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Hiking Reflections: Journey in the Porkies
Hiking Reflections: Journey in the Porkies
By Orville Chomer
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Hiking
The Team from left to right: Me,Joe,Mike, and Greg
(Bob is taking the picture)
Am I an experienced hiker? A competent camper? Well I've hiked. I've made mistakes.
Mistakes count for experience. Competent?
You think you're in good hands...
Mike, our fearless leader. In his younger days he'd hike all over the place. By himself.
Now let me tell you Mike is BIG. He's the kind of guy you'd like to have around in
someone is mad at you. His very presence commands respect. Muscles, a ratty straw
"hill-billy" hat. He had done some hiking around the Porkies before. He and a young
guy name Dan had gone up to the upper peninsula of Michigan to check things out.
In this story you will find out about big Mike!
THE TRIP UP
We all were supposed to meeting in Madison Wisconsin at a friend's house there.
I was driving up from the Chicagoland area. It rained on an off as I drove up.
Finally I got to Scott's house--he's the friend-- and found out that not only
were the others who were hiking not there, but Scott and his family weren't
there either! Fortunately they had left the door unlocked for the first arrivals.
Interesting to note was the fact that as I entered Madison we were getting some
heavy thunder storms. As I was getting close to reaching Scott's house the
tornado sirens were going off. I drove in front of one and boy! Was it loud!
At Scott's I waited, It was rather boring. I stared out the window at the pouring
rain.
Finally Scott and clan arrived home. Not more that moments later the siren went off
again. Scott hussled us all to the basement. And there we waited. I think Mike came
while we were down there. Well, the storm quieted down, we went back upstairs, evening
wore on, and we went to sleep on the floor of the living room. Gradually through the
night, different members of our hiking party arrived. They quietly put down their
bedding of the floor and dozed off.
The next day after breakfast, we were all ready to go. There as big Mike, there was Bob,
there was Greg and Joe, and of course me. It was decided that we were going in Mike's
van and Bob's old boat of a car. Bob and I went together and everyone else went in
Mike's van. We formed a two vehicle convoy.
First on our list of things to do was rappeling in Devil's Lake State Park. Mike and
Bob had done it before and had training doing it. They were going to show the rest
of us how to perform such feats. They had never been to Devil's Lake before.
Devil's Lake is about an hour and a half drive from Madison and soon we were in the
park at the entrance. When Mike found out where the rappeling was done and how
far we'd have to lug the equipment, the rappeling was off. "We'll see what we can do
in the Porcupine's."
THE FIRST NIGHT
When we finally pulled into the park the sun was getting low in the sky.
No camping on the trail the first night. No living out of our packs.
No getting our water from the lake or a mountain stream. No we were living
it up at the family campground. Drinking water, flush toilets, picnic tables, easy road
access, the works!
We put up our tents just in the nick of time (it was getting hard to see).
I found out that my two-man tent seemed to be more of a two child tent and
I had to lay down in it at a 45 degree angle. Yes, I know, I should have
set it up in the yard at home before I started this little expedition!
We had a hard time finding fire wood in the woods near by so we ended up
buying some from the little park office down the road. ...It was over-priced
of course... All in all we got a fire going, made a decent dinner, and
generally relaxed.
It was neat to hear well, Nothing. That is nothing but ourselves, the other
campers, the crackle of the campfire. No sounds of expressways, no background
noise of the city. Just the crisp silence of the woods. And the silence went
along with the air. The air was cool and clean. The air was fresh.
As darkness fell, I was suprised at how cold it became!
We put our food in the van. This is bear country after all. The garbage cans
and recycling bins we passed are the special bear-proof kind. All us younger
guys were having bear images dancing through our heads. What if a bear
lumbered through our camp site? Would he bother us? What if I heard something
outside our tent? Also the bugs were to making their appearance. Bob and Mike
were trying garlic pills. I wanted no hocus pocus. I brought insect repelant
lotion. This stuff worked pretty well (at least compared to every one else!)
DAY 1
Most of us woke up a little late (except me... I was too cold). Hey! I thought
it was going to be warm up here! After all, its' the end of July!
Everyone was a little slow going. In my opinion we were too firmly intrenched in
this "campsite." Breakfast seemed to take forever and getting everyone to
break camp was time consuming. And the packs! Let's not forget the back packs!
It seemed to take ages: Getting out the supplies, determining who was going to
carry what. The packs weight too much --more on this later-- I was glad that my
pack was one of the smaller ones so I had to carry less. I had a sheet to cover
me at night and a foam bed roll to put under me (very inadiquate).
Greg, Bob, and Mike preparing breakfast
This isn't roughing it!
Finally we were ready to begin. Stuff which wasn't going with us went in Mike's
van and Bob's car. We drove to the parking lot for back packers. We were ready to
sally forth! What were we getting into? Hey! These packs are heavy!
Bob,Joe, and Greg in the parking lot near the trail head
Are you Okay there Greg?
The beginning of the trail was touristy. Nice level paths. And where the
path couldn't be level, they put in nice board walks with interconnecting
stairs. Alot of people were about. The board walk led down to the river.
It was the Presque Isle River. Although we planned to, we never saw
the Big Carp River and the Little Carp River. This river, the one in the
picture, pours out into
Lake Superior a couple hundred
yards or so from the spot you see in the picture below. At that point
(near the Lake) it is relatively calm. Some rocks "block" the entrance
to the lake of the river. This is only partial, and the river is actually
low and would normally cover the rocks in the Spring.
I asked, "How did those rocks get there?" The answer I got made sense.
The continual surf of Lake Superior pushed them off the bottom up against
the shore line (including across the river outlet).
The Presque Isle River
Clicking on it will bring up a great wallpaper! (124 KB)
Greg resting early on.
Hiking along Lake Superior Trail.
Stopping to adjust packs in a dry river bed.
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Crossing small stream over a "bridge?"
Does it seem like I'm the last in line by these pictures?
View from bluff overlooking Lake Superior.
(Also our camp site)
As we settled into our new home, one thing became important: Where were the
facilities? The comfort station. The outhouse. We found a little sign that
showed us that we on the right track (pictured below).
After one of my fellow adventures returned from using the facilities, he pointed
me in the right direction and said, "Wait until you see it!"
After tromping through the woods a couple hundred yards, I saw it in the distance.
It was not what I expected! Instead of a smelly out building, on top of a little
hill in the midst of the woods was a round black cylinder sticking approx 2 feet
out of the ground. Covering that was a toilet seat. So much for privacy!
As it turned out, I found that this kind of out house is better than the normal
closed up stinky kind. There is plenty of ventilation so the smell is minimized.
And I never saw a soul back there the entire week (No hiker came trapsing by
while I had my drawers dropped)!
One thing to note is that you didn't dawdle lest you were eaten alive by the skeeters!
DAY 2
The zombies awake--late. All but me. I froze. The fool went without a sleeping bag and
froze in his little one-man tent. Sleep comes hard when you are really uncomfortable.
It must have been around 50 degrees that night (the coldest it seemed was just before
sunrise). Oh if only I had bought, begged, or stolen a sleeping bag! As the sun rose over
the tree-tops, and as a couple of hours went by, the air warmed and I lay my exhausted
body down and slept.
Even then we all slept in. It seemed that every single muscle in our bodies ached.
Finally we got up and had breakfast. All thought of getting up and going hiking was
absurd. We hung around the camp site all day. We'd mosy down the path that ran down
the bluff to the rocky beach. We'd sit in the sun. We'd ache and wonder if we really
knew what we were doing. I wondered how I was going to survive the coming night.
Greg working at getting the mud out of his jeans
(This is at the foot of the bluff where we were camped)
During the day Greg cleaned his muddy jeans in Lake Superior. He looked comically
domestic to me. But he did seem to have some measure of success. Gradually, throughout the
day, we set up camp. Bob and Mike made benches out of drift-wood around an area set up
for cooking. When they cooked they used their portable propane stove. The wind would come
gusting off the lake and blow the stove out so they took a tarp, some twine, and lo and
behold some duct-tape and constructed a wind-break. It worked just great.
This way to the "outhouse."
Sign provides direction to the nearby facilities.
Bob russles up some grub in our "kitchen."
DAY 3
DAY 4
Lessons Learned
1. Be more interested in planning so that the experience is good rather than
proving our masculinity.
2. Check the tent I use out in the back yard before taking it out camping.
3. Don't over-pack. And don't go too far in one stretch so that you don't need to pack
as much.
4. Bring a sleeping bag (even in the summer). You can always not use it if it is too
warm. And it will be there if its too cold.
5. Don't bite off too much, we're here to enjoy nature (we're not in Basic Training)
we're not preparing for a war (we're supposed to be having fun)!
Wildlife Seen (More or Less)
Bald Eagles
Loons
.... No Porcupines!
Although we didn't see any bears, we did see their footprints and where they were digging
in the trees for bugs to eat!
We saw beaver dams... though no beavers.
Where everybody is now...
Mike: He's doing rappeling with some teens in Shawnee National Forest this summer.
Greg: Still sells insurance and has married a friend named Gina.
Bob: His knee is better I believe, his son is planning on working in web developement
here in Chicago.
PORCUPINE MOUNTAIN LINKS
Porcupine Mountain State Park
Trail Map (From Same Site Above)
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Copyright ©1998 by Orville P. Chomer
