National Trails Day in Copper Harbor

Tammi and Dee raking on the Dancing Bear trail in Copper Harbor.

No blog entry yesterday . . . no, I was out making the story happen. It all started at 6 a.m. when I dragged my butt out of bed for National Trails Day. I gathered my gear, had a healthy breakfast, made a healthy lunch, filled the Camelbak, and hopped in the Pathfinder to head for the Ace Hardware in Calumet. I had to pick up a wheelbarrow that is completely unrelated to the rest of this story.

I arrived in Copper Harbor to see the usual faces and the faces I haven't seen since last summer. I exchanged hellos, bear stories, and hugs with my trail friends. I even met up with Dee, a friend of my friend, Erin. Dee and I hit it off right away and formed a new friendship on the greatest of all trail days.

Everyone donned bug nets and were assigned tasks. The temperature reached at least 70 degrees F and, combined with the bug suits and hard labor, caused some serious sweating. One person on another crew suffered heat exhaustion. I immediately started sweating buckets. It felt like I was in a shower.


Dee working on Dancing Bear.

My team consisted of Dee, fellow Red Jacket, Tammi, and myself. Sam drove us to the bottom of Dancing bear with rakes and loppers in hand. The three of us spent several hours raking a thick leaf layer off of the trail and we trimmed back the bushes and trees that were intruding on the trail space. By the time we reached the top of Dancing Bear, I was exhausted, super thirsty, and ready to just get the job done. We had only two rakes, so we traded jobs. I took a raking rest during the top stretch of Dancing Bear and grabbed a rake as we headed onto the Red Trail. I made the decision that we were going to spot rake the Red Trail. Most of the leaf litter was from pine trees and really didn't affect the visibility of the trail. We removed the deciduous leaf litter from the trail and Dee and I raked all of the loose gravel off of the elbow turn. It was my goal to give the more potentially dangerous sections of trail a good cleaning off, and we met that goal. The rest of the two-mile trail was a long, slow hike.


Tammi and Dee atop a giant boulder alongside the Red Trail. A little trail leaves the Red Trail to encircle the boulder. It's amazing what you see when you're not riding a bike.

I ate a sandwich before Dancing Bear, one on the top stretch of Dancing Bear, and a Luna bar towards the end of the Red Trail. I was quite disappointed to find that my Camelbak was sucked dry at that point. It was at this point that Dee and Tammi were getting their feet wet in Lake Manganese.


Dee and Tammi crossing the bridge at the end of the Red Trail. The winter weather had pushed the bridge to the right of the picture. It is normally a straight bridge. It's on the trail crew's todo list.

We hustled like turtles down the road to the Harbor and stopped by the Manganese Falls on the way down. Even though I was dead tired and craving Gatorade like a dog craves a big, fat, juicy steak, I insisted Dee see this great sight since she is only a visitor to the Keweenaw.

Manganese Falls.

Manganese Falls.

We met the rest of the trail crew back at the Keweenaw Adventure Company around 4:30 p.m. We were out there for six and a half hours. That sure explains how we felt. Dinner at the Mariner was to begin at 7 p.m. Some of the guys decided to go ride the trails and Dee and I decided to grab some beverages at the local store. I bought chocolate milk, which disappeared within five seconds of my opening the bottle, Gatorade, and some iced tea. Dee and I shared a bag of bugles on the front porch at the Adventure Company. The black flies were still coming after us, so we headed all the way across the street to Zik's bar for some cold brew.

After a pint, we headed back to the house and chatted with our Adventure Company friends until dinner time. Sam and I opened a couple of KBC Ambers and Rachel caught me up on her summer plans. When 7:00 rolled around, we meandered over to the Mariner for a filling spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, it was fun and partying at Zik's with a live band: the Blackflies. Yes, they got their name in Copper Harbor.

At closing time, we all headed back to the house to chat a bit. After some very strong encouragement to stay the night and hang out and ride the next day, Dee and I both parted ways and went home. We told everyone we'd come back for a weekend camping trip in two weeks. The only problem is that I have races for the next three weekends and Dee leaves in three weeks. We might have to make it a partial weekend camping trip. We'll see. It'll happen. There is nothing like hangin' in the Harbor.