one side of the river. Invariably these occur at bends in the river so there is a sand bar on one side but the other side is usually deep with a mucky shore. I did finally find a likely place. With some sticks placed to prevent sinking in to the muck I was able to get into the river and follow a shallow path to a sand bar on the other side. I did not have sandals with me so I made the trip barefoot. Fortunately the hiking pants had zip off legs too so I was able to make the whole crossing without getting wet. The water was a pleasantly cool contrast to the warm weather. Overall this was a 9.7 mile hike. As usual the bushwhacking and heat made the hike seem longer.
It rained overnight and the day started out cooler, though not that cool. There were no more mice this morning. Since it was overcast and the woods were wet I decided to stick around camp. The main task was to try to make cinnamon rolls. As noted above, the oven makes baking a challenge. Once again I got a fire going. Once again I can claim it is to warm up the Cabin (though it was not that cool), to dry out the Cabin (arguably useful), and to help the dough rise (which does help), but of course it really was just to have a fire going. The cinnamon rolls came out ok, not great, but definitely edible. They were probably a bit over baked and will hopefully lead to improvements in the future.
The morning started with one more mouse trapped but this one only partially caught. It did not drag the trap very far so I was able to take care of the situation (for mouse 15). There was no rain overnight but it remained humid and wet. Since the trip was almost over I went out for a short hike, this time staying near the Cabin. I headed out to the new beaver dam since I had not seen it for about a year. They have made a lot of progress. The dam is now clearly in place fully across a wide, shallow stretch of the river. It looks solid, though it is hard to get to so I have not tried to walk on it. Interestingly it has not created a beaver pond behind it.
Getting close to the dam requires yet more bushwhacking and doing this in a wet forrest means getting soaked. I took a different path out than I had taken in. This meant passing near the "flats" and required a crossing of a muddy gorge on a large log. I continued along the old loop heading to McCloud Grade. The old beaver dam that had created a beaver pond is long gone. The pond is now just a creek wandering though a meadow. Crossing the creek is a challenge without the dam and the area where the dam had been is dense and overgrown.
I came back from the short 2.3 mile hike drenched and spent the rest of the day packing and cleaning the Cabin for the imminent departure. I will continue to praise the new point driven in the well that continues to supply plenty of water. This has made mopping the kitchen floor so easy that it actually seems to be clean. No longer do you get you get rivers of dirty water from each tile on the floor!
On the final morning there were 3 more mice trapped (including one in an old trap, all the rest had been in new traps) for a grand total of 18 mice! As noted earlier, there did not seem to be signs of that many mice around. It certainly did not seem to be infested, but, 18 ....
With the work from the previous day the final cleaning and closing did not take too long. Though, even with that, it still takes a couple of hours to get everything done. As usual I just closed the place up to get on the road at a reasonable time. It is long, long drive back and the weekend is not the best time for heading south. I was able to get on the road by 10:30am.
One important discovery made is that the 15:6 domino is missing! I discovered this rather late and a quick search did not turn up anything. It may still be somewhere, but for now, we will not be playing double 15's at dominoes. (Though double 14's would be fine!)
As always it was a great trip. Despite the hectic start and the somewhat abbreviated trip I was still able to get a good amount of exploration in and hike some new roads. The new paths with appear on the next map. I am already looking forward to the next trip up for gentlemen's weekend.