Monday, May 25, 2009
Again I was cold during the night. I got up and I was in no hurry to get going. I made a fire and boiled water on the alcohol stove for a “Coco-oata.” While I was eating a Loon swam by on the lake, making its Loon call. It seemed like it was taking a tour of the lake. I was hoping to see a moose come down to the lake for a drink, but it didn’t happen. It seemed as though my Loon friend had made it back to its nest. I have a lot of looney friends, but this one was the real deal. So I packed up and left. When I left the campsite, I took a photo of me with the rock cairn. I was so happy to see that cairn the night before.
I continued to head east on the Kekekabic Trail. This part of the trail was much nicer than the big wicked thicket. It was not very wet at all. There was one little creek with rapids that you have to cross between Strup Lake and Whist Lake. There were only a few marshy areas, but there were a lot of going up and down hills, which can be a pain. There were some downed trees crossing the trail, but none were as bad as the ones in the big wicked thicket.
I made it up to the cairn that marked the Kekekabic Lake Trail. This was the former site of the Kekekabic Lookout Tower. The Trail heads down to Kekekabic Lake where there is a Ranger Cabin.There is no lookout tower at this site anymore. I dropped my gear and hiked down the trail to see if I could find the remains of the tower, or a scenic overlook to shoot photos. I found neither.
Evidently, the Ranger Cabin was the place that Cory Munsen had hiked to a few weeks earlier. But I didn’t want to hike all the way down to Kekekabic Lake to see it. So I took the best camera shot of the Lake that I could, then I went back to my gear at the cairn. I start hiking away from the Kekekabic Lake Trail. This segment is mostly hiking top of a hill. I would see glimpes of lakes out in the distance, and tried to figure out what lakes they were.
I made it to Harness Lake where I saw a campsite next to the lake. I didn’t go in the campsite because there was a downed tree blocking the way. There were a few downed trees in the campsite. It looked as it needed to be cleaned out. But I knew it was a campsite because I saw the iron fire grate. I hiked down the trail next to Harness Lake, and pretty soon I saw a rock cairn marking the trail. This rock cairn was unusual because it had a bear skull on top of it. Maybe it was a moose skull.
I kept walking and the trail continued to be fairly good. Again, there were lots of going up hills and down hills. Some parts of the trail were getting a little over grown with thickets. But it was paradise compared to yesterday evening. Again, I would see glimpse of lakes out in the distance. After walking a long time, I thought to myself that I surely must be coming up to the Aganok Bridge soon.
But then I met two young men who were backpacking west. One was a rather big guy with a bald head and the other was a small guy with long hair. They were from Owatonna, Minnesota, which is south of the Cities near Rochester. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon. I asked them how far the bridge is, and they said it’s about an hour and a half away. The said there is a real nice campsite right near the bridge. And that the next two campsites, the ones near Gabimichigami Lake and Howard Lake, didn’t look that good. I told them their next campsite is Harness Lake. When you get to the cairn with the skull on it, go down the trail another 200 yards and you’ll see a fire grate next to the lake. I told them that the campsite had several downed trees in it, so I didn’t know where they would set up a tent. The Big guy seemed to be carrying a lot of weight in his pack. But they were in good spirits. I took a photo of them, gave them my card and went on my merry way. (Mike, one of the two men, emailed me after the hike)
I was disappointed that Aganok Bridge and Aganok Falls were still an hour and a half away. But I pressed on. Again, the trail was pretty good with only a few obstructions. And it was up and down hills mostly with no swampy areas. I figured if it took them and hour and a half, it would take me two hours because they were much younger than me. And sure enough, around 5:30 pm I saw the portage and then the campsite then the bridge. I set my stuff down in the campsite and went to check out the falls, which are spectacular. Then I went to check out the campsite on the other side of the bridge. But I didn’t like that campsite nearly as much as the one I left my gear in. So I decided to camp where my gear was for the night.
I had stopped early, at 5:30 pm. I didn’t want to try to get to the Lake Gabimichigami campsite and have another incident like I had going to Strup Lake. My plan was to take it easy tonight, then get up early and hike out to the Gunflint Trail tomorrow. So I stayed at the Aganok Falls campsite. I was the only one there, so it was like I owned the falls for the night. I explored the area and took tons of photos.
It was a little windy, but there were no thunderstorms as predicted. The soil was rocky so it was hard to put stakes in the ground. So, I ended up putting rocks on my tent to help hold it down. When I went to bed found my first blister near my big toe. Other than that, it was a pretty good day.