It was cold last night and I had a hard time sleeping. I woke up in the morning, got packed up and said goodbye to the Trail Crew. Joe Johnston had taken one last photo of me before I left. I started walking east on Fernberg Rd. I planned that this hike would be “From Ely to Grand Marais,” so I wanted to do the 20 mile road hike to the Kekekabic Trail so the hike could truly be “from Ely” I hiked down the road and the first intersection I hit was Grant McMahan Blvd. I was humored that there was a McMahan in the area that was famous enough to have a road named after him. But it wasn’t the exact spelling as my last name, McMahon. But even so, I stopped and took a photo.
I continued hiking down the road past a town named Winton. They had a big sign out by the road that pointed to the location of the Winton Municipal Liquor Store. I thought I was unusual for a town to run the liquor store, but evidently in Minnesota, it’s fairly common.
I kept hiking and eventually the Two Trail Crews in their cars passed me by on the road. They stopped and asked me if I was okay, and I said I was, so they continued driving down the road to their canoe landing. I kept walking and stopped for lunch at the Rookie Lake overlook. In the afternoon I made it to the Red Rock Store. I bought a pair of thermal long underwear. They were 50 bucks, but I felt like I needed them for sleeping.
I continued on and hit the intersection of Fernberg and Snowbank Roads. I had made up my mind that I would go to the Fernberg Road Trailhead of the Kekekabic Trail. It looked like a shorter hike. Cory Munsen and Jerry Swanson had seemed to think that trail from Fernberg Road would be okay. But the trail from Snowbank Road is newer.
I hiked out to the Fernberg Road Trailhead and started hiking the Trail. I started following a trail with some pink ribbons marking it, but it didn’t seem to be going the right way. So I went back to the clearing and found a path headed in the eastern direction. I was happy because I found a cairn, which is a pile of rocks that mark the trail, so I thought I was on the right path. Everything was good for a while, then eventually the trail dissipated and I didn’t’ know where the trail was. But I thought if I just kept going east, I would hit the real trail. So I kept going away from the sun.
I was bushwhacking through a lot of muck, then I would head for a high spot. I did this several times and still didn’t find the traill. I thought if I kept going away from the sun, surely I would it the real trail. Well I must have done this for about two hours, and it was really tough going. I tried using the compass, but it didn’t seem to help that much, maybe because there is iron in the rocks, or something like that. At one point I lost my boot in the muck. Then I found out that I lost a water bottle and some gorp out of one of my backpack pockets. Unfortunately, the pack has only two pockets and they are for water bottles so they don’t close. I proceeded to tie my other water bottle onto my backpack, even though it’s in a pocket.
It was getting late so I found a nice spot to camp. It was a small grassy flat area on the side of a rocky hill. I set up my tent, then I went to the top to the hill to cook supper, and set out the beacon. I hoisted my cell phone antennae and was able to call out. I called Greg and got a message so I told him I didn’t exactly know where I was, and hopefully he could check on the internet where the Spot Messenger says I’m at. The Spot Beacon did work, so I called Greg back and still got a message. So I left a message that I needed him to answer the phone the next time I call him.
At a rocky area on top of the hill I made supper using my alcohol stove. I just relaxed for a while, put up the bear bag and went to bed. I figured that I wasn’t really lost, but I didn’t exactly know where I was. I felt like I could always go back the way I came and get out on Fernberg Rd, but I wanted to find the real trail. I went to bed and decided to figure it out in the morning.