Camping/Hiking

Back from Camping trip...
The Kekekabic trail was closed, so MK (our leader) changed the trip plan a week before we left but we didn't know the plan until Sunday (5 days before we left). Turned out we would go to Eagle Mountain to do some trail clearing, and hike Brule/Eagle mountain trails to find a new campground near fishhook lake. As you can imagine the week before we left for camping was a hectic week: every day after work we had to shop for camp gear at different places. MK provided us with the list of camp gear...dang there were more than 50 items we had to buy since we didn't have any of the proper camp gear. REI(www.rei.com) was really happy since we got to spend quite a large amount number of money - totally way outside my budget. WHAT DID I THINK WHEN I SAID 400$???

Monday: We met Pra at the store and were looking for backpack, this basically took the entire evening and we ended up renting our backpacks from REI instead of spending 200$ for each backpack. I didn't rent mine from the same store because I was not sure yet if I would like to buy it or not. We also found a new cheaper priced Sakkio at the mall and bought shoes for Russian's mom.

Tuesday: We decided to split out from Pra and Jal, we went to different branch of REI, and got us bunch of hiking shoes and sandal. We also tried different stores such as fleet farm and Wal-Mart for cheaper price items.

Wednesday: I went to work early, so I could leave early...
I went to buy camping clothes (everything that was not cotton) - reason: if we get wet, it will dry quickly. Then I bought myself a dress from Banana Republic.
Then we joined Pra and Jal at MK's place to learn more about what to pack, hiking trail and meet time since we would leave a day after him. This was the first time we met him and Paul.

Thursday: We went to our civil ceremony for our wedding then dined with our friends (who could make to our wedding) and then did the last shopping for our camping. Finally we got to rent our tent - sooo lucky that someone canceled their trip - and the name was Lily - waoo coincidence that other Lily knew that I needed the tent for this trip.

Friday: Left work early, and did final packing, and started the journey to camp ground - approx 5 hours. We had to pass Duluth - we needed to get to Sawbill. For dinner, we stopped at Burger King, Russian ordered whopper Jr, Mocha Joe and lamb from previous night's dinner, L ate other left-overs from yesterday dinner, P and J ate veggie burgers and shared fries.

We finally made it to the camp ground around 9.30 which was 1 hour too late - we should have left our place around 3 pm, but P and J were late [ahem, no hard feelings] so we left around 4. But we found the message MK left behind the post board which would guide us to their camp ground. So we left a message also for them in case we got lost. The plan was to read the message posted by them and leave them a message so they would know that we made it but we got lost at the campground (they would come back around 10 pm to check if we leave any post for them), then they would once again wait for us at 7.30 am next day. But we made it, we met MK on his way to check our messages.

Our camp ground was number 32 - and we had to setup our tent in the middle of the dark - so we had to use our headlights which turned out really useful item for the entire trip - we got to use it every night. Then we watched the stars before we went to sleep.

Saturday: It was a cold morning, could not sleep peacefully since you could hear everything - including your neighbors. I woke up because I heard P and J talking, and went out to find them, but couldn't. SO I went back to the camp ground, and turned out everyone just woke up. We made our breakfast - Indonesian ramen - and went to rent our canoe, also learned how to carry the canoe and how to drop it. Then we went out on the lake in the canoes, cleared the some trails, ate lunch (energy bars, we had to throw away some spoiled eggs), hiked to the top of a small mountain and canoed back in the middle of the night.

We got to see how beautiful our earth with the stars - no trees are blocking the view since we were in the middle of the lake. Our peaceful time was interrupted by our argument regarding direction - The boss was trying to teach the slave how to canoe. Got really hungry too and our feet got really cold because of the wind and the wetness... but finally we made it to our campground.

Ate Mashed potatoes and chicken noodles and went to sleep - we were exhausted.

Sunday: Woke up, went to the sawbill outfitter to get extra ramen and dried food for the lunch and dinner - we gave our Indonesian noodles to Paul and Dave - so we were in big trouble. We drove to Eagle Mountain and left one of the cars over there, and everyone joined Dave's car and went to Brule lake. We started our hike from here. Russian was a leader for the beginning of this trip - there are always one sweeper and one leader - to trail the path. We stopped a lot for drink, history about the trail and looking different wild plants.

We finally made it to Fishhook lake, and MK showed us how to use a compass, so we could go back to our position after searching around for a new camp ground. We had to go off the trail and into unmaintained wilderness, where pine trees grow everywhere, the branches would slap your face and scratch your arms - like a cat fight between 2 girls. Luckily we wore long sleeves, gloves and safety glasses. They found the new camp ground and left us near the water, we got to enjoy the lake for almost 30 minutes without MK!

But soon enough we had to continue our journey and hike to our last campground. I almost gave up the hiking because my bag was hurting my shoulder badly - the bag I borrowed from REI was a torture tool on my back and shoulders - it had a choking strap! Most of my hike, I didn't strap my bag and had to put the gloves between my shoulders and bag to prevent it from slicing my shoulders. Near the end of the hike, Russian had to help me carry the bag for a moment. Finally after 4 hours we got to our destination. We had to hike in total darkness with no moonlight in the dark wood on the rocky unmaintained trail down the mountain without killing ourselves...

We set our tent, had dinner (teriyaki chicken) delicious -- better than our veggie parmesan (next morning breakfast) and went to sleep.

Monday: Got up early as usual and enjoyed everything around us -- lake by our campground. At night when we got there, we could not really see the lake since we got there quite late already. I pumped the water for cooking and Eagle Mountain hike while Russian was snoozing inside the tent -- the boss had to work.....

We ate our breakfast and hiked to the top of Eagle mountain. The view was beautiful and felt that all the pain and tiredness from the day before was paid off. We enjoyed our quiet time there, took some pictures and had back home. To get to our car, we had to hike 2-3 more hours but it was easier since the bag was not as heavy as before - maybe because we ate all the food or all the weight was transfered to Russian's bag :) benefit of having a slave/husband hehehe