There’s nothing like hiking in the rain! When I’d planned this little trip, the forecast called for nice weather. As our departure day drew close, it changed to rain for today. I laid out my rain gear, but forgot my coat. While it was supposed to be 65 F (18.3 C) degrees – not that cold – it was supposed to rain the entire day. Not good.
So last night I bought a light poncho, then decided this morning (while it was pouring) that I needed more protection. So we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Ashland en route to our rendezvous with trail angels Bob and Jan Zeilenga and I got a raincoat. Good call!
Bob and Jan are lovely folks who shuttled us from the trailhead in Drummond – where we’ll end Sunday morning and dropped our car – back to the trailhead on Kornstead Road. They live in Florida most of the year, but have a home near Lake Owen here and volunteer with the NCT because the trail passes so close to their home. How kind of them!
Making Our Way to the Marengo Shelter
It was raining pretty hard when they dropped us off. Oh well, at least it was warm out! As hikes in the rain go, this wasn’t so bad because it was a warm rain. And it kept the mosquitoes away. Still, it’s never great because you can’t see much and can’t enjoy any snack breaks or lunch. It was especially hard on this trail because there are no benches trailside anywhere. There weren’t even good rocks or tree stumps to sit down on or set our packs when we stopped – and we didn’t want to set them in the mud. Oh – the other positive is that several bridges are out, necessitating wet-water crossings. But that didn’t matter since our feet were wet anyway!
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We had maybe a one-hour break from the rain about 4-5 p.m., but then it really began to pour again. Our original plan had been to camp at Beaver Lake campground. But it was raining hard when we reached that spot about 3 p.m., and we didn’t want to set up camp in the rain. So we opted to push on another 5 miles (8.1 km) to the Marengo Adirondack shelter, which is just past an old Swedish settlement.
Day Is Done
Various mileage signs we saw along the way contradicted our maps, so that was frustrating. How many miles did we have left?! Of course it was more than we thought/hoped, but eventually we reached the shelter at 7 p.m. Athena/Milkweed was there for the second night, she said. Milkweed graciously made room for us and let us use her clothesline and enjoy her fire. We shared some fresh veggies, cheese and coffee with her.
Although the rain had stopped, we got chilled quickly once we stopped moving. So I headed down to the river and washed up, then put on dry clothes. Our dinner tasted great after our long, difficult day. Tomorrow should be better!
Snowshoe and Stubs
WI NCT miles today: 19 (30.6 km)
WI NCT miles to date: 51.2 (82.4 km)
Total NCT miles to date: 562 (904.5 km)
Total NCT miles to go: 4,038 (6,498.5 km)
After trying many rain ponchos over the years, I find this one by Frogg Toggs works the best when it’s raining hard or all day.
