Tuesday, March 27, 2012

NCT adventures in Wisconsin!

Sunday morning after leaving Namakagon CG, we stopped to hike the North Country Trail from NFS road 202 and headed east. At the chainsaw safety certification was several NCT club members in attendance and they said this section was nice with many overlooks. With the leaves not out yet, the overlooks were indeed quite nice!
These overlooks really were great!
I'm a waterdog and don't need no stink'n bridge.
The Swedes had homesteaded here in the 1880's
A nice shelter was located very near the river.
Maybe we should come back to camp here sometime?
Ya, this was a great little hike.

Monday, March 26, 2012

CAMBA trail fun

This weekend we headed west to Cable Wisconsin after hearing CAMBA along with the National Forest Service, was offering chain saw certification classes so volunteers could operate saws on NFS property. They were kind enough to let out-or-town friends to take the same course!  You know how I love the CAMBA trails and right now their becoming an IMBA affiliated club.
They really have done some good things with their trails here!!
Oh ya, these NFS guys even scratched my ears.  You know I LOVE that!
After class room instructions, they hit the woods to cut things!
They look pretty serious here.

While Arly was in classes, Sandy and I hiked trails near Namakagon. This is Sisyphus rock, a trail feature.   Ya we can do it.

I love these trails!
This was the official start of our camping season.
Behind snow adventures, camping is close to my favorite!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Black River Harbor fish adventures!

After our waterfall hike, (see previous post) we stopped at BR harbor and saw many commercial  fishing boats tied up. While there, we watched one come back to the dock.  Apparently this is the good fishing area this time of the year. I love fishy stuff!
A bird feeder?
In the narrow channel he comes.
We seen a Otter while here.


All the boat sterns are outboard because the river's
 current is really moving.

The bottom boat is the "Three Suns" and owned by the Peterson's, who we buy all our fish from here in Houghton. Hummmmm fishy stuff.

NCT Black River falls hike near Ironwood, MI

Off to Ironwood to get our taxes done and while there we hiked down the North Country trail to see the water falls roaring in spring on the Black River.   There are 5 falls long a 6 mile stretch of this gorgeous little river.   Wow! This was a great 4.5 mile hike!  We did another 5 miles back to the bread box Honda which made for a long and tiring hike, even for a  adventure dog.  Please note we didn't get to see all the falls, nor get good photos of the ones we did see.
I see the path to adventure.  Let's go!

Ya, bridges make me nervous.



Looks like we go THIS way.


The last of ice falls can still be seen here.
My pack stops for a break.
Rushing water makes me stay close for comfort!
White water kayakers do come down this.  But we didn't see any today!

Back to the BB Honda!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Could be the last Churning Rapids BC adventure!!

With warm spring weather moving in here, the pack slipped back into Churning Rapids to get in another and could be our last, Back Country ski.

Even adventure dogs have a limit to their bravery!
This is a bike trail,  most of the skiing we did was on these.


Scary decent for other pack members?

Ski trail is looking good,,, but definitely spring conditions.

Snow is skimpy here.

But still good here!


Snow dogs do like to bound through it!

Oh ya and bathe in it.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Black Creek showshoe adventures

With a rather warm forecast, the pack headed north to snowshoe in to Black Creek.


Lots of friendly people had been here.

Now where's the dog?
Seems like we keep losing her.


Just give me the order,, I'll jump in!

On the shore.  Darn little shove ice was seen.

Sometimes adventure dogs, aren't that brave.



I was warm, so bathing was needed.   Snow baths are the best!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Adventures near (former) Norwich Mine

With spring fast approaching, the pack wanted to head to the hills in Ontonagon county. We wanted to hike on the Lake Superior Shore shove ice, but recent photos of that showed it to be low and unspectacular. So we decided to try something snowier. This pack only likes spectacular adventures, after all.
We hadn't been on this section of the Trap Hills before.
We started out going up...and up...and up...
We were rewarded with a great view at the top.
You can see that Lake Superior is ice-free.

We'd never seen these very old NCT markers before.
Up we hiked again, and yet another great view.
Trail dogs don't need no stinkin' map to find adventure!

Creek crossings can sometimes be a scary adventure.
Oh wait, I love water!


At lunch time I was hunting up some grub...


...but that turned up empty. Boy does that fishy stuff smell good!
The Norwich Mine. I think I smell guano...


After a few hours, we hopped onto this Forest Service road.

The pack needed (another!) break.

The last stretch back to the car.

This is Victoria Road. We drove out on it last fall.
Only a few snowmobiles had been on it.

Finally, the end! I can't believe you need those things on your feet.
All-paw drive is way better.