Huron-Manistee Nat'l Forest (NCT) July 4th backpacking trip (90/67 F)

We spent three nights in the Huron-Manistee Nat'l Forest on the North Country Trail (NCT) near White Cloud, Michigan over the 4th of July weekend. We picked this area because it’s the closest place to Chicago (that I could find) for dispersed camping and because it seemed less popular than other parts of the NCT. We’re trying to be careful with Covid and our adventuring. With that in mind, we did an out and back to avoid needing a shuttle. This was our first trip that was more than an overnight and our first trip where we needed to filter water. So, umm, lots of learning experiences! The weather was crazy hot...over 90 F and humid. And it wouldn’t be the Midwest if there weren’t bugs, so we had those too.

We were trying to mimic what we plan on taking for our August Colorado trip (the reason we started learning to backpack) to have a better feel for what carrying all that crap several days in a row will be like. This meant we had a lot of unnecessary stuff with us for this trip, such as the ursack and liner, street clothes, hats & gloves (hahahaha), and a warm quilt. Sadly, while Chicago’s Covid numbers are doing well, we returned to news of rising numbers in Colorado. Our fingers are crossed that by August things will have settled down there. But I’m working on some closer to home alternatives in the meanwhile. 

Friday, July 3, Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary to Bear Creek (7.5 miles)

We started our trip, as all our trips, by walking somewhere. This time it was a 2.5 mile hike to enterprise to rent a car. (Not included in the 7.5 trail milage for the day.) We arrived ten minutes before opening, but even then we were already the seventh in line. Enterprise has cleverly socially distanced their service by having everyone wait outside, six feet apart (with masks), and then sending representatives out with iPads to process you paper free. The not fun part of this system was standing outside in already 85 degree weather with no shade for an hour. We finally got our car and we’re off. The 3.5 hour drive ended up taking 4.25 hours, but we managed to go non-stop. 

View on our way to enterprise.

We pulled into the Loda Lake Wildlife Sanctuary lot, which was completely empty, around 2:15 pm local time and we gave a cheer when we found a pit toilet. 10 minutes later we had our packs on and had scoped out the trail we wanted - one that followed the lake to Birch Grove Trail, which merged with the NCT. Before we even entered the woods my wrist broke out in hives. Sweet. Glad I refilled the Benadryl. 

Loda Lake

The path by Loda Lake was easy to follow since it has numbered posts to match the map at the entrance. We saw some pretty flowers, but not as much as I expected. Maybe if we had taken one of the interior trails, we would have seen more? Or maybe it was just too late in the year. 

Eventually we ran into what we assumed was Birch Grove Trail since it had white tags (NCT is blue) instead of sign posts. It was a nice woodsy walk with maintained trails to the NCT. In general, the NCT was easy to follow with clear trails and frequent tags. We really appreciated all the shade from the trees given how hot it was. There’s also fairly frequent two track and backroad crossings, which made navigation easier because we could keep track of where we were on the map at the crossings. We learned the downsides of the roads later - like being able to hear cars/dirt bikes while in the middle of the forest.

The NCT went through the forest for awhile longer before crossing an oak savanna and then going back to a forest with a lot of ferns. The oak savannas are really cool, if not really hot in 90 degree weather. 

A little over four miles after merging onto the NCT we came across Bear Creek. This was the first water source after Loda Lake and we tested out the Aquamira. I was very happy that it was a cold, clear creek. The water looked tasty and it was easy to trust the Aquamira on this stuff. As we were filling bottles, a family went by and they were the first people we came across on the trail. I think they were also from Chicago, because there’s a road crossing not too far from Bear Creek with a box for logging visitors. A group of four from Chicago signed right before us. I liked these little boxes and found it fun to look at where the other visitors came from and read their comments. 

Found this tucked into one of the visitor log boxes.

We planned on possibly staying at Bear Creek our third night on the way back, based on a random comment I read on alltrails from some guy who said he stayed near there. I didn’t see any good place on the northern bank where we filled our water. It looked pretty low and damp. But I noticed the side we had come from was higher. I backtracked a bit, this time trying to look for a place to camp and found a side trail we hadn’t noticed on our way to the creek. It led to up to higher ground and a little clearing you can’t see from the trail. It also had an unofficial looking fire pit. I was excited to have found a “pre-made” camp as we were nervous about finding appropriate spots, never having dispersed camp before. (I guess camping on the islands in the Mississippi growing up was technically dispersed camping, but it didn’t feel the same because it was obvious where to camp.) I showed DH the site and we were both relieved to have one of three nights figured out. 

Bear Creek

We continued on another mile to West Michigan Creek, which is where we had intended on staying the night. This was based on a guidebook saying the ridge by this creek was a good spot for dispersed camping. Uhh.... There wasn’t a steep climb up a ridge as described in the book. It was pretty flat next to a small ridge. We climbed up it to see if there were any good spots, but it was a tiny ridge not big enough for our tent. The ridges nearby didn’t look much better. And it was soooo buggy, even on the mini ridge. I think the trail must have changed since the guidebook was written. It looked and felt like a horrible place to camp. We had passed several clearings before the creek, but they were also very buggy. This part of the trail actually turned out to be the buggiest part of the entire trip. We decided it was well worth the extra mile to hike back to Bear Creek for the night and we did so. 

West Michigan Creek

Once we arrived (again) at Bear Creek we were immediately happy with our decision. No mosquitoes yet. I went about setting up the tent and DH went to fill up all the water to filter. I watched a tick crawl up my shin during a break and flicked it off. I guess the Permethrin on my socks/shoes worked because it didn’t bite me and we hadn’t even put on the Picardin lotion yet. I also flicked another one off the tent while inflating the sleeping pad. DH came back and said he had one crawling on his leg while gathering water at the creek. We apparently traded mosquitoes and deer flies for ticks. 

DH also said he saw some hikers were coming down the trail on his way back from getting water. You could see the shoulders on up of the hikers as they went by. This was good in that it made me realize the site wasn’t as set back from or high above the trail as I had thought. They were actually backpackers and asked us if there were any pre-made sites nearby. I replied this one and DH noted the clearings before West Michigan Creek. We should’ve described the bugginess of that area, but we were too busy having a low convo of whether it was good trail etiquette to invite them to join us. There was plenty of space for more tents and to keep our Covid distance in that sense. But the little area around the fire pit was the only good spot to sit and to cook because it was packed dirt rather than dry pine needles. The backpackers started going up into the woods on the other side of the trail so it seemed like they figured it out regardless. I still feel a bit guilty for not offering to share, but it was so hot. We didn’t want close neighbors so we could sleep naked without our fly on. 

Fly draped for privacy vs function. The pines were replanted in perfect rows.

We went back to the task of adding Aquamira to our water. We refilled all four bottles and our two 2 liter platy bottles. (To use for dinner, breakfast, and refilling bottles in the morning.) And we realized afterwards that we had already blown through nearly half the Aquamira. This was 100% my fault and a huge fail. I had repackaged the Aquamira in these cute little LiteSmith bottles, because the normal bottle took up a good bit of DH’s hip belt pocket on our last trip (when we didn’t even use them). Whilst I was repackaging them at home, DH had asked me if that was enough. My super scientific response was the big bottle is good for x gallons, which is a crazy amount of water, and these bottles feel like a third of those bottles, so it will also get us a ton of water. Plus, I underestimated our water needs because I didn’t factor in how much more we would drink due to the heat compared to past trips. 

Our trip was saved because the NCT maps showed which forest service campgrounds had drinking water. There was a campground near the trail by Nichols lake, 6.5 miles into our hike the next day, where we could fill up water to restock on day 2 and 3. The rest of the Aquamira would fill in the gaps. If not for the campground water, we would have had to cut off a night as neither of us wanted to risk drinking unfiltered water. After this experience, we’re going to get a sawyer squeeze and bring the Aquamira as backup. We liked the simplicity of the Aquamira, but now we think having more than one method available is the way to go. ;) 

At this point, it was kind of early for dinner and we were very hot so we decided to go down to the creek to cool off. The cold water of the creek felt like the most amazing thing at that moment. I will try not to complain about the heat nonstop in this report, but I was never dry the entire trip, it was that hot. I think we survived and even enjoyed ourselves, despite the heat, because we hadn’t been using AC yet this summer. We were trying to “adjust” to the heat instead. It partially worked...we definitely got out for walks on days we normally wouldn’t have and the heat doesn’t affect us as much as in prior years, but it hasn’t become comfortable. (We have since caved in and installed a window AC unit in our bedroom to use at night.) We splashed around in the creek until our feet went numb and then we went back to our site for dinner. 

We had nothing much to do after dinner, so we draped the fly over the trail half of the tent and laid down. It felt early going to bed at 8 pm because it wasn’t yet dark, but we were pooped. We had gone to bed late the night before and got up early that morning, so it felt like a long day. I thought I heard a car alarm going off, but realized there was some bird that just happened to sound very similar to one! And sadly Bear Creek was too close to a road, so we could hear vehicles go by every now and then. The forest was busier than I had imagined. About an hour after laying down we heard it...the distinct booming of fireworks, much to my chagrin. I had told DH the night before that at least there wouldn’t be fireworks this weekend in the woods. Our neighborhood has been just crazy with fireworks this summer, and we were looking forward to a break. Bahaha. It wasn’t meant to be on this trip.

Eventually, after the sun finally set below the tree tops, the temperature dropped enough to stop actively sweating. Much later I woke up because the temp had dropped just enough to be a bit cool. I tried to cover up with my fleece since I hadn’t unpacked my base layers, thinking they would be unnecessary. It was still cool and so I pulled out the quilt, even though I knew it was overkill. And then I started sweating from being too warm under the quilt. Like I said...never dry on this trip. At least it was too warm to also get cold from sweating. This frustration repeated each night. We decided during this trip that we were going to buy a two pack of those Costco down throw blankets for local (Midwestern) summer camping/backpacking. I’m also starting to wonder how much of my comfort sleeping at home has to do with cotton sheets absorbing my night sweats. At least our new pad was comfortable. The double pad was way better than our attempts to combine two solo pads. No more minding the gap! 

Saturday, July 4, Bear Creek to Highbank Lake (12 miles)

We got up early at 6 am in an effort to beat the heat. Our goal was to shorten the amount of time it takes us to get out of camp. I had the sleeping gear and tent packed by the time DH finished breakfast. Despite this, it still took us two hours and we didn’t leave camp until 8 am. It’s the Tetris game of packing the bags that takes too long, and all the extra clothes didn’t help. We had to dump them out of the bag, then put the large items in, then stuff the clothes in again. It’s more uniform to shove the clothes between everything else. But I think we’re going to start putting the extra clothes in a separate dry bag on our Colorado trip or any other city/ backpacking combo trip where we’re bringing some street clothes.

I’m also considering a kitchen scale to help figure out how to balance the packs’ weight more. Or at least that’s the excuse I’m going with to finally get one! I took the tent poles and snack bag this trip (in addition to the quilt and sleeping pad), because of how heavy the food bag was. DH weighed the Ursack, with the food and liner, at work on the postal scale and it was 8.5 pounds (including 11 oz of that being a day’s snack pack). That’s essentially our tent + quilt + sleeping pad combined. My pack didn’t have enough volume to accommodate all three items (plus clothes and the misc. stuff) without it going above my shoulders. So DH started out carrying a few more pounds than me. Even though the food bag became lighter as we ate, he also had more water weight on day 2 and 3 because he carried the two filled platy bottles from Nichols Lake to camp (the last six miles of the hike each of those days). He doesn’t mind carrying more weight than me, but I mind. 

While I’m on about packs, here’s the edits I made to mine now that I decided to keep it. I took the scissors to all the parts that drove me nuts and the needle to add back in some extras. I really disliked the bottom pouch because it was too tight to actually use the pockets. So I cut it off and cut the pocket part down a lot to make a new interior pocket for my keys and wallet. I sewed the new pocket onto a doodad meant for securing a water bladder pouch. I lost some compression straps this way, but I don’t think I’ll need them because the double quilt and pad fill out the bottom of the bag. (I didn’t miss the straps on this trip.) The straps just got in the way of using the side pockets anyways. I also cut out the interior mesh pocket from the lid and sewed that on top of the roll top. I never used the lid because it just added even more buckles to get in the pack, but I wanted another functional pocket. I was also sick of undoing four buckles to get into the top, and doing the top this way only uses two buckles. I plan on adding hip pockets and a water shoulder pouch, but ran out of time. This probably should’ve been in the last gear update section but it wasn’t finished until the night before our trip.

Original pack

Modified pack on left, next to DH's pack. 

On to the actual hike. We went back into the buggy woodsy area around West Michigan Creek and eventually popped out at a small boat landing at the southern part of Nichols Lake. On the other side of the landing there were two trails, one flooded with the NCT marker and another parallel that had no marker. Since the flooded trail went into the lake, we opted for the unmarked one. It did follow the lake like the NCT underwater trail did (at least according to our map), but some parts later on were faint and required a bit of bushwhacking. Since we were following the lake, we weren’t worry about getting lost, but we were concerned about missing where the official trail turns more inland. We ended up spotting it just fine. 

Area between West Michigan Creek and Nichols Lake

Nichols Lake from "new" trail.

The trail then goes around the tiny lake near Nichols Lake and intersects with 13 mile road. This was our cue to get water. We detoured down 13 mile road to the walk up campsite to grab mo’ water. I also had to pee and thought it was perfectly timed to use a pit toilet instead of my yogi squat skills. But it wasn’t meant to be, as someone had crapped all over the toilet and floor. Peeing in the woods is much better than that! As a side note, I tried out a pee rag this trip and I’m now very fond of it. It’s so convenient and saved so much TP. It really doesn’t smell and dried more quickly than I anticipated. Anyways, after rejecting the toilet, we asked a camper where the water was and after a confused moment he pointed us to an old water pump hidden behind the entrance sign. At first we didn’t think it worked, but DH kept idly pumping it as we discussed “now what?” and water started pouring out. Woo! 

We backtracked to the NCT and continued towards Leaf Lake. At first we thought the trail was going to become much busier because we passed three couples within a few minutes, but after that we didn’t run into anyone until closer to Condon Lake where there are campsites. Since there were so few people on the trails we used our buffs as hair nets against the bugs instead of as masks. This stretch of trail after 13 mile road had a bunch of lakes one after another, which was very pretty. The first one, Leaf Lake, was the most scenic and our favorite part of the hike. 

Leaf Lake

Near Condon Lake we passed three teens hiking with nothing but the smell of weed clinging to them. Haha. It all made sense when we saw the ton of car campers on the ridge over Condon Lake. At least we think they were car campers based on the huge tents and large beer coolers. It’s a site where you have to walk a bit from an unnamed road to get there. We couldn’t tell if it was one large group or several small ones. But they were bumping loud music and had screaming teens down by the lake. This was also suggested as a place to camp in the guidebook and that wasn’t going to happen. We kept going and started looking for a campsite for later. We could hear the group a long ways down the trail because the lake seemed to echo and amplify them. Plus the other side of the lake had more campers. We saw a couple places that looked like spots people had used before, but we could still distantly hear that group. 

We were nearly to Sawkaw Lake before we stopped hearing the Condon Lake group. At the Sawkaw Lake there were more pre-made camping sites and what looked like a large group leaving. We walked the access road that wrapped the southern part of the lake and there were some empty spots before running into another large group. Here the campers seemed quieter and there was an unexpected pit toilet that looked new. We went back to the NCT and pushed on towards Highbank Lake. 

Shortly after leaving Sawkaw Lake, the trail became buggy again. By the time we got to Highbank, we were tired. My feet hurt from blisters on my heels. I wore my shoes without inserts this day, thinking maybe it was rubbing where the insole met the shoe that caused my blisters, but I think this caused the balls of my feet to also start hurting. Between being tired and the bugs, I didn’t really appreciate Highbank Lake, although it did have a very long, high bank. We went past another marshy area before calling it quits. We saw a good log for taking a break to eat a snack, but we realized it would be really unpleasant with the bugs. Since the trail wasn’t anymore scenic than the earlier parts, we figured going on another mile to our planned turn around point wasn’t worth the effort. So we ate our trail mix while walking back to Sawkaw Lake. 

We decided to camp by Sawkaw Lake because it was buggy between Sawkaw and Highbank and loud between Condon and Sawkaw. It didn’t seem like we were going to get much solitude regardless of how far down or out from the trail we camped. We figured if we had to deal with people and their noise regardless, we might as well join them at Sawkaw where we had access to the pretty lake. We got back to Sawkaw Lake, I think around 2 pm. There was a large area on the southeastern corner of the lake that had shade trees, lake views, and direct access (a staircase path down the steep bank) to the lake’s only beach. The big group we saw there earlier was gone except for one guy who looked like he was packing up. We debated if we should wait for him to leave, ask to set up nearby if he was packing up, or set up at one of the other smaller open spots down the road on the south side of the lake. We didn’t like those spots as much, because you could see the other groups of campers. This spot you couldn’t see the other campers. We went down by the lake to sit and discuss. We tried finding a spot to dip our tired feet in, but it was too weedy, so we just sat at the edge for a bit. 

Sawkaw Lake

We were tired and just wanted to set up camp, so we decided to go to our preferred clearing and ask the remaining guy if he minded us setting up while he was packing. The space was big enough for 10+ tents, so we wouldn’t be very close to him. It just felt like it could be intrusive because it was one giant clearing. We trudged up the bank and the guy was very nice. He confirmed he was packing up and that we would shortly have the entire spot to ourselves. We set up the tent and sleeping pad but didn’t stake it out or unpack anything else, as we wanted to move it to where he had his tent after he left. We chatted a bit from afar about our hike as we set up. 

I went to use the pit toilet, which was very nice as far as pit toilets go. It even came with toilet paper. I used the provided paper instead of my charmin and thought this was a huge mistake when my butt started burning. I seriously thought this was contaminated toilet paper for a good couple hours, before DH advised me I likely had monkey butt. What!?! I feel pretty stupid now, but I really thought you only got monkey butt from not being hygienic with your poos over the course of days. I came into the woods with a squeaky clean rear, we had only been there one night, and this was my first poo. It wasn’t dirty! We had also cleaned up and put on clean undies before bed. Apparently just being sweaty nonstop and chafing can do it. I was very grateful that DH had insisted, based on a bad experience in High School, on bringing an entire tube of clotrimazole cream with us. It saved my butt haha. I felt fine and ready to hike the next morning after applying cream that afternoon and then again before bed. 

We spent some time wandering around the lake and periodically sitting at the beach. The beach was small and other groups were using it. You could stay six feet apart but not a whole lot more than that so we limited our time there. The water was also bath warm and not as refreshing as the creek water had been. 

Sawkaw Lake from the little beach.

We were hungry and ate early around 5 pm. Our dinner wasn’t quite enough and we ate a granola bar afterwards. I had over corrected on our excess food and under packed. It was the same amount per day as we ate on our last trip, with a couple extra granola bars, but we were more hungry on this one. It wasn’t a big deal because we weren’t starving, just not fully satiated. DH probably felt it worse since he has higher calorie needs than I do and I have been on a fasting diet, so I’m used to not always being full now. We need to work out how to add in more to our food plan, without just increasing the amount of trail mix. I kind of get sick of it after awhile.

Campsite with a view and DH making an early dinner. 

After dinner we walked along the lake again and then spent time calculating how many liters of Aquamira we had left to filter. We realized that we thought our Smart Water bottles were 1 liter but they were 700ml. And the Gatorade bottle we thought were just short of a liter based on that were just over half. This meant we were treating three bottles like three liters, when they only added up to two liters. No wonder the Aquamira went so fast the first night. Live and learn. 

The mosquitoes presence intensified a little before seven, so we crawled in our tent. We watched the funnel of mosquitoes circle overhead. The sun slowly crept down, and we wished it would go faster. For some reason the 12 mile hike just killed us today compared to other days. Our 10 mile hike in Kettle Moraine was much more difficult with all the ups and downs. Maybe it was heat, but the next day was also hot and we had a lot more energy, even after 10 miles. 

The other campers had become not so quiet around 4 or 5 pm, and I wondered how long they would be playing music. It sounded like they were having a blast and it reminded me of my family camping parties on the Mississippi islands growing up. It just wasn’t jiving with our expectations of some quiet in the woods. I don’t think anywhere along the NCT between Nichols and Highbank Lake would’ve been quiet that night due to the number of campgrounds and walk-in sites and it being the 4th. Hindsight is 20/20. We were so tired, we still managed to fall asleep before the sun fully set. Shortly after 9 pm we were startled awake by the other campers setting off mortars of fireworks, complete with loud whoops and cheers. We drowsily watched the show through our tent screen and I tried not to worry about sparks landing on our tent. Luckily they didn’t have that many and it ended before 10 pm. We could hear a larger and longer lasting display coming from the Highbank Lake area as we drifted back asleep. 

Sunday, July 5, Sawkaw Lake to Bear Creek (10 miles)

We woke up again at 6 am, but this time with our hips touching the ground. No! We were not happy that our new sleeping pad had apparently developed a slow leak. It explained why we needed to add air before bed, we just thought we hadn’t filled it all the way. We never had problems with our individual Klymit pads losing air, so it was a bummer that this one did. I started packing up whilst DH made breakfast. This morning we shaved a whole 10 minutes off the process and left at 7:50 am. 

We felt surprisingly good, in light of how tired we felt the day before. We tried to focus on going at a slower pace, in an effort to prevent early burn out. Even though we had just hiked the route the day before, it looked different in reverse. We felt on autopilot for navigation though because we already knew where to turn and we didn’t need the map other than when we were curious about mileage between landmarks. 

This day we saw more wildlife. Around Leaf Lake we heard a few duck calls. Funnily, our first instinct was to look for hunters. But it's definitely not hunting season and so of course what we ended up finding ahead was a bunch of ducks in the lake taking off. We see lots of ducks in Chicago, but none making calls like that. Not too long after that we spotted a deer running through the woods. 

Leaf Lake again.

We made a pit stop at the northern Nichols Lake campground to refill our water again. A lot of people were packing up. We felt maybe we would have a firework free night with everyone leaving, but we found out later that night that enough firework enthusiasts remained behind. 

First glimpse of Nichols Lake.

While we were circling Nichols Lake, a little Bambi shot out from like a foot away and ran up the bank. He had been laying in the brush right next to the trail, but we didn’t see him until he ran out. He froze on the bank and just kind of stared down at us. Unfortunately, the trail swung up the bank where he ran. We tried to walk real quiet and slow to not scare him anymore than we probably had, but he skittered off. 

Where's Bambi?

Extra zoomed in.

Nichols Lake from the small boat slip.

Despite slowing our pace down, we arrived at Bear Creek around 12 pm. We pitched our tent where we had before and played in the creek for a bit. We decided to clean up right away to avoid the chafing we had the day before. Although, today I had wool undies on as an experiment and I felt they did a much better job at moisture control than my exofficio ones, which surprised me. Knowing that our site was still somewhat visible from the trail, I walked further back in the woods before stripping down. When DH caught up, he pointed out the private property signs a couple rows of trees behind me, which I hadn’t seen. I couldn’t help but think that some deer camera now has footage of me stripping in the woods and applying butt cream. Le sigh. The street clothes I had lugged with came in handy. I threw on my skirt to stay cool and somewhat less sweaty for the many hours we had left before bed. 

At this point, we were very bored and had nothing further to do. I left my iPad at home, because I finally accepted that the cheapest way to save a pound on gear was to leave it behind. I had intended on downloading the kindle app to my phone instead but forgot. DH had his tablet but was gentlemanly enough to not play games or read while I had nothing to do. We tried making up games. DH didn’t find my initial attempt with “I spy something brown” to be very funny. We settled on a word game. And then made a couple trips to the creek for a change of scenery. 

Hanging out at Bear's Creek.

We talked a lot about how we wished we had brought our camp chairs. I mean like maybe an hour or more about it. Haha. We had sit pads. They don’t cut it. And while it was annoying the first two days, this day it was a deep regret. We sat on our sit pads so much they flattened and we had to fold them in half to have some cushion. And they flattened again. Sit pads are not good chairs. 

The sad excuse of a logs available for seating (to the right) at the Bear Creek campsite.

Maybe you don’t need a chair if you roll into camp at 7 pm, but we had way too much time in camp to forgo them. I considered that maybe we need to up our mileage...but we were so tired the day before with 12 miles, I’m not sure we could have handled 20 miles. My next thought was maybe if we took longer breaks we would be rested enough to walk longer. Except that for most of the trail the bugs were too bad to allow for a long rest. Our campsites were in the only decent bug free areas. I’m thinking camp chairs, books, and a deck of cards are in our backpacking future, at least if we continue only hiking 10 miles or so a day.

We ate an early dinner just to have something to do. And afterwards we went back to wishing for camp chairs. We discussed packing up now that we were rested and hiking out to the car since it was only 5 miles away. But we didn’t want to drive back to Chicago that night. So around 5 pm we went to lay down in the tent just to be more comfortable. I finally came up with a good entertainment solution and suggested we read aloud one of the books on DH’s tablet. This actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We both love reading, but we always read solo and had never thought to read aloud. 

Sadly we had to put more air in the pad by 8 pm, as it had sunk down quite a bit. And we topped it off with a little more before bed at 9 pm. I fully expected we would need to wake up in the middle of the night to put more air in. But we slept the night through and the pad had barely lost any air between 9 pm and 6 am. We were pretty stumped considering how much air it loss between 5 and 8 pm the night before. Can you have a slow leak that only leaks sometimes? Did we have a user error somehow? We were careful to check that the valves were securely closed this night, and that hadn't helped keep air in it earlier in the evening. Now we need to do some test runs at home to see if we should exchange the pad or not.

Monday, July 6, Bear Creek to Loda Lake (6.5 miles)

We woke up at 6 am again and this time we were in more of a groove; we cut our in camp time down to 1.5 hours and we were on the trail by 7:30 am. We used the Aquamira to refill our bottles and of course there was a bunch left. I guess we drank more water earlier in the trip than later, possibly because we started the trip dehydrated from the drive up. 

Our rental car was due back at 5 pm and we ran into traffic on the way up, and we were anxious about being out early enough to not pay for an extra day. So we moved at a good clip on the trail this morning. We planned on taking the shorter route, turning onto Birch Grove Trail to Loda Lake, due to the time constraints. But we were moving so fast we arrived at the junction at 9 am and had time to take the slightly longer route of staying on the NCT until Six Mile road. It was nice to extend our walk, but this section was pretty marshy and not our favorite. Six Mile road back to the car wasn’t bad for a road walk though and we spotted the most pretty flowers there. 

Oak Savanna on way out.

Lily pond with pretty purple flowers on Six Mile Road

We made it back to enterprise on time and finished our day with delivery from Bob’s pizza, which is becoming a tradition! We were greeted home with a round of fireworks. Okay, America.