Day 6
Location: Spruce Creek
Distance: 14 miles
Weather: Cold and damp
Mood: Is cold and damp also a mood?
The view over Grand Marais, our first resupply town
Someone once told me that long distance backpacking is just a bunch of long-weekend length trips strung together. By that standard we've finished our first trip! And today also markes this the official longest backpacking trip either of us has been on, by miles or duration! We passed through Grand Marais yesterday and shopped for food for our next 4 days until we reach the town of Tofte. We also had a great taco lunch at a restaurant in town and break recharged, but paid for our indulgence with a 1000 ft climb back to the top of the ridge. At least there's a view!
The weather turned two nights ago and we've got lots of cold wet air coming in from the North. We've been getting temperatures closer to the averages we expected in mid October! I don't have the exact low temp where we camped that night but my guess is upper 30s down in the canyon near the river. With the off and on rain, that makes for some damp, cold mornings. We met a nobo (northbound) thru hiker yesterday coming the other way who said the temperatures the past few nights to the south had been "unbearable" and there were lots of blown down trees. By reflex we shared that the mosquitos were terrible the way he was headed. When we found a log entry he left in one of the trail logbooks a few miles later, he mentioned how bitterly cold his nights had been. I wished I had told him something about how beautiful his next sections of trail would be instead of returning the complaint! I hope he's out there feeling a little warmer, or at least feeling good that the northern terminus is within reach!
Today we got quite a bit of rain as we were hiking and hitting another 1000 ft climb. Not the most fun but we stayed warm and relatively dry. The rain paused just as we we reached camp, at least giving us the reprieve to set up tents! We're sharing the site with a couple groups of section hikers in for the weekend. Today we also had a quick trail visit from a friend back home in Madison, whose spouse is running an ultramarathon further south on the trail. It brightened my day to see a familiar face despite the rain - thanks for hiking uphill to find us!!
I'm writing this holed up in my tent as the rain began again. Tomorrow is a short day, our first rest day in the trip. We'll just walk the two miles to the next site and spend the rest of the day relaxing and refueling for the longer mileage days to come this week. Intro week is done and hopefully warmer weather on the horizon for next week! Despite the cold and damp, we're still finding lots to love out here and looking forward to the next phase.
