1 august to 4 august 2003.
backpackin'
NOTE: after seeing how these pictures turned out, i don't care what i said about the people - it was a DAMN gorgeous weekend! :)


cedar by the ralph house, a few hours before my trip i hope you can tell how great it was to see what i saw on my backpacking trip this past weekend. i asked for monday and tuesday off, and got the vacation days :) - so it's been a nice break - i haven't had to be surrounded by the visitors in the VC who get progressively more annoying as the weeks pass (can't tell if it's because it's peak season or if i'm just getting worn down ;)!). but even as i grow more annoyed with them, i find i grow more immune to the mosquitoes. i came back with more bites than i've ever had, and yet didn't really feel like i was that bothered by them all weekend - i've toughened up this summer or something haha!

anyhow, i did have a great time - so beautiful and relaxing. wonderful just to have the days to myself; to think as i hiked; to pitch my tent; to eat the best ramen and the best peanut butter in my life; and i didn't do any days too intense (no more than 9 miles in a day), so i had a lot of time to rest. i met some wonderful people along the way - including a few Minnesota Conservation Corps folks who just finished up their trail work for the park ... the leader of which stopped me as i was eating my lunch in a shirt from a coffee shop in charleston, sc, and said "I'VE BEEN THERE!" she had done americorps there, met a friend of some friends of mine at chapel hill, and now goes to school with josh. SMALL WORLD.

and while i met great people, went swimming for the first time this summer, and had great hikes for four days - i did however decide i actually hate people ;) - especially those of the 14-15 year old range! but here's my brief description.

day 1. moskey basin to chippewa harbor. i decided i had to see chippewa as valerie thought it was the most gorgeous place ever. well, while it was amazingly beautiful, it was amazingly NOISY. it's one of the boaters' favourite sites - and while it's not kosher to bash boaters even though they file lawsuits against the park and treat us like shit sometimes in the VC (though the bulk of them are nice), the ones there that night decided to run up and down full blast the harbor till about 11 at night - doubly annoying since chippewa's a quiet, no-wake zone. which means, barely move - not joyride. eh.

nonetheless, it was nice to meet the folks there - including a lady whose son collin, an environmental studies major ;), is in need of an internship next summer - and i talked her into looking into SCA :). i also read the entirety of the song of hiawatha there - perfect as i myself was by the shores of gitchee gumee, the shining big-sea-water that night - at chippewa harbor ... chippewa being the gross adulteration of "ojibwe" (which is itself an adulteration of "anishinabe") ... hiawatha's tribe. amazing to do. i figured out bill's camp stove, ate good backpacking food, etc. and so the people weren't too too annoying. and here are pictures.

oh yeah - and the most amazing fog rolled in that day - there was no cloud cover whatsoever ... but dense as can be - i felt exactly the same as i did in seattle and vancouver. quite nice.



day 2. chippewa harbor to lake richie. well, bill told me exactly where to go for the canoe the park service has stashed there. of course i didn't make it in till almost sunset, so i had to stay at the hiking site and not the canoe site. with the only individual site next to the group camping one ... where about 15 fourteen year olds decided to talk at the top of their lungs and sing top-40 (shitty) songs till at least midnight. fun times.

but the next day i went on the lookout for the canoe. and of course could not find it! no bother - i decided i'd go swimming instead! the inland lakes are about 60 degrees now, bearable though cold for home. and i went in...

right as the classic family who couldn't take it anymore decided to park it for lunch 20 yards down. uncle thought it'd be fun to bring sister, grandpa and his niece and nephew out for a nice trip. and only uncle enjoyed himself. sister complained about only seeing her feet hiking for three days straight - and decided to make her kids stop whining by saying she'd get the water taxi for them from daisy farm to rock harbor (7 miles, quite doable in less than 3 hours... but anyway). but instead the kids decided to moan about how they wouldn't even go to moskey basin - 2 miles away! UGH! i almost yelled at them about how easy a hike that was about 5 times. mom called her daughter a princess which she got a bratty response to. and then when mom said they'd wait a little while to rest up, daughter says "I AM GONNA WAIT HERE TILL I DIE!" Wow. And the whole time they all kept trying to justify their crabbiness with "I AM RELAXED!" ... yeah. Leave me alone.

and as i was in the water, they would not leave. at all. and when i couldn't take them anymore, i got out...

and saw blood dripping all down my ankle. and i felt nothing the whole time! and i saw nothing. well, didn't realize there were leeches in the lake - notorious ones. and that, yup, the bites don't clot for over an hour ;). nonetheless, i sat there, ate lunch, etc., wondering what the hell happened. and so i decided i might as well stick closer to home that night. i was s'posed to go to chickenbone lake - for the third time - and for the third time it just didn't happen ;). ah well. i decided to go to daisy farm instead in case some random toxic shock something or other happened later on ;) - which gladly didn't happened. i decided i hated people when i passed for the second time that day the same two 15-ish year old boys who were booking it so fast down the trail so intently that they'd probably knock me out of the way if i didn't graciously get out of their f'ing way first. and both times - they didn't say hello OR thank you. and i wondered if i was just being unreasonable, but ben confirmed that, yes, if people don't acknowledge that you did that service for them, they are indeed assholes ;). so i came up with my "I hate people" motto - confirming weeks of suspicion dealing with them in the VC ;) - and then got hit in the face twice in 5 minutes by grasshoppers. but - i met not a single soul on the rest of the hike - wonderful.

made it to daisy farm, but josh was out for the weekend, so i stayed at his porch. AMAZINGLY nice - a cabin in the woods by the water 300 yards from the craziness of the park's most busy campground. oh yeah - i should put lake richie pics up first. here they are:



night 3. josh's porch. so he had the most comfortable chair to recline in. and i had a nice book. and you get a side shot of his cabin. and about 4 pictures that were meant to be of me sitting in the chair... before i finally got them. but you get to see my boots, the trees outside his door, etc. ;). enjoy!



day 4. final hike. i decided to go up on the greenstone ridge since it's much nicer than the rock harbor trail - you get to see both the north and south shores; nice views; pleasant. of course it was about 85 degrees, but! i met no annoying people!

i did decide though that i hate the tobin harbor trail ... you make it to the very end of the peninsula i live on, and ... you feel like you've reached home... but you still have three miles to go. i made it though. and i got home to tell everyone of these amazing annoyingpeople stories ;). and in spite of it all, it was an amazingly refreshing wonderful weekend.

refreshing more was just jumping off the dock here at mott island - haha. water so crisp and cold i'm not going to feel my body for another week ;). but as my vacation winds up i'm ready for the last stretch - i do NOT want to leave. at all. but i'll be back ;).

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