Steamboat Pass to Itasca State Park, South Entrance

Monday, May 28, 2012

It’s Memorial Day. And since it’s Memorial Day, I might as well remember somebody. The person I’d like to memorialize this year is Dan Holloway. He was a long time Scout Leader on the North Side of Madison. I worked with Dan on several events throughout the years including Camporees, Training Events and Order of the Arrow Events. He was quite the character. He always had a good story to tell and it usually had a funny ending. Or at least the way he told the story made it a funny ending. One time he told me a story of how he was entered in a contest at UW-Steven’s Point for being the “ugliest man.” It was a contest between Fraternities, and Dan expressed disappointment in not winning the contest. Dan was one of the best, most hard working Scout Leaders around. He would go out of his way to make sure the job got done right. But when things weren’t exactly fair, Dan wasn’t afraid to stop by the Scout Office and let them know he was displeased. The fondest memory of Dan was when he and his wife Diane were the Co-Chairs of the All Scouter Pow Wow Training Event. Dan really appreciated the work I did designing the brochure for the event. I think that’s because Dan worked in the Printing Industry, and he knew doing graphic design work correctly wasn’t all that easy.

Dan was a guy with a really big heart. On January 26, 2012 his wife came home from work and found him sitting in his favorite chair with the TV on. His heart had stopped sometime in the afternoon.

I was awake and packing up my gear when Darrel came over to check on me. He said he would be ready in a few minutes and we’d go down to a restaurant for breakfast. I got all my stuff into the van and we headed to downtown Walker. We parked on Main St and went into the Outdoorsman Cafe. This is an older style restaurant that could have been about the same 50 years ago. There were several people in the restaurant that were regulars, you could just tell by the way they interacted with the waitress. I ordered a cheese omelet. Darrel took me over by the kitchen window and introduced me to Gus the owner, who was the cook. Darrel said that Gus was a regular hiker of the North Country Trail up in the Walker Area. I said I was glad to meet him and that I was photographing the trail. So, if he wants to see photos of the trail, check out my website. I gave Gus an “I saw Tman” card with my website listed on it. We went back over to our table and soon the food came. The omelet was really big, and really good.

Then when we were finishing up the waitress came over and gave me a really big chocolate chip cookie. I’d say it was about 8 inches round. She said that Gus wanted me to have it for my hike today. I went over to the kitchen window and thanked Gus. He wished me well on my hike today, then Darrel and I headed out. I followed Darrell out of then down Hwy 200 through La Porte and Lake George. We came to the main entrance of Itasca State Park then headed south on US Hwy 71. We went about 3 miles south to the South Entrance of Itasca State Park. There is a trailhead for the North Country Trail at the South Entrance. I parked my white van there, gathered my stuff, and hopped in Darrel’s Car. All in all, it was about a 35 mile drive over to Itasca. Then Darrel drove me back to Steamboat Pass. We went back down through Lake George and then took a series of gravel roads to get to the muddy road known as Steamboat Pass.

I handed Darrel an envelope with $60 dollars in it and asked him if that was a fair price. He seemed to think it was. I thanked and shook his hand one last time, then we both we’re on our way. Darrel was going to a concert where he was playing the bassoon, and I was hiking west on the North Country Trail. Bassoon players must be hard to come by in the North woods because Darrell is in high demand. Make some beautiful music, my friend.

I started down the trail in a grove of tall pine and aspen. The pines weren’t super tall like an old growth forest, but they were getting tall enough to get harvested soon. The trail seemed to be more like a jungle today, with more plants intruding on the trail. Perhaps it hadn’t been mowed for a longer time period than the other sections of the trail that I hiked. It also seemed like a jungle because there we’re more flying insects of the bloodsucking variety. I put on my head net. I went down the trail on a bright sun shining day, pretty much without a care in the world. My Van was 11 miles down the trail at Itasca State Park. I was just taking it easy with a lighter daypack. I passed by some small little pothole ponds, then I came to a bigger one. It must have been about a 10-acre pond. I hiked around the pond on the NCT and on the far side there was a Campsite sign at a trail junction. I hiked down the spur trail for a short ways and found the campsite.

The campsite was a sloped campsite but the tent pads were level. The tent pads were at the far right on the uphill side of the campsite. Then the campsite sloped down to a bench/table, similar to the structure I used at Waboose Lake. Then the campsite sloped down to a campfire area, which had a couple logs around it for seating. The campfire area was near the edge of the pond.

I decided to take a break, I was really in the taking it easy mode. I sat down and retrieved that big cookie that Gus had given me at the Outdoorsman Cafe. I savored the cookie as I rested. The cookie was good and I decided to take a self-shot of me eating the cookie. So, I set up the shot and hit the button, then I went back over to the bench, sat down and held up the half eaten cookie.

I finished the cookie and went up into the woods and found the latrine. It was a nice plastic latrine, the type that has a hatch that flips open for access to the toilet seat. Then I went down and inspected the tent pads. One of them was in a flat shady area and the other was in a sunny and slightly sloped area. I grabbed my gear and headed out from the campsite. I’d say that campsite scores pretty high on my likability index.

Heading west from the campsite, I first encountered a little stream that the trail crossed then I hiked by some pothole swamps. I came up to a former railroad bed, which now is nice and grassy. They must use it for a snowmobile trail because it didn’t look chewed up from ATV’s. Then I came up to a small marshy lake. This lake was about the same size as the lake with the campsite, but this lake had a lot of vegetation in it. It also had a rather large beaver lodge in the middle. But I didn’t see any beaver chewed trees near the trail as I was walking by. Plus there was plenty of vegetation around this little lake, which would make it hard to get water from it. But there have been plenty of other water opportunities along the trail. I hiked past the lake and went back into the hardwood forest. This forest wasn’t particularly mature, but it wasn’t all that young either. I could see the white bark of birch trees mixed in. I walked for a while then came to an all aspen stretch of trail. After that I was out to the Trailhead.

I came out the trailhead and Halverson Forest Road was to the right, sort of parallel to the trail and the paved Hubbard County Hwy 4 was straight ahead in a perpendicular fashion. There was one vehicle in the trailhead. It was a Red Chevy Truck. There is also a nice kiosk. It had a larger map of the trail posted, plus a literature bin where you could take a Itasca Moraine Chapter Brochure which included a map. There was also a wooden box with a trail log in it. I wrote my usual write up and continued across Hubbard County Hwy 4.

To follow along with the photos of this hike Click Here

A snowmobile/ATV Trail is across Hwy 4 from the Trailhead. So the Trailhead must be a dual purpose Trailhead. I walked up that trail for a few feet and the NCT veers off of it to the right. I was hiking through an all aspen forest again and soon I came out to a rather muddy ATV trail. I crossed it, and as usual at these crossing the NCT has post no ATV sign on Carbonite Posts. Then I came up to a tree that had a shelf mushroom hanging off of it. But this shelf mushroom had grown to look like a bowl. It kind of looked like a bread bowl you would get for your salad at some restaurants. I passed a grassy ATV trail then I came up to a deer stand. This one looked like it was in pretty good shape. Most of the old wooden deer stands were now broken down. Nobody needs to build deer stands in the woods any more because nowadays everyone has portable metal deer stands. The forest turned into a mixed woods now. I crossed a couple more two-track forest road, which are probably used as ATV trails. Then I came up to one of those metal deer stands I was just mentioning. Most of the time you have to take those down every day, or at least after deer hunting season. But I’m not sure whose land we are crossing right here.

I was crossing two track forest roads now at a regular rate. Then I came up to a rather run down boardwalk and bridge. That’s pretty unusual for the Itasca Moraine Chapter. Then I came up to a sign that read “Your are Now entering lands owned by the Potlach Corporation. Thanks goes to Potlach for use of this dry passage. Stay on the Trail.” Then on the other side of the sign it read “Entering Hubbard County Land.” So, the deer stands that I saw were on Hubbard County Land. Right as I entered the Potlach Land there was a “No Trespassing” sign off the trail. I guess they are really serious about keeping you on the trail.

Well, once I got onto the Potlach Land, everything seemed a little scrubbier, like it had been clear-cut some years ago, but they left some taller pines. Then I came up to a man who was out walking his dog. We had a nice conversation. It sounds like he had hiked much of the NCT up in these parts. He didn’t want his photo taken for my “I saw Tman” website. So, I just gave him one of my cards and moved on. He was the person who had the Red Chevy Truck back at the Hwy 4 Trailhead.

I was hiking through this scrubby pine area. It almost seemed like a pine barrens, but I knew better than that. I could see the stumps remaining from a cutting several years ago. Then I realized there was a river off to my left. The trail paralleled the river for a few hundred yards then comes out to a two-track forest road. The NCT takes a left on the forest road and goes down over the river using some big culverts for the river crossing. I crossed the river and hiked a little ways, then the NCT tales a left and goes along the river again. I’m not sure if this is still Potlach land anymore, because it’s a nice forest here. It ‘s got some pretty mature trees. It might be a spot for a campsite.

The trail left the river and soon came to Gage Lake. The trail goes along Gage Lake for about a quarter mile, but you can’t get too close to the lake because it’s very marshy. But there a couple creeks along the way that run into the lake that you can get water from. Perhaps this is a spot for a campsite, but you won’t be camping right next to the lake. After leaving the shoreline the trail goes over a really nice boardwalk, and then it’s back woods. But this is a very mixed woods. There’s a little bit of everything. Perhaps this is the section that Bruce Johnson had told me there is every type tree in the county here. It looked like it. I walked through this mixed forest for a long time. Then I notice a big marshy area down the hill from the trail. I walked up from that for about 75 yards. Then the forest ceased to be a really nice forest and became a scrubby forest. It was similar to area I was walking in next to the Schoolcraft River.

Then I came out to a cleared out area. It must have been about 75 yards wide and it looked like some sort of staging area for loggers. I did see some logging debris wood piled up on the edge of the area. There was a deer stand built at the far end of the clearing, so evidently they are using this clearing for more than just a staging area. At this point I had a dilemma. I didn’t know for sure where the NCT went after the opening. There was a forest road heading to the west so I took that, but I didn’t see any blue blazes. Then I saw the NCT coming out onto the road. Evidently, I miss about a 100-yard section of the NCT. Now the NCT was using the road. So I guess I was just ahead of my time, so to speak. I really didn’t feel like going back and re-walking that stretch, so I just continued on. If it were marked a little better it wouldn’t have been a problem.

I headed down the road, this time having blue blazes to assure I was headed the right direction. Soon I came to a really big grass field. It was beautiful, much nicer than the clearing I just walked through. Boy, it looked so big that you could hold a Boy Scout Camporee here. And it’s so nice and grassy that you could go sunbathing here just like a city park. I walked along the edge of the grassy field following the blue blazes that were marked on the trees along the edge. I must have walked along the edge for at least 200 yards before the trail goes back into the woods

I was walking in a mature woods again, but every once in a while I would see a marshy area. I reached a muddy ATV trail and crossed it. The trail weaved its way around, eventually going by a smaller lake. Again, this might be a very good spot for a campsite. It had all the ingredients and it was fairly easy to get to the lake for water. Then I was hiking in a grove of taller pines when I saw the sign. I was the Golden Spike Sign. It read “Golden Spike Site. Itasca Moraine Chapter Crews started building the trail west from the Chippewa National Forest and east from Itasca State Park in 2001. Minnesota Conservation Corps joined the effort in 2003. This marks the spot where the crews met on Nov. 19 2009 completing the Chapter’s section of trail.” This was a monumental trail achievement. The link created over 130 miles of continuous trail. That’s hard to beat on the NCT. Plus, the Laurentian Lakes Chapter is extending the trail in the Tamarac Wildlife Refuge, so that will add another 20 miles, bringing the total up to 150 miles. I continued through the grove of tall pine. Then the trail goes through a grove of aspen before coming out to Spider Lake Road.

There’s supposed a trailhead parking lot on Spider Lake Road, but there wasn’t anything apparent right at the trail. The Road curves maybe there’s something down that way. I didn’t investigate, I just continued on. I immediately came to a small lake. This was a nice small lake with clear water. But then I came to another small lake that was all marshy, with a beaver dam in the middle of it. And as I continued down the trail I came to yet another small lake. This one was a little bigger and had a nice shoreline. I came to a trail junction. It was a trail going to the left to a campsite. I hiked down the trail along the shore and went up a little knoll to the campsite. The campsite had one of those “Itasca Moraine” benches, like all the other Itasca Moraine Chapter Campsites. It’s a bench with a little table out in front of it. It had a couple nice tent pads in back of the bench and a nice campfire area including seating in front of the bench. It was a ways up in the woods away from the lake. Then I saw a trail headed down in the direction of the lake. It thought it was a water trail, which it was, but it also led over to another part of the campsite with a campfire grate and a tent pad, right next to the lake. Wow that was a cool spot. It’s a little private camping area away from the rest of the campsite. Plus there’s a nice walkway going down to the water. You can’t beat that.

I headed back out the to the NCT, really impressed with that campsite. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a name yet. The small lake right there doesn’t have a name either. It isn’t Spider Lake, because that lake is a much bigger lake about 2 miles north of the trail. Evidently there are lots of spider webs around that lake, thus the name. I walked on the northern shore of the small, unnamed lake with the campsite on it. Then the NCT goes back into the woods. And it’s a really nice somewhat mature woods here. It’s mostly hardwood but I walked past some really tall old pines. I’m not saying they were old growth trees, but they are some of the biggest trees around. This continued until the trail comes out near another small lake. I hiked past it and then the forest became a scrubby forest with lots of brush. Some really tall trees were still left in this forest, but all the mid-sized trees had been logged. I hiked in that for an 1/8th of a mile, then went back into some woods that were uncut.

I walked by an old tree stand that was laying on the ground. Somebody should just come through and clear out all the old tree stands. They have become an eyesore along the trail. I crossed a two-track forest road, then I was out to a huge grassy area. It was the pipeline. It was about 50 yards wide, but you could see in both directions for a long ways. After the pipeline I saw some wetlands to the south of the trail. There was one spot where there was some open water near the trail. I’ve heard that the Itasca Moraine Chapter was considering having a campsite just east of Itasca State Park. I thought this might be the spot they’re talking about. I hiked through the woods another 1/8 mile and found the sign “Entering Itasca State Park.” After that it didn’t take me long and I made it out to US Highway 71. I could see the sign for Itasca State Park up the highway, so I could have just walked to the trailhead next to the highway. But I crossed US Highway 71 and continued straight into the woods. It didn’t take me long and I was at the spur trail junction where I took a right to get to the trailhead. I was at the South Entrance of Itasca State Park. There’s a nice sign there, so I took a timed photo of me at the sign.

At the Trailhead, there’s a nice NCT Kiosk with a bench. I noticed the trail logbook box, so I grabbed the logbook and sat down to write. It was just a wonderful day to hike. I probably wrote something like that. It was a really nice kiosk with a NCT literature rack, which held maps of the trail. After that I called Laurentian Lakes Chapter President Ray Vlasik and asked him if he could pick me up the following evening. I would be starting out at Itasca and hiking west. I wasn’t quite sure where I would end up. Ray said for me to call him the next evening and he would come pick me up wherever I was at. It sounded like a plan.

I was getting hungry, so I hopped in my van and drove three miles north to the Itasca Junction. I walked in and this place is part Restaurant, Ice Cream Shop, Grocery Store and Gas Station. They have a restaurant counter with stools, so I went over there and sat down. The one of the lady who was working came over and gave me a menu. I after taking a look at it, I decided on a hamburger and fries. The lady came over and took my order, then I decided to look around the place.

It’s a nice little store/restaurant/gas station. I looked for items that backpackers might need. For instance they do have Heet in the yellow bottle that backpackers can use in their alcohol stoves. They also have some grocery items, soda, and candy bars, among other things. I headed back to my seat at the counter. By that time a family had came into the place and ordered a pizza. They seemed to know the waitress. As I found out, the waitress was the owner of Itasca Junction, along with her husband who was doing the cooking. They are in their 50’s or young 60’s and their son and his family were the ones that ordered the pizza.

My Burger came to my location and I started chowing down. I was really good, but then I noticed the Pizza that the family had ordered. Man that looked good, too. I’ll have to remember that. I finished up and paid my bill. I decided since there was still plenty of daylight left, I would drive over the Gulch Lake Campground and do the loop around Nelson Lake. So I hopped in my van and headed east down Hwy 200 towards Lake George. I passed through Lake George then a couple miles later, took a right on County Road 91, then a few miles later I went on Gulch Lakes Road down to the Campground. I passed the campground and went down to the boat launch parking lot on Nelson Lake, where I parked.

To follow along with the photos of this hike Click here

I walked over to a sign with a NCT logo on it. I read “NCNST - .06 MI” with arrow pointing each way, and it also had “Lake Loop – 1.4 MI.” So if the Lake Loop connects with the NCT to the right at .6 miles and to the left at .6 miles, and the overall loop is 1.4 miles, that means the NCT shares the Loop Trail for .2 miles. Just a little analysis for all you math fans.

I started walking to the left and found a latrine right near the parking lot. Then I continued down a wide path along the lake. I betya the park rangers drive their trucks down this path for maintenance, etc. I came to the first Campsite. It was right next to the lake and had a picnic table. I continued down the wide path next to the lake as it curved to the left, soon I found the second campsite, it was much the same as the first. Then the wide path headed up a hill. I started hiking up that way and soon came to the clear-cut area I had seen the day before. I figured I was going the wrong way, because it was leading me away from the lake. So I went down to the campsite, and sure enough, I found another path heading along the lake. This path was just a regular width trail, not a wide affair like I just was on. The trail went along Nelson Lake but up in the woods instead of right next to the shoreline. It was a nice walk in the woods with glimpses of the lake to the right, then I got to a point where there were glimpses of the clear-cut area to the left. Then I reached the junction with the NCT.

I had been at the junction the day before, so I knew it well. I continued down the trail the .2 miles to the other junction of the NCT. This time I went to the right and continued around Nelson Lake. But now the trail was much closer to the lake than before. The Trail was right at the edge of the lake and I meandered around a small bay. Then I hiked up to some loons that were swimming in the water. They seemed not to notice me, and I crept up closer to them. I got incredibly close. They still didn’t seem to notice me. They headed down the lake past me and I continued down the trail in the opposite direction. Maybe they didn’t notice me because it was starting to get dark, or maybe they are used to people walking the trail. I picked up my pace. The trail goes up over a little knoll then down into another campsite. But this campsite is on an isthmus. Lake Twentyone is on the left side of the campsite and Nelson Lake is on the right side of the campsite. What a cool spot. I continued on and went on a bridge over a creek that runs between the two lakes. Then I was back on a wide path again. I went past a boat launch then I was back to the parking lot where my van was parked.

That was a nice hike. I hopped in my van and went back to the trailhead at the South Entrance of Itasca State Park. I crawled into the back of the van and went to sleep.