Pictured Rocks and Realization

The drive to Munising was largely uneventful.  I counted wildlife sightings to pass the time.  Live animals included: red fox, whitetail deer, wild turkey, and skunk.  I saw several dead porcupines.  Unfortunately the road kill outnumbered the former.

 Sand Point Lighthouse, Escanaba

I picked up the camping permit and continued on to the meeting spot, driving H-58 to Grand Marais.  Armed with the regional snacks of my childhood (Dill Pickle chips, I loooove you!), I leisurely made my way there.  I stopped at a deserted campground for the facilities.  A car pulled up while I was inside.  After just two minutes there, I emerged to see two naked teens “wrestling” on the back seat.  They parked right next to me so it was hard to not notice what was going on.  I was only there for a few minutes and found myself wondering, “how did they get undressed so fast?”.  It didn’t bother me what they were doing.  So weird.  They didn’t notice me get in my car and drive away.

I stopped a few other places to get a preview of the trail.  I think it’ll be easy enough that I’ll want to run it instead.  If only my hiking buddy were a runner.  I think the trail as it is might stretch his abilities, he’s kinda just jumping into it without any experience/training at all.  He’s not a regular exerciser either.  I admire people that do things like that: jump into a multi-day activity on guts alone.

Speaking of my buddy, Tyler and I are basically acquaintances, although there are at least five ways we know each other.  The U.P. is a tiny place.  Basically, he’s the friend of my college roommate, Amber; I often rode back home from college with his sister, Danielle; he is good friends with several of the people I know from the U.P. music community; he and I took the same major and had a lot of the same classmates and professors, etc. etc.  Hubby didn’t like the idea of being replaced, by anyone, male or female, and he found it odd that I would go on a trip without him because his desire for backpack trips is usually met by my stubborn resistance, “can’t we just go trail running instead?”.

Lake Superior beach.

With Matt’s and Tyler’s fiancee’s blessing, I had a pack buddy.  Don’t worry Matt, I just realized how heavy my pack is without you carrying all the dense things, I’ll really need you back soon!!

Nearing our rendez-vous point, I smelled a faint and familiar scent.  First like leaves, then burned popcorn, and then I finally placed it as my brain registered the scent: wildfire.  There’s a fire burning about 60 miles southwest of here in the Seney National Wildlife Refuge and the brisk southwest wind carried the cloud of smoke over the Grand Sable Lake.  Just one hour of exposure and I had that same intense headache I used to get when the Fairbanks summers were too dry and we were suddenly surrounded by wildfires and smoke clouds.  Please let the wind shift.

I really enjoyed having the time to myself to sort out my training ideas.  As much as I’d love a do-over race, to really test myself, I think I am going to pass on it.  Nothing really works well logistically and it would come down to an entirely supplemental vacation, something to the tune of $800, and I have better ways to spend that than another road marathon.  But the biggest thing that got me was I’d have to abandon all my original plans for the remaining time here.  I don’t spend much time each year in the U.P. and I really would love to run myself ragged in exploration than hang out in the house tapering.  I want to explore and worry about dealing with the fatigue when I get back home.  So that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. 

Adventure #1 begins tomorrow as I backpack the 44 mile Pictured Rocks portion of the North Country trail.  This will be my longest backpack trip ever and broken up into segments of 12,16,16 daily miles.  And those two sixteen mile days will be a new backpacking distance PR (but a lot flatter terrain that I have ever done, so it should be okay).

I’m hoping that the fatigue from the Green Bay Marathon will start me worn out enough that I don’t completely kill my hiking buddy.