Trail Clearing on the Kek!

After Hiking 50 miles in 48 hours with no training, almost dying in the Tuscobia 75 (http://www.tuscobiaultra.com/) from hypothermia due to an electrolyte imbalance, and racing 75 miles of the Arrowhead 135 (http://www.arrowheadultra.com/index.php) in -37 degree temperatures with a 40lbs sled in 31 hours, I decided to go on some “Fun” trips. I thought a great way to start off the spring with a “Fun” trip would be by leading a nice easy 30 mile 3 day backpacking/Trail clearing trip on the Kekicabic trail with the Boundary Waters Advisory Committee, an outdoors club committed to maintaining the trials of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). We would be backpacking in to mark the sections of trail which were either hard to follow due to the large fires in 2006 and 2007 or had a large number of dead falls. We managed to recruit 7 volunteers for the adventure.

The Kekakabic trail, originally built by the CCC to resupply a fire tower on Lake Kekakabic, the trail runs through the BWCAW, a wilderness area in Northern Minnesota. Due to the wilderness designation no motorized vehicles or machinery such as chainsaws can be used on the trail. The beginning of the trail is well maintained and is also part of the Centennial Trail, newly created by the National Forest Service in celebration of its 100th anniversary. On the Centennial trail are old Iron mines, railroad beds, and donkey trails to see. Once off the Centennial trail and out of the river lowlands the trail takes to the ridges and has been scorched by two high intensity fires over the past five years. Large swaths of bedrock show through where the thin soil has been eroded away by rain and wind. Blackened trunks of a once dense forest stand bare in the wind and long grasses lay dead on the ground from the past winter obscuring potential trail hazards.
We began our adventure Thursday evening with a harrowing drive up the gunflint trail to a cabin donated to our trail cleanup effort by Gunflint Wilderness Outfitters. With the warm spring weather pushing against the snow pack from record snowfalls last winter, there was extremely dense fog. Visibility was limited at times to 10 feet or less. There were a number of instances where we narrowly missed hitting a deer or driving off the road. We finally reached the cabin around two in the morning. After a long day at work and a longer drive, six plus hours, up north we were all glad to hit the sack.

Morning came early but the excitement for the anticipated 12 miles of rugged backcountry hiking pushed any weariness from our bodies. We could not have asked for better weather, overcast and in the 50s, it was perfect for hiking. Reaching the trail head just after 9am, making only one or two wrong turns along the way, we had a safety talk, assigning a lead hiker and sweeper.

Our first pack stop was at miner’s lake, the site of the only mine in the area to harvest useable iron ore, only one car full. The first section went slower than expected due to

all the historical sites to see along the Centennial trail. As we continued down the trail, we passed where we would camp the second night. Around noon we lost the

trail for the fir

st time as we approached a large beaver dam and river crossing. We scouted out the area looking for the best place to cross. There was a section of the river wh

ere someone had built up a stone causeway and the crossing turned out to be fairly easy. We decided to stop to pump water, have a snack and remarked the trail for future groups.

Instead of having lunch at noon, only three hours into our 9 hour day we pushed on knowing that after lunch groups travel half the speed as before lunch. As the day wore on age and the different fitness levels am

ong group members began to show. The frequency of water breaks increased there were more resting steps and our pace slowed considerably. The situation was not helped by the fact that the condition of the trail was deteriorating as we moved further from civilization. The number of deadfalls increased and the trail was slowl

y being reclaimed by a rising lake. Climbing up away from the lake, everyone needed a rest so we stopped for

lunch. I eat some Hudson’s Bay, a granola bar with about 2000 calories which I learned to make while guiding at Northern Tier National High Adventure base, and snacked on peanut m&ms.

The hour long lunch break helped to revitalize both our bodies and spirits. With a little more spring in our step we started with a new found desire to reach our goal,

the Agomok Bridge. Unfortunately like many plans, things did not go as we had hoped. Before long the trail once again began to wear on us, it became painfully visible that our goal w

as just a little more than the group’s abilities. As we reached the campsite at Lake Gabimichigami, 2.5 miles short of our goal, we decided the prudent choice was to make camp for the night and enjoy what was left of the evening.

My tenting partner and I set up his Madraque 23, a great two man backpacking tent, and laid out our Beeline Sleeping bags. As I fired up my MSR Drag

onfly, it was interesting to see the different cooking approaches. For this shorter, easier trip, I had just chosen my standard go to meal of Hamburger helper and brought along a trail oven to make muffins each night. Nick, another associate at The North Face Minneapolis, had been working two days to dehydrate food in an attempt to have the most creative meals. The third cook group, every one over 35, went with Mountain House boiling water in a JetBoil. They said it boiled water in 2 minutes flat. The only question was “how much water can you boil in two minutes?”

After dinner we built a nice fire under the fire grate, you can only build fires under a fire great in the BWCAW, and talked about the events of the day. Most people went to bed once dusk had settled and as darkness encircled the rest of us, we thought it would be best to make it an early night.

It was a cold night, one of the guys had a thermometer which showed 26 degrees, but I stayed plenty warm in my Beeline even though it is only rated to 30. With the temperature so low it was a struggle to get out of my warm sleeping bags in the morning, I am pretty sure I was the last one up. Breakfast went slowly and we took our time packing up. Two of the slower hikers got a head start, feeling that they were slowing the group down.

Only needing to hike part of the way out, we took our time. We stopped often for water breaks and picked up old flagging tape. Many of the trees which had been previously flagged had fallen down during the winter or the flagging tape had been torn off after it had degraded in the sun. We eat lunch at the river crossing from the previous day and enjoyed the blue skies and sixty degree weather. As we approached our campsite for the night we suddenly came to a dead end, the trail just disappeared into a lake. Once again we scouted around to find where the trail had gone. Spreading out across the hillside there was no sign of the clear trail we had hiked on the day before. One person went up to explore the ridge line and found our missing trail. I ran back down the trail to see where we had gone wrong. In our excitement about the great weather and moving down an open trail, we had missed a turn off and walked down a portage trail ending at the lake.

The campsite we stayed at was much larger than the previous night. It was very open looking almost like a nicely manicured back hard with smooth areas of bare rock. Taking our packs off, we lay down in the grass and rested a while. Nick and my tent mate decided to go swimming. Ice was just out so I thought this was a crazy Idea but they pulled their shirts off and ran in to the forty degree water boots and all!

That night we had a much larger fire, sitting around telling stories of our previous trips, everyone was in much better sprits having not been totally exhausted during the day’s hiking. One of the older guys had been to 49 of the 50 highest peaks in each state and hiked extensively in the Rockies. When the stars came out it was spectacular. I stayed up to enjoy the wonderful night after everyone else had gone back to their tents. Being the last night, as always, it was a little bitter sweet having to return to civilization the next day.

Nick pushed us to get up early and get out quickly the next morning. We wanted to eat lunch in Grand Marais on the way back. Having been given a hard time about being the last ones pack the previous morning my tent mate and I were the first packed this morning, even though we were the last up. It was a short two hour hike out mostly downhill on a well worn trail, well worn compared to where we had been hiking the previous two days. As we hiked the final mile I tried to take in as much of the North Country as I could, it is always difficult leaving, knowing you will not make it back for another month or two.

Slowly loading the car I thanked everyone for a great trip, no one was injured, and we headed off for Lunch in town. Even with having to cut things short, only 20 of the 30 planned miles, it was a great trip. We had cleaned up the flagging tape on the trail and moved some deadfalls out of the way. Most importantly we made some new friends and great memories!