Day 40
Location: Saxon Harbor Campground
Distance: 17 mi
Weather: 60s and sunny
Mood: can't believe we walked this far
500 trail miles today!
Today, we are camping at the Wisconsin/Michigan border, with just two miles left to complete our section hike of the Wisconsin NCT. From there we'll have 64 miles to Lake of the Clouds, our final destination in Michigan's Porcupine Mountains. How does it feel to have walked 500 miles? I kind of can't believe we did it. The trek has been made of little moments of progress that somehow added up to this huge number.
Today's trail was delightful, going past waterfall after waterfall on our way to the roadwalk that makes up the last section on the border. The last bit of trail is new, only completed last week, so we may be the first backpackers along it's northern end. The log books were signed by all the trail crews out during construction, and it seems like it was a massive project, though well worth it form our perspective! Once we hit the road, it was rolling hills as we beelined north for the coast. When Lake Superior finally popped her head over the horizon it was a great moment! A humbling reminder of the sheer size of the inland ocean defining the contours of our journey, that the Minnesota shore lies just 80 miles north, yet it took us 500 miles to walk from there to here! The start and end of our journey are nearly exactly on a North-South line, they are almost at the same longitude. In just 4 days, if all goes well, we'll have made it truly from one side of the lake to the other.
