UPDATE: Bob Kohlmeier hiked the Kek in late July of 2009 and he reports that the stretch between Parent Lake and the Kekekabic Lookout Trail is clear. So the "Big Wicked Thicket" as I call it in this trip report, is now clear of obstructions. Check out Kek.org for Bob's trip report
I woke up a couple times during the night because I was cold. I decided to empty out my backpack and put the bottom part of my sleeping bag into the backpack. It’s kind of a make shift sleeping bag cover. I woke up in the morning when I heard the Forest Service Radio that was in Jerry Swanson’s tent. Trail Crews have a 7 am check in time with the Forest Service. I asked Jerry to ask the forest service about the weather, and he said they have a weather service frequency on the radio.
It was cold so I got out of the tent and started a fire. An official forest service campsite has a forest service iron fire grate and a latrine. The campsite I saw yesterday at the Bencoosin Loop Junction wasn’t an official campsite because it had neither. Rachel got out of her tent and immediately came to the fire to warm up. She was so glad when she heard the crackling of the fire from her tent. She started putting some bigger logs on the fire, but I said that I wouldn’t be there that long so I didn’t want to put any bigger stuff on the fire. She put the bigger logs on the fire and said she would tend to the fire after I left.
Jerry had checked the Weather Frequency on the radio and said that it was supposed to be good weather today but tomorrow was supposed to have thunderstorms. He told me to cover as much ground as I can today.
Soon everyone was up and we were making breakfast. They gave me some hot water for my “coco-oata.” This is a concoction I make with two packs of instant oatmeal and some hot chocolate all mixed together. I packed up. I gave them some stuff I didn’t feel like carrying anymore. They gave me some of their extra food. And off I went. I think it was around 8 am when I left.
I hiked the hard 1/4 mile up and down segment of the Snowbank Trail to get back to the Kekekabic. The Kekekabic at that point was really easy hiking because it had been just cleared by the Swanson Crew. After I passed the reconnection of the Bencoosin Loop Trail, I met up with a group of 5 backpackers who were from Michigan and New York. I asked them where they started and they said they started 15 days ago in Grand Marais. Wow, I thought. They said this was their last day and they would be hiking out to the Snowbank Road Parking Lot. They asked if I had seen a Green SUV there, and I said I saw some vehicles in the parking lot but couldn’t remember what color they were. I offered to look at my camera where I had a photo of the Trailhead, but they said it wasn’t necessary. I asked them if they stopped at the Gunflint Lodge, where I was planning on stopping, and they said yes. I told them that this part of the trail was pretty clear because I camped at Parent Lake with a Trail Crew that had just cleared it yesterday. I took their photo and gave them my card and went on.
At the time, I didn’t realize that one of the 5 hikers was Joan Young. She’s one of the best known thru hikers of the North Country Trail. According to her website, she has hike all but 900 miles of the 4600 mile trail. Plus she does a blog on the NCT website, and she has authored a book about the North Country Trail.
I made it up to the Drumstick Lake Campsite where there is a big sawblade from some sort of Forestry equipment marking the campsite trail. I decided this is where I’m going to take a break. And this was also where I had the purification emergency. I went down to the lake to get water, then I came back to the fire grate, reached in my pocket, and all the purification pills were all over inside my pocket. There are two types of pills. One is for purification, and the other is the neutralizer to make the water taste good after purification. Both pill bottles had opened and the pills were all mixed in my pocket. I was thinking thank god my pocket didn’t get wet.
So I sorted out the pills and put them back in their bottles. I put the lids on tight, then put the bottles in a zip lock bag. I folded up the zip lock so the bottles would be separated. The purification emergency was over, but it took me an extra half hour to get it done. I used the outdoor toilet at the campsite and even took a humorous photo of me sitting on the pot.
I went on and reached the campsite at Moiyaka Lake around 2 pm. This is a beautiful campsite on a beautiful lake. I took a series of photos in hopes of stitching them all together for a panoramic photo. This was the prettiest campsite I seen yet. I took a break, ate some food and put out the beacon to mark my spot.
I hiked on and reached the Thomas Rapids. This is the place where Jerry Swanson had said that the Kekekabic Trail Club needs to build a bridge. He was right. There is a beaver dam and a series of rapids down from it. At one point there is a metal ring embedded in the rock. Maybe you are supposed to put a rope through it and cross there. But the water looked a little dangerous there.
Instead I crossed above the beaver dam. The lake had a rocky bottom there, so I wouldn’t sink in and the water was about a foot and a half deep. Plus the water is calm there. After the crossing there is a portage. I lounged around on the portage resting for a while. Soon 3 men came by who were portaging. It was two middle aged men and one younger man that was college aged. I figured the younger man was one of the older men’s sons. I took their photos and gave them my card.
I didn’t look for the campsite that was supposed to be there. I just wanted to press on because there are supposed to be thunderstorms tomorrow. I looked at the map and it was a long stretch before the next campsite. It was around 5 pm so I still had around 4 hours of light. I decided I would hike to the next campsite. So I set off. “Go for the Gusto” I said to myself.
I came to a place where there are 3 beaver dams in a row. Each beaver dam was about 50 yards from each other. I believe this is the spot that Cory Mensen had warned me about. He said after the beaver dam you have to look around to find the trail. But I was having trouble figuring out which beaver dam to cross. I finally crossed one, and took a while to find the trail again, but I did.
Then I started walking in what I’m now calling the “big wicked thicket.” This part of the trail almost broke me. The brush is closing in on the trail, there are lots of gnarly downed trees, there are lots of wet areas to walk through and there’s moose droppings every ten feet. The moose must like the trail because the brush around the trail is thick. How can a big moose possibly walk through that thicket. The brush is thick and it’s closing in on the trail. I walked through these conditions for hours.
At one point I saw a portage cross the trail, so I thought I must be getting close to the Strup Lake Campsite. On the map it shows a portage then a campsite a little ways down. But I never saw the cairn for a campsite. I figured the portage must have been one of those unpublished portages. Cory Mensen had told me that there are sections of the Boundary waters that are called Primitive Maintainance Areas. In these areas they don’t publish the portages on the maps because they want to protect these areas.
Then I finally saw a Cairn and some ribbon marking a junction in the trail. I figured that this must be the trail for the campsite. So I went down the trail and there was no campsite. The Trail just kept going and going. Plus, there were plenty of big downed trees in the way. I set my gear down and walked back to the cairn. Evidently, the cairn was just there to mark a turn in the trail. The trail going forward didn’t look like it amounted to much.
I was convinced I was on the Kekekabic Trail, mainly because there are no other trails around. But the trail wasn’t getting any better. It was one big thicket, with downed trees and wet spots. I kept going and going. If there was a clear section of the trail I would walk real fast, saying to myself that I needed to get somewhere. The light was fading. I was looking for anyplace big enough to set up a tent. But there was no such place. I thought I somehow must have missed Strup Lake. I must be way past it. This was becoming a little worrisome.
Then around 8:45 when the light was really fading I came across a portage. I traveled down the portage to the lake. The landing of the lake was big enough for me to pitch my tent, but it’s very rocky. I thought that this is where I’m going to camp for the night. I set my gear down and started looking at the map to figure out where I was. I looked at the lake and saw it’s shape and it kind of looked like Strup Lake on the Map. Could it be? If so there would be a campsite down a ways from the portage. So I left my gear at the portage, and hiked back to the Kekekabic Trail. After hiking about 6 minutes down the trail I found the cairn for the campsite. I was so happy.
I hauled my gear to the campsite and immediately set up my tent and started a campfire. I also threw the rope up over two trees for the bear bag, even though I wasn’t going to hang the bear bag for a while yet. This campsite had the perfect little set up for cooking. It had this 4 foot high rock ledge that was good for putting your food and other gear on. Down from this rock about 7 feet was the fire grate area, and just down from that was the lake. I set out my food that I was going to cook on the rock ledge. This rock ledge was about ten feet across. It was pretty much dark out by now. When I was working on the food, all of a sudden I saw a mouse scurry across the top of the rock ledge. Then I saw another one. I thought to myself maybe this isn’t the perfect set up for cooking. Or maybe the mice think it’s the perfect set up. Well, I bundled up all of the food except what I was cooking and put it back in the bear bag.
I ate, put the bear bag up, and called it a night. It was past 11 pm when I got to bed.