Hannah and I drove the three hours down to Munising on Friday night. We intended on getting down there with enough daylight to put in a few short climbs on the lakeshore but you now how those things go.  Packing took for ever and then a few things came up and all of the sudden we were rolling out of town at 4PM with only a few hours of daylight left.  We pulled into Munising just as they were starting the nightly presentation and hurried to get some food and spot to sit and watch.  It seems like there are more and more people every year and this year was no exception. Sydney’s Restaurant, the perennial host of Ice Fest, was bursting with people.  The presentation by Sam Elias was pretty good. It was a little too much rock climbing for the ice fest but it was definitely cool to see a Michigan climber present.

After the presentation we hung around in the warmth of Sydney’s and then went out to find a good campsite because we couldn’t afford a hotel room.  Being broke tends to help lend to memorable experiences. I have spent a lot of nights in hotel rooms for work and never really remember them, they all blend together and become pretty generic. Camping on the other hand, is always unique and while not always great, it tends be at least memorable.  We drove down to the public boat launch and the summer location of the ferry dock to Grand Island. We threw the tent up in the bed of our truck and settled in for the night. The weather was warm. Really warm. After a few minutes I checked the thermometer on my watch and saw that it was above 40 degrees in the tent, making it only a few degrees colder than our house in Calumet. Crazy. I slept so well.

It was tough getting out of bed on Saturday morning becuase I was so warm and comfortable. We met up with our old friend Jarrod and new friend Chaz at Hardee’s for a bit of breakfast. They had camped in the Hardee’s parking lot. The weather was perfect with a bit of sun and the temperature hovering right around freezing. The ice falls on the shoreline tend to get a bit crowded on Saturday and we wanted plenty of time to climb so we were looking for a bit more remote real estate. We parked at the boat launch and trekked off over the ice toward Grand Island. Grand Island sits in Munising Bay about a mile off shore. Sometimes the bay freezes, sometimes it doesn’t. There was open water nearby but a few locals had given us positive ice reports so we decided to risk the crossing.  There was plenty of half frozen slush sitting on top of the ice and we got pretty wet on the walk but no one fell in so I’ll call it a success. We crossed the narrow bit of land that separates Murray Bay from Trout Bay and headed to the east shore to find our climb. There was plenty of ice dripping from the cliffs and we set up on climb called “Glad She’s Fat”.  It is a classic Munising Pillar. It is a forty foot tall column of ice hanging over the sandstone into an amphitheater.  It had a big hole in the center that split the ice into two columns near the top. The belay was on a narrow shelf of ice that was mighty close to the open water of the bay. The four of us climbed for about 5 hours until we were all sorts of tired. It was a fun piece of ice that offered up a lot of options. The walk back was exhausting and wetter than on the way out but I was feeling good about the day.

We grabbed some dinner at the surprisingly good Thai restaurant in town and went back to Sydney’s for the evening presentations.  Majka Burhardt and Steve House both gave awesome slideshows showing some amazing places and things I can hardly dream of doing.  It’s always cool to see slide shows from people who do this for a living. It helps us improve the ones we give and inspires us to keep reaching for bigger and cooler trips. After the presentations they raffled off an unbelievable amount of sweet gear. The last few years we have won big but we didn’t get so lucky this year. We ran into a friend after the raffle and he offered us the extra bed in his hotel room and we couldn’t resist. I love camping but the convenience seemed too great to pass up.

Sunday morning broke clear and warm, but we were inside so we didn’t really notice.  Hannah headed home to Calumet to get some things done at the the house and I stayed around to get some more climbing in.  Jarrod, Chaz and I headed out Lake Shore Trail in Pictured Rocks to a climb called Midnight Rambler.  I have been wanting to climb this piece of ice since I first saw it a few years ago but it is one of the more popular climbs and is always super crowded during Ice Fest. Sunday usually quells some of the crowds as most people make long drives home and when we got to the stream that feeds the waterfall we were the only ones there.  We rappelled down the 60 foot column and spent a few hours climbing. It’s another Munising classic that is almost a carbon copy of the ice we were climbing the day before.

We headed home around 5PM and I immediately fell asleep in the car.  It was another great weekend in Munising.  A huge thanks to Down Wind Sports for putting the even on and to all of the sponsors for their support.  It is always one of the highlights of my winter. If you have never been ice climbing this is a great place to try it out. If you climb all the time this a great place to get on some really fun and challenging ice falls.  You can get more info and see more photos from the weekend at their website: www.michiganicefest.com

Check out more photos below.

I’ve since put some miles in on the pack and here are my thoughts:
In general I think it’s a great bag if you’re looking for something small, light and unobtrusive. The Hornet 24 is ideal for day hikes (assuming you aren’t one of those people who brings everything you own – just in case) and seems well equipped for adventure racing with its compartment for a hydration bladder, pockets on the shoulder straps for gel, and awesome mesh hipbelt pockets. I can’t say enough good things about the hipbelt pockets – they’re just the right size for a granola bar/map/water treatment/headlamp or any of the other things that you like to have close at hand during a day hike. The compression system is pretty cool and works really well, but I think it could be more efficient – it feels a little bulky on such a small pack and sometimes gets in the way of the zipper. The size of the main compartment is perfect for raincoat, some lunch, a water bottle, etc. I wouldn’t want a day bag bigger than the Hornet 24 – Osprey really hit the size of this pack right on with just enough room for the essentials and not a lot of extra space and bulk. I took it out to go ice climbing and found the ice axe set up wasn’t as complete as I had hoped – the pack has a loop at the bottom, but it doesn’t have a convenient strap or daisy chain to attach the tool handles at the top of the pack. Also, I was definitely pushing the limits of the bag with a belay parka, extra sweatshirt, extra gloves, crampons, ice tools, climbing helmet, a sandwich, and a water bottle – but that’s way more than I expected to be able to fit in there, so I was really impressed. The fabric on the Hornet 24 is also really nice – it’s lightweight without being wimpy. I hadn’t thought about my ice tools scraping against the lighter fabric for 7 miles of snow shoeing and when I arrived at my climbing destination I was happy to find that there was no visible abrasion despite the harsh treatment. The mesh pocket on the front is one of my favorite features of all the newer Osprey bags, it’s a great place to stick wet stuff on the way home or, if you’re like me, it’s a good place to stuff in those extra layers that you didn’t really think about fitting in your pack until you got hot and took them off. All in all I really like the bag for day hikes, the only drawback being that the compression system sometimes gets in the way of the zipper. I’d like to see what the next generation brings for these packs because Osprey is definitely working towards a really nice super light pack – in the future I’d like to see Osprey be a little more conservative on the bells and whistles.

After a few months off we are back with a brand new look.  And to go with this new look we have a new trip planned! We’re going to Russia!

We are taking this summer off from big trips and focusing our efforts on planning and funding a trip to Russia to attempt a kayak circumnavigation of Lake Baikal. Baikal is the largest Lake in the world by volume as well as the oldest and deepest. We’re planning on going over there in June of 2012 and being on the water for a few months. It should be a nice sister trip to our 2009 circumnavigation of Lake Superior.  You can see more details about the lake and our trip in the “Lake Baikal” tab at the bottom of the page. Over the next year we will be posting about the planning process and our preparation. If you have any contacts in Siberia or know anything about Lake Baikal drop us a line. Any information is useful to us.

In addition to planning for our kayak trip Matt is preparing and training for the Leadville 100, a 100 mile ultramarathon held every year in Leadville Colorado. He should be posting about his efforts and about the race itself.

We know we have been pretty much absent for the last six months but we are back in full force now. The new website is just the beginning. We are going to add all sorts of new content from our daily adventures to new gear reviews. We haven’t just been sitting on our butts the last six months either.  We will go back and post about some of the trips we have done.

If you find anything on the site that doesn’t work, or have any good ideas let us know.

Things are starting to get interesting. Stay tuned.

]]> http://asuperioradventure.com/2011/02/20/a-new-website-and-a-new-plan/feed/ 0 http://asuperioradventure.com/2010/09/08/were-home/ http://asuperioradventure.com/2010/09/08/were-home/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:27:58 +0000 Matt http://www.asuperioradventure.com/?p=598

Ok. So we have been home for like two months. But I am finally getting back to the website after putting it off.  My journal from the PCT hike is finished. I just need to put the photos into it but all of the photos are up as well. With any luck Hannah will finish her journal up tonight and we can finish up this whole trip.

The website should be back in full swing soon with regular posts and some gear reviews from our hike.

Since coming home we have laid low for a few months. We finally got our plumbing after over a year and a half and know we can take showers in our own house and have hot water. We have left the third world.  Hannah has started working as a bartender at the bar across the street and I settled in to a job managing a small lodge in Northern Wisconsin for a few months.

We have been out in the woods and on the water and will have stories to tell and we have started scheming about another big trip so stay tuned.

Last day of hiking for a while. We slept in again and meandered our way toward Red’s Meadow. I honestly don’t remember much of the trail. My head was in the clouds the whole time. It all went by pretty fast and we were back into civilization before I knew what was going on. We caught the shuttle bus down to the ski hill and then hitch hiked into town. It feels weird to not be a thru hiker anymore.

Happy 4th of July! Slept in again this morning. We are still trying to avoid the holiday rush in town so we don’t have far to go today and we could just take our time. The hiking was beautiful with lots of lakes a few easy climbs. It was a pretty uneventful day. We just played around and really enjoyed just hanging out together. I was going to go swimming in one of the alpine lakes but I lost my nerve because it was so cold. I have been in some cold water before but this might just take the cake. We stopped and ate at Lake Elizabeth and thought about staying there as it was so beautiful but there was still some daylight and we really hadn’t gone very far so we moved on. We ran into the JMT hikers we had met in Lone Pine on their way north. It was nice to see some familiar faces.  The sun started to set and it seemed like we ran out of flat ground to camp on. I feel a little bad about passing up a few of the amazing campsites we saw earlier in the day and ending up with the nondescript turd we are at but oh well. Tomorrow is our last day on trail. I am excited to be heading home and I have no doubts it is the right decision for us but I will miss the trail life. I really feel at home living out of my backpack and it really muddies things up when I have a houseful of stuff.

Less than 20 minutes after I went to bed last night Hannah climbed into the tent with me. It had taken her about 8 hours to drive to Vermilion Valley Resort but she found it in the middle of the night. I slept so well having her back by my side. By the time we got out of bed the sun was already high and people were getting ready to catch the first ferry out. We ate breakfast with Balls and Baby Steps and said good bye to both of them. Baby Steps headed north and Balls took his car and headed home. We spent most of the day relaxing around the resort, catching up on each others new stories and resting up from the long night. When the last ferry was leaving we got on and headed back to the trail. As we hiked we started talking about what we wanted to get out of this trip and if it was fulfilling those goals. We both had different expectations and desires but we both found that we weren’t gaining what we wanted from this. For different reasons we decided that the suffering it takes to complete a trip like this wasn’t worth the limited benefits so we decided to that we would go home.  The next step was to figure out how to get there. We don’t want to go into Mammoth Lakes tomorrow because it will be the fourth of July and we don’t want to deal with holiday prices and crowds. After a few miles we set up camp and ate some dinner. It is nice to be back with Hannah and I feel a little antsy about our traveling home.

Today was one of the strangest days I have had in a long time. It was a roller coaster of excitement and disappointment. It all started well with the usual morning. I turned off the alarm but still got up early. John and I rolled out of camp to some pretty generic trail with a big climb through the trees and not much for views. We saw a blue grouse doing its mating dance and call a few feet from the trail. We crossed the last real pass of the trip through Wright Pass. It didn’t even compare to the last five passes. It barely registered that we were going through a pass. There was almost no snow and the climb was almost unnoticeable. From there it was a pretty straight forward day with only one more obstacle: the dreaded Bear Creek Crossing! It was another creak that people had been shitting bricks about since Mexico but this time I didn’t allow myself to get drawn in and, sure enough, it was no big deal. It was the toughest crossing so far but that doesn’t make it a man killer. It was running about waist deep but the current wasn’t strong enough to know me down. I got to the other side full of joy because all of the hard stuff of the High Sierra was behind me and Hannah could be waiting anywhere in the next few miles. We met up with another thru hiker, Balls, and were flying down the trail. He was moving really fast, doing big chunks of trail then returning home to Oregon for a while to work and be with his family. Every corner we rounded I expected to see Hannah walking the other way but was always disappointed.  After a few miles we ran into a hiker I had met in the desert name the Stumbling Norwegian. He was heading southbound on the John Muir Trail. He said he hadn’t seen her and my heart just sank. First I was really bummed that I wouldn’t get to see her after working so hard to get to her fast, and then I got worried that something happened to her. The Norwegian told me about a spot a few miles up the trail where I could get cell phone reception and I was gone before he finished his sentenced. I flew over the miles hiking as hard and fast as I ever have. I got to the ridge in no time to find a plethora of voicemails waiting for me. After listening to about ten messages I was able to discern that Hannah was safe but she hadn’t left town due to a hangup with our bank account and the auto pay on our bills. I felt better about her situation but was still bummed that I wouldn’t get to see her. I said goodbye to John because he was heading into Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) where he had a package waiting for him and I was just going to push hard to get to Mammoth Lakes to meet hannah. It was at this point that the day turned weird. Balls told us he wasn’t feeling well and was worried about getting into town in time to get home for work. He asked if Hannah would take his car and drive it to VVR to meet him so he didn’t have to go as far today. It sounded like a great idea. Hannah agreed without question and she headed off to pick up his car and head our way. Unfortunatley none of us knew that VVR was on the other side of the Sierra Nevada and it was a seven hour drive to get there and it was in the middle of no where on some little traveled back roads. Balls and I hiked the remaining five miles to VVR as fast as we could to catch the ferry. It was a long, steep descent and I was pretty sore by the time I got to the ferry dock. We met back up with Baby Steps and waited for the resort to send the pontoon boat they use as a ferry over. It was a short ride across the reservoir and in no time we were landing at the resort. It was kind of a weird place. It was kind like a shanty town but with really friendly people and a great atmosphere.  We ate dinner and had a few beers at the little store and settled in around the fire. There were a few JMT hikers there and a few other guests at the resort. It was nice to sit around and talk to people. After a few hours everyone drifted off to bed but I was determined to be awake when Hannah showed up so I stayed by the fire. I sat there for hours thinking about the trip. I was thinking about what I am actually getting out of hiking this trip. It is starting to feel like I am rehashing the Appalachian Trail with a change of scenery and I am not learning anything or garnering any new experiences. I was just getting down to my true feelings about this trip when it hit me like an epiphany: I want to go home. It was hard to even think about at first. It seemed dirty and almost blasphemous. I am supposed to be out here completing the PCT, the entire PCT. But as I allowed myself to entertain the notion it seemed more and more right. When I am hiking I usually dream about other trips or experiences I will have later on during the trip but this time I was dreaming about our house and the Keweenaw. I don’t want to commit to the idea of going home without talking to Hannah but I feel good about it. During all this soul searching and reflecting many hours had passed and it was well passed 1am. I started dozing off in my chair and decided that Hannah may not even make it to VVR tonight so I should probably get some sleep.  I feel content and I hope she shows up while I sleep.

Another day where I set an alarm with good intentions and ignored it completely when morning came.  I was up at a quarter after 6am. My ankle was still pretty sore from yesterday as I set up my tent and I was feeling pretty fatigued.  Baby Steps and I headed out of camp by 7am but he must have felt better than me because it was struggle to keep up. The trail immediately began the long climb up Muir Pass. It wasn’t very steep but seem to go on forever. Intermittent snow gradually turned into a solid blanket and became deep and soft. It was long slog of over six miles before I hit the top of the ridge. There was a cool stone hut on top and we rested there for a while watching the marmots and birds. Down went a lot like up. Long and snowy but not too steep. In the last two miles the sun had softened the snow to the point where it wasn’t firm enough to walk on and falling in with every step wore me out quickly. Luckily the rest of the day was a long slow descent and I recovered quickly. The trail was, once again, more beautiful than I can describe. This place really is heaven. The valleys, meadow, peaks, ridges, lakes and and streams all meld together to create a place that is beyond words and nothing but sitting in its midst can do it justice.  Evolution creek is legendary for its difficulty and people have been talking about it for the last one hundred and fifty miles. As usual I let myself be drawn into the hype. I was worried. I got there and felt silly for my concern. It was wide; maybe 100 ft or so but it was slow moving as it gently rolled through a meadow. I don’t get it. People must just need something to build up the intensity of an otherwise benign trip so they convince themselves that parts of what they are doing are dangerous to achieve that “epic” feeling they lack. We pulled off the trail early because we were running out of water and the trail was bending away from the river and up a pretty significant climb.  There is a hot spring labeled on the map and we tried to get to it but the river was too strong to cross and it lay on the other side. I cooked dinner, treated some water and set up camp quickly because the mosquitoes were intolerable.  Today went well, I didn’t feel as lonely as I have over the past few days and it gives me hope that I am not so incurably attached to Hannah that I won’t be able to function in life without her. But, for all the confirmation of the security in my independence, I am still really excited at the possibility of seeing her tomorrow.