Thursday, June 2, 2011
Judge CR Magney Parking Lot to the Lakewalk
I didn’t wake up particularly early and I was not all that hungry because of Burger Night at the American Legion the night before. So, I just headed up Highway 61 from Grand Marais. I stopped at the east end of the Lakewalk and locked up my bicycle and biking gear. Then I took the 4 mile drive down to Judge Magney State Park. I rolled into the parking lot and parked next to a picnic table. I set my Spot Messenger out on the picnic table to mark my spot, then put the rest of my hiking gear out on the picnic table.
While I was getting my stuff ready, the Park Ranger that had lectured to me last evening pulls up and rolls down her window. I said hello and she did the same. And I told her that I was getting ready to do a Hike and Bike. I would be hiking down to the Lakewalk where my bike is locked up, then I would be biking back. But she didn’t she too interested in my itinerary. Evidently, she was pissed that she didn’t get to lecture me enough last night, so she started in again. She said that only registered campers were supposed to use the shower house and that I should not have taken a shower there last evening. I told her that I didn’t take a shower, and that all I did was go down and check out the facilities for future reference. I did go to the bathroom while I was there, but that’s all I did. She said that I wasn’t supposed to be even doing that. I replied with an “oh Well.” I could have told her that I needed to check out the facilities for my backpacking website. Or I could have done a smart alec response and said I’m a registered camper with the Superior Hiking Trail Association. But I was just getting tired of talking with this lady. I really didn’t like her attitude towards backpackers. She must have gotten tired of talking with me, because she decided to go. Oh well.
I was trying not to get wound up about it, but I was. Do you know how much time and effort has been spent making the Superior Hiking Trail? As I say frequently, the Superior Hiking Trail is one of the greatest achievements in Ecotourism in the Midwest over the last 25 years. It is magnificent trail. And now we have some rules lawyer Ranger treating backpackers like second-class citizens. That burns me up.
Evidently there’s been a problem with backpackers sneaking into the shower house taking a shower. But I know what the problem is. The problem is that the State Parks are not serving its customers. Backpackers are customers just like anyone else. And most Backpackers are more than willing to pay $3 for a shower. That’s reasonable. What’s not reasonable is to make backpackers pay $18 to reserve a campsite, to take a shower. I could see if you had 6 people in your backpacking party, you could pay $18 to reserve a campsite, then it would be $3 a piece for a shower. But most hiking parties are 2 to 4 people. I can see if you arrive at Magney around 6 pm, you might want to stay overnight. But if you arrive around noon, you’d like to take a shower and continue on.
And the problem is just going to get worse and worse. This upper portion of the SHT is going to be more popular. A lot of people I’ve chatted with on the SHT Hiker Group have done the lower parts of the SHT where the shuttle runs. So, a lot of people who have completed the lower sections are now looking to hike the upper SHT section. It will become a more popular route. And Magney is the logical place on this section to stop in and take a shower. If they thought they have a problem now, just wait. But the real problem is with the Parks Department. I’m calling them and expressing my concerns about this. And I’ve read trip reports of the Superior Hiking Trail where it says the people “sneaked in to take a shower.” I really didn’t think anything of it until now.
I got my stuff ready and headed out the back end of the Parking Lot. The Trail uses a two-track grassy forest road here and soon it comes to a T and you can see the campground area to the left. There’s a sign headed towards the campground that says “registered campers only.” This would be the spot where if a backpacker wanted to sneak in to take a shower, they could do so. But I would stash my backpack in the woods someplace so the Ranger doesn’t see you with it on. Because if they see someone with a backpack on, they are on high alert that you might take a shower. Just take the items you need for the shower, and head over there.
Not that I’m encouraging people to sneak in to take a shower, because that would be breaking a rule. According to Scouting Doctrine, if I find a rule or law to be unjust, I should not break the rule or law, I should work to get it changed. But I suppose a broke a rule when I went into an area that was for “registered campers only.” Oh well.
To follow along with the photos of this hike Click here
I took a right at the T and headed down the State Forest Trail. It’s pretty easy walking on the two-track road. Pretty soon you come to a pile of brush and wood debris on the side of the road. This must be the Park’s burn pile. They stack up the debris here, and then in the middle of the winter when the fire danger is low they probably pour some gas on it and burn it. We’re definitely in the back forty of the park. After walking on the forest road over a 1/4 of a mile, I came upon a big pine tree that had fallen across the road. This was a big gnarly, and took a couple minutes to get over. I climbed up on the tree and jumped down on the other side. Soon after that the forest road curves to the right. And right at the curve, the SHT splits from the road to the left. So, I was back on a regular hiking path again, instead of a two track road.
The trail here goes along Gauthery Creek for quite some time. The one thing that surprised me about Judge Magney State Park was that they didn’t have any backpacker campsites back in the remote areas of the Park. It would have been nice to have one along the Brule River before you get to the Devil’s Kettle Falls. There were plenty of places along there that would work for a backcountry campsite. Cascade State Park down near Lutsen has several Backcountry Campsites including a shelter on top of Lookout Mountain. I’m not sure why they don’t have any at Magney. But anyway, walking along this creek I spotted a few places that might be good for a campsite. Eventually the trail left the creek and then left the State Park Property. When the trail left the State Park Property there was a sign that said “Private Property, please stay on the trail, No camping or fires.” Well, it’s nice of the property owners to allow us to walk across their land. There have been other places where it has been difficult to build the trail because property owners will not allow it.
The Forest on the Private Land is a mixture of pines and aspen, and a mixture of somewhat mature trees and not mature trees. It’s a real mixture. This lasts for about a mile until you come to a small grassy field and then a dirt road. The SHT Guidebook shows that mile section as being perfectly straight, but it doesn’t seem perfectly straight when you’re walking it, but there are no major turns. I didn’t even notice the 90 degree turn that the trail made, then according to the book the trail goes straight again for a little bit. I’m wondering if the trail goes right along somebody’s lot line. After all that you come to a small grassy field then a gravel pit road on the other side of it.
After the gravel pit road, the trail continues on through some woods much like the woods before the gravel pit road. It’s still a mixture of pines and aspen of various ages. But not far after the road, you hit a wooden sign facing the other way on the trail that says “private land, please stay on the Trail…,” which meant I was again hiking on Public Land. The trail crosses a boardwalk then a creek, then you come up to a trail crossing of sorts.
The Trail going to the right was going to the Northwest Little Brule River Campsite and the trail going to the left was going to the North Little Brule River Campsite. The Little Brule River was ahead of me on the SHT. I turned to the right and went took the trail to the Northwest Little Brule River Campsite. After walking about 75 yards I found the campsite. It’s a nice campsite in the young aspens. It has all the accoutrements of a SHT campsite, plus it had some tent pad areas carved out of the young aspen forest. It looked as though it wasn’t immediately next to the Little Brule River. I didn’t walk down the water path to see how far it was.
Then I walked back to the SHT and hiked into the North Brule River Campsite. This campsite is right near the SHT. Again, there wasn’t anything overly outstanding about the campsite, it is just a typical campsite that you see along the SHT. I headed back to the SHT and started hiking west again, I could see the Little Brule River Bridge down the hill in front of me. I went down a short series of steps and made it the Little Brule River. It’s a nice little river, typical of rivers in this region, with rocks and little waterfalls. After the Bridge the Trail takes a left and is going along the river for a long ways. At first you are hiking with the river about five feet below you, but then you ascent as you walk along the river, and you are walking along a river gorge. It keeps becoming more and more of a gorge as you continue hiking. This lasts for over a 1/4 of a mile. I knew I was coming up to another campsite, and I wondered how in the heck would people camping at that campsite would get water because the gorge is too deep. Soon I did find the sign for the South Little Brule Campsite and took the trail.
I followed the trail down about 50 yards and found the campsite. At first I thought this campsite was going to be just another typical campsite along the SHT. But it’s not. This campsite is right on the edge of the gorge. And the water trail is fairly steep down to the river. The gorge isn’t as deep here as some of the other places I had just walked past, but it’s still a gorge. And the coolest thing about this campsite is there is a tent pad right next to the gorge, and down below the tent pad in the gorge is a waterfall. How cool is that? You could be one with the waterfall, just like I was one with the waterfall when I camped at the Agamok Falls Campsite on the Kekekabic Trail. This campsite was definitely the coolest campsite I had seen in a while.
After the South Little Brule River campsite, the SHT goes away from the Little Brule River. Then it starts on a series of smaller ups and downs. First you would be on a small hill then you would hike down and go over a creek then go up on top of another small hill. This pattern continued 4 or 5 times. Then I got to a wooden sign that said “Private Land…..,” well you know what the sign says by now.
Now I had a new problem, my camera card was filled up. I looked in my didde bag and found my other camera card and put it in the camera. But that camera card was filled up, too. I had left the empty camera card back in the van. What a misadventure? So, I put the most recent camera card back into the camera card and went back and deleted some photos. I hate deleting photos because I always think I’m going to make a mistake and delete the whole works. Then I would have to take the card into a camera shop in Madison, and have them recover the photos. That’s about a $40 proposition. So, I was really careful and deleted about 30 blurry or bland photos.
I continued on, over a boardwalk and thru some scrubby areas. Then I came to an electric line right of way. I looked down the electric line right of way to the left and saw a deer standing down there about 100 yards away. And while I was taking photos of the deer, the camera card filled up again. I decided I would not delete any more photos. Usually, electric line right of ways are fairly close to a road. I would walk down to Highway 61 and then come back an rehike the trail here and take photos when I have a fresh camera card. So I took off down the trail, and the section between the electric line right of way and the road is a creek walk. There is a creek on the left hand side of the trail and you walk next to it for a few hundred yards and you get to Highway 61.
I stashed my hiking gear, which consists of my hiking poles and my vest, then I got my biking gear on which consists of a florescent orange shirt and my bicycle helmet. I started riding west on Highway 61 that has the extra wide paved shoulder for biking. This would be a longer bike ride than when I did the lakewalk. The lakewalk bike ride was about 1.5 miles where this ride I estimated to be about 4 miles. The SHT from Magney to the Lakewalk is 5.2 miles, but the bike ride up Highway 61 looked to be much shorter. I took off up the highway.
And it was another fun bike ride along Lake Superior. I would see people out walking on the beach and pickup trucks hauling fishing boats up to Canada. It was a pretty flat bike ride except for a mile before Magney there is a hill. I ended up hopping off the bike and walking for a ways. But then when I got to the top it was all downhill to Magney, That was lots of fun.
The momentum from the hill made me zip pass the Park Entrance building and also the Ranger’s building. I didn't see any Rangers there, or I might have stopped and gave them a little talk about treating backpackers like second-class citizens. I was probably better that I didn’t see a Ranger. I hopped in my van and drove back down to the east end of the Lakewalk and grabbed my hiking gear. I changed my camera card. then I hiked back to the electric line right of way, and took photos of the trail along the creek.
The Lakewalk to the Kadunce Wayside
I got in my van and drove down to the west end of the lakewalk. I set out my hiking gear, then I drove down to the Kadunce Wayside and got my biking gear on. I was in a zone now. I really liked the bike and hike concept, and it seemed to work well along this stretch of Highway 61. I rode my bike down Highway 61 to the west end of the Lakewalk. I estimate the length of the bike ride to be about 1.75 miles. I locked up my bike and put on my backpacking gear. This would be a 2.3 mile hike to the Kadunce River Bridge on the SHT, then I would have to hike .7 miles along the Kadence River along a Spur trail to get back to the van. I headed out.
To follow along with the photos of this hike Click Here
I wondered if this would be the last section I would be hiking. The Kadunce Wayside seemed to be a logical place to end the hike if I didn’t have enough Camera Card space left to go all the way back to Grand Marais. I had already filled two 2 gigabyte camera cards, and only had a 1 gigabyte card left that was in the camera. Basically, I had about 3 options. The first option was to head into Grand Marais and see if the Radio Shack has an XD Card. That would be the only place north of Duluth that would have an XD card. Unfortunately, the XD card is becoming less popular and harder to find. Olympus and Fuji Cameras were the manufacturers that used the XD cards, and now on their most recent models they have switched over to the more popular SD Card. I decided that when I got back to my van at the Kadunce Wayside, that I would run into Grand Marais and see if the Radio Shack had a XD card. But I doubted they would. If the Radio Shack doesn’t have a XD card, then I would have to explore some other options. They would include taking less photos and deleting some photos off the cards I already have. Those options don’t appeal to me that much. The other option would be just to end the hike at Kadunce.
I hiked across Highway 61 from the west end of the Lakewalk. Immediately there is a boardwalk. It was a short boardwalk, but it did get my mind back on the trail instead of all the other crap that was going on. The Trail goes in a slight uphill pattern, going through the mixed woods of Aspens and Pines. After hiking less than a half a mile, I came upon a Electric Line Right of Way, and also a Road. This is Kelly’s Hill Road. I crossed the gravel road and saw the SHT wooden sign. It said it was 2.5 miles to the Kadunce River and 14 .2 miles to the Grand Marais Overlook. I was definitely making some progress getting back to Grand Marais. After Kelly’s Hill Road, the trail continues on but now it is much more of a pine forest. And the trail starts a new pattern. The trail descends a little and crosses Timberwolf Creek, then it heads up a few steps and continues on a uphill stretch again, until it starts going downhill to cross another creek. Then it ascends a small hill again, until it decides to go downhill again to cross another creek. After a few times, this gets to be a little annoying. But it could be a lot worse, so I don’t know why I’m annoyed.
Then the trail goes on an extended uphill stretch, until you can see something ahead. Then I arrived at Blueberry Overlook. You can see the trees down the hill, and Lake Superior on the horizon and that’s about it. It would be better if there were actually a ship out on Lake Superior, but there wasn’t. It’s a nice overlook, but nothing fantastic. Up at the overlook the trail goes through what I call a pine meadow. There are medium sized pine trees plus lots of grassy and flat rocky areas.
The pine meadow went on for a few hundred yards then the trail descended gradually into a mixed woods. After spending some time in the mixed woods, it became a young aspen woods. After that it returned to a mixed woods, and I met up with 4 college students from Northwest University in Iowa. They were Josiah, Ted, Morgan and Isaac. I commented that I never met a Josiah before. They agreed that it was a rare name. They seemed to be enjoying the beautiful day by taking a day hike. They had some gear with them, but it was obvious they were out on a day hike. I took their photo and gave them an “I saw Tman” card, and I was on my way.
Shortly after meeting the College students, I came upon the Kadunce River Campsite. It was a nice enough campsite, but the Kadunce River didn’t seem that close. So I started hiking on the SHT again, and after heading down a hill I found the Kadunce River. The trail takes a left and starts following the Kadunce River. I hiked along the river, seeing little waterfalls and rapids. Then I saw something rather unusual on the trail. It was a shoe from a young child, perhaps a toddler. Then the trail went up over a small hill and then down the other side of the hill I saw a couple, where the lady was carrying a small child. I called out to them saying “hello, there.” Then I asked them if their child had lost a shoe, and they said yes. I said I would go back and get the shoe, so they didn’t have to walk up the hill. So, I did. This is where I met Adam and Katie. I didn’t get the name of the child. They were standing at a really nice waterfall, so I offered to take their photo at the waterfall, and they accepted. I took some shots of them on their camera. Then they took my photo using my camera. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a very good photo of them using my camera. But I gave them an “I saw Tman” Card, and I was on my way.
The trail continues up a side of a hill next to the river. Then it veers away from the river to a clear cut opening. This clear cut opening had some amenities. There were chairs and a table made from the cut logs. There was also a fire pit there, too, making me believe that this was also used as a campsite. I continued on the trail on the hill next to the river. Then, suddenly you see the SHT Kadunce River Bridge and the Trail descends to it. It’s an nice bridge. I believe it was built in the last year, and looked very substantial. Although the river doesn’t look that deep or wide here, so it could be forded. But going down the bank to the river, and climbing up the bank on the other side would be a pain.
There’s a wooden box with a logbook right at the bridge, so I stopped to sign it. Then instead of crossing the bridge, I took the spur trail towards the parking lot. This is a ,7 mile spur trail that goes along the river gorge. That’s right, the river after the bridge become more of a gorge river, with plenty of rapids and little water falls. The trail went in an upward pattern, and soon I was hiking 20 to 30 feet above the river on the side of the gorge. That was pretty cool. I could see some waterfalls below and the cliffs on the other side of the gorge. Eventually the trail descends to be closer to the river, but for a while, it was a really cool gorge hike.
Once the trail gets down next to the river again, it wasn’t long before I saw the Highway 61 bridge ahead, and then I was back to my van. I hopped in my van and headed into Grand Marais. I parked in front of the American Legion and walked across the street to the Radio Shack. This would be the moment of truth. This would be a moment that would definitely change my hiking strategy.
I walked into the Radio Shack and showed the clerk my camera, pulled out the XD card and said that I need one. The clerked walked over to a wall that had the camera accessories and said he had one left. Whew!!!! It was a 2 gigabyte card, that was about $30. That was fairly reasonable considering we’re almost in Canada.
Needless to say, I was one happy camper. Now I could keep on shooting photos in my same old reckless style of taking photos whenever I felt like, instead of being real choosy. I’m not sure what I would have done if I didn’t get the camera card. The options were deleting photos I already took, being real choosy about what photos I take, or just ending the hike at Kadunce. But now I had a new lease on life and I celebrated by having a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate at the Dairy Queen.
Kadunce Wayside to Highway 14
It was around 3:30 pm, and I thought I had enough time for another Hike and Bike. The next section from the Kadunce River to Highway 14 was 2.4 miles long, plus the .7 mile spur trail from the Kadunce Parking lot. I figured I would have plenty of time to do that Hike and Bike. But I was missing one key ingredient for a Hike and Bike. That would be the bike, I had left it locked up at the west end of the Lakewalk, so I had to drive there and retrieve it. That’s what I did. Then to the Kadunce Wayside and stashed my hiking gear, and put the Spot Messenger out on the beach to mark my spot. Then I drove back to Highway 14 and headed uphill about 1/2 mile to the SHT Trailhead. There isn’t much of a trailhead here. It’s just a little loop drive that you park on. It’s pretty narrow with barely enough room for a car to pass you if you’re parked there. So, I parked and got my biking gear on. Boy, it was fun riding down that hill going back to Highway 61. Then it was an easy ride on the wide paved shoulder of the road, back to Kadunce. When I got to Kadunce, I locked up the bike, retrieved my Spot Messenger, then put on my hiking gear. But when I got back to Kadunce, there was a guy loading up his kayak onto a uhaul type trailer. This guy had quite the setup. He had a SUV that was pulling this trailer that had all his gear. I went over to talk with him. This is where I met Steve from Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester is known for the Mayo Clinic, so I asked him if he worked at the Hospital there, and he said yes. Steve looked to be a little younger than me, maybe in his 40s, and he was in pretty good shape. I told him I was doing what I call a Hike and Bike. I biked from the Highway 14 trailhead to here then I’m going to be hiking back. He said that he just did a Kayak and Bike. Kadunce Wayside seemed to be a favorite spot for Sea Kayakers to put in. Perhaps it’s just the right distance from Grand Marais for a day trip. I took Steve’s Photo, gave him an “I saw Tman” Card, and I was on my way.
To follow along with the photos of this hike Click Here
I hiked the .7 mile spur trail back to the bridge in a fast time. I had already photographed this section so I didn’t need to stop and take photos. I got to the bridge and headed across. It’s a great bridge, really well built. They won’t have to worry about it for years to come.
The trail follows the Kadunce River for a little ways on the west bank. Then it veers away and starts doing an up and down pattern again going over some little creeks on the down swing. Then the trail goes on the bank of a little bigger creek and I could see a bridge up ahead. The bridge goes to the right across the creek, while there is a path going straight. This is the path to the West Fork of the Kadunce River Campsite. I took the path down to the campsite. It was about 50 yards long until I made it to the usual campsite fire ring area, with 2 x 12 plank seating. This was a good campsite, but there was nothing unusual or overly memorable about the campsite. I headed back to the bridge, when I discovered there was something unusual about the bridge.
There were actually two bridges. The original bridge was under the current bridge. This looked whimsical to me. It looked like there was a bridge for trolls underneath the regular bridge. I had to take some photos of that. Then the trail continued on a slight up and down pattern, going up a small hill then down to a stream crossing then up a small hill. This time it came to a more substantial creek with a bigger bridge. After that I saw the sign for the Crow Creek Campsite. The campsite trail goes uphill
for about 50 yards to the campsite. Again, it was a nice campsite, but nothing out of the ordinary.
All the campsites that I had encountered today were starting to merge together. The only one that I remember as being overly outstanding or different was the South Little Brule River Campsite that had the Tent Pad next to the gorge above a waterfall. That was really cool. All of the other campsites were good campsites. All had nice flat tent pads and a benched seating area for the campfire area. I would not describe any of these campsites as being bad.
I went downhill on the path back to the Superior Hiking Trail. Then I headed west on the SHT and immediately encountered a stairway going up a hill. After finishing the first set of stairs, there was another small set of stairs and then I was on top of it. The trail continued it’s uphill pattern then came down to a rather substantial bridge for going over a creek. Then the trail went uphill again. Who would have guessed?
The trail goes up to an area that looked like it had been blown over. There were a lot more blown over trees here and the forest did not look as dense as over places, mainly because of the blown over trees. You did get some views of Lake Superior, but nothing really expansive. Even though there were lots of tipped over trees here, there were very few downed trees on the trail. Those volunteers have done a great job. The trail keeps going even higher, then goes on a decidedly downhill run. The area becomes a regular forest again, and not a tipped over tree forest. Soon I came upon an Electric Line Right of Way. I looked to the left and saw a view of Lake Superior. I looked to the right and saw the electric lines connecting with Highway 14 about an 1/8 mile away. So I headed straight on the SHT and knew I would be getting to Highway 14 soon.
At this point I knew what I would be doing when I got back to the van. I would be heading up to Grand Portage and staying over night at the Casino Hotel. At this point I knew that I would be completing my hike back to Grand Marais on Friday. There was only about 11 miles left to the Pincushion Mountain Trailhead, also known as the Grand Marais Overlook, then after that it was a 2 mile walk up to Tower Road where I started my hike in 2009. Surely, I would complete all of that within the next day or two. I know had enough camera card space so there was only one problem, I needed to recharge some camera batteries. So, why not stay at the Casino, where they have a $49 June Sunday through Thursday deal. They’d probably have a deal at the restaurant, too. Plus, maybe I could do my wash at the Hotel.
Soon, I made it back to the van at the Highway 14 Trailhead. I set out the Spot Messenger to mark my spot, and proceeded to sort out my clothes that needed to be washed. When the Spot Messenger sent it’s message I headed out. It was around 6:30 pm. I was looking forward to sleeping in a real bed. So, I headed up Highway 61 towards Grand Portage. When I got up near Judge Magney State Park I realized that I left my bike back at the Kadunce Wayside. I thought about just leaving it there for the night, since it was locked up, but I headed back and got it. I must have gotten up to the to the Casino around 7:30 pm. I asked the lady at the desk if they still had a room and the $49 special, and she said yes. But I the special was for Casino Players Members only. I wasn’t a member, so she said I had to go over to the Casino and register as a Players Member. I walked down the hallway to the Casino and in the matter of about 10 minutes I came back with my Players Member card and booked the room.
But, as it turns out, they don’t have any washing machines at the hotel. I could go down to the Campground and wash my clothes, but that seemed like too much work. Besides, I still had some clean clothes packed away, and I would be home in a couple days, so I decided to skip washing clothes. If it were convenient, I would have washed my clothes.
So, I went up to my room and found the Camera Battery Charger and started charging up a battery. I immediately took a shower and put on some clean clothes. It was after 8 pm, and I knew the restaurant closes at 9 pm, so I couldn’t take my time. I headed down to the restaurant, and was seated. I asked the waiter what the special was, and he said it was Prime Rib for $9.99, but I needed a coupon from the Casino. I said I would be right back and I walked down the hall to the Casino, and went back to customer service. I gave them my Player’s Club card and they printed me out a coupon for the Prime Rib. I headed back to the Restaurant and ordered the Prime Rib. It was a really good meal.
After the meal, I headed up to my room and changed into my swimming trunks. I headed down to the pool area, hoping they would have a whirlpool. But they didn’t have a whirlpool, which was a little bit of a disappointment. The water in the regular pool was pretty warm, but I decided to go into the sauna instead. There was a man in the sauna and we started talking. He works for an Air Conditioning Company in Duluth that every year spends a week working on the Air Conditioners on the Reservation. He said they stayed at the Casino Hotel during the week and they should be finished within the next two days. I told him I was out hiking the Superior Hiking Trail for several days and was taking a well-deserved break. Well, it was getting too hot for me, so I decided to leave. And as I was leaving the guy said I had a bullet rash on my back, and I should get it looked at. Wow, the only time when I found a tick on me was when I hiked the Old Border Route in my blue jeans. Otherwise, I had always worn my hiking clothes that had Peretherian on them, and that seemed to repel everything. The guy said that he had Lyme Disease and it’s no fun, but if I got antibiotics right away, it would kill it. I thanked the man for spotting it. I went back to my room, looked in the mirror and sure enough, I did have a bullseye rash. It was right in the middle of my back, where it would have been hard for me to see on my own. I would have to call my doctor the next day when I got into cell phone range. Boy, I was lucky that I decided to stay at the hotel tonight.
All the little up and downs of the day had caught up to me. I was out like a light.