Trail magic!

Day 21 was a zero day in Rib Lake and Butch surprised us by inviting us to lunch! Trail magic!! We happily accept and he drives us to the cutest little restaurant “Hill of Beans” located in Highpoint village. It’s not even open today but since Butch works there once and a week and is friends with the owner we get special treatment. We feel like celebraties! We have a lovely visit and a nice chat with two other locals. What a treat!

 

Type 2 fun

The next day Butch is supposed to pick us up at 7:30 and I’m rushing to get packed up in time. What a relief when he turns out to be a bit delayed. Not so fun for him however since he had a flat tire this morning.

We make it back to the trail sometime after 8 and it’s raining again. We put the pack covers and rain jackets on with the added accessory of the bug net. The mosquitos are out in full force.

The trail is pretty soggy from yesterday’s rain and it doesn’t take long for our feet to get wet.

The rain lets up but the mosquitos don’t and they soon are joined by the ticks. They like to latch on to my socks. Inside and outside of my sandals.

There are several beaver dams and more swampy trail. Now our shoes and socks are soaked and I walk straight through the puddles. Sometimes I sink a little deeper than expected and soon both ankles are covered in mud water.

While we are slogging through another flooded area next to a beaver dam, we see another hiker, she is out for the day and hiking without a head net, I’m impressed.

We need to take a break somewhere but there is nowhere good to sit. We settle for a gravel/grassy road with no relief from the mosquitos. We cover our legs with our rain skirts to protect them and keep the head nets on. I fit my hand and my food inside the net for bug free feeding. I take my sandals off and find three ticks on my socks.

After lunch we have a bit of nice walking but then we follow wet, boggy ski trails with tall grass. Our shoes are so water logged at the end, we are not amused.

The tick total for today is 12 for me and 3 for Little Bird who has permethrined her shoes before this trip.

We are very relieved to get to our intended camp site for the night. It’s not as big or flat as we had expected but it will do for the night. Safely inside the tent we can finally relax. Today was not much fun.