With all the recent drama being posted lately...

Tom I also love canoeing up there, but have only backpacked with this group the last couple of years. 95% of the forest service budget and time is used clearing portages, while the hiking trails get lost.

Our group is in the process of trying to save the Pow Wow trail that burned up in the fire last summer. Forest service wants to shut it down because it is supposedly too dangerous to allow hikers in. We have a survey/flagging trip planned that has yet to be approved but it seems they will probably not allow it.

So far I've been on 8 different trails up there, some affected by strait line winds and fire, and some untouched. It's amazing seeing the way the forest regenerates from total destruction. I've also seen remnants of logging camps and old ore mine pits from over a hundred years ago. Nothing clears the mind like getting away from modern civilization and sleeping on the earth, even for only a few days.
 
I spent the Millenium New Year on a three day solo trip off the Fernberg Trail. After the July 4 windstorm. That brought me in very close touch with being careful. I was on my own for three days. Kind of like an Outward Bound 'solo'. Very humbling experience. The weather was good. Clear and only about minus 10 or 15. comfy!
 
Dick Dale?! One of my favorite guitar players EVER. You think "alright here's this old hippy" ...then the earth shakes and you can immediately tell all the guitarists in the audience...they're the ones bawling like babies, their faces red, cheeks soaked.
 
That sounds like quite the trip, winter camping is something I have yet to take on. Went up last December on a clearing trip but had a nice warm forest service cabin to sleep in, amazing place to be in winter.

On the first night just after sundown we heard what I can only assume was a wolf pack that had just brought down a deer. Not sure how far away they were, but they sounded like there were right on us. Howling lasted about 20-25 minutes until the last of the pack got there, then just went completely silent, they were being fed.

One of the coolest things I have ever heard and one of the reasons I like clearing trails, so the next generation will have the chance to experience something like that.
 
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