Granite Ridges

I had a quick breakfast of Granola with an orange and a cup of mocha, and then cleaned up quickly. I Locked up the trailer and then headed out. The trail head is literally across the highway from the main gate, so the only hurdle is trying to leave without causing much noise. I made sure I had my big headlamp, started the car, pulled my parking brake up by one click and turned off my headlights. I turned on my light bar, which is aimed down specifically to not shine into people's faces. I creeped out at 10KPH and made it to the gate without any lights coming on, so I'll call that a win. At the trail head, I readied my gear, set up my hiking pole and head lamp, and started the climb. I arrived at the top by around 7AM giving me around 30 minutes to set up, the first blush was already visible and it looked like it was going to be 'good' but not great, just a bit of orange. But as always, conditions change constantly, and there were plumes of mist rising up from lakes and rivers across the valley, and Lake Huron itself. I got several shots and spent the entire morning to around 8:30 am when the sun was fully up. After a few false starts, I managed to get back down the hill, and met a young couple on the way back.. warning them that things were slippery. I got a few new pictures of the old car, and then returned to my car, and drove back to my campsite by ~9:30. I had a 'bio break' refilled my water and snacks, and then planned my next journey. With only Today and Thursday as full days left, I needed to plan.

I thought, ok, I could do lake of the woods trail - at least to the great tree.. but then what would I do on Thursday? I went to Alltrails.com (or as I call it now, all Lies) and found that people were rating 'The Crack' as less difficult than the Hike to H1 I did on Tuesday. So, screw it.. I'll go to the gatehouse and see if there are any spots available for 'The Crack' and if there are, I'll scout it for a sunrise shot location (HA!) else, I'll reserve for Thursday morning and head up in the dark blind (AHAHAHA!). Plan set, I went back to the office.. to wait in line... for 30 minutes.. to get my pass. I made it to the trail head by ~10:50AM and started on my way. There was a huge warning sign stating that you shouldn't go on without experience, and supplies. I thought 'huh, I've never seen this sort of warning before, this trail is super popular.. so maybe there's some 600 LB guys that think they can do it or something, but All Trails said it was 'Medium difficulty' and I've already done 'Hard' so no probs. The Trail was literally a Highway.. and besides the exceptionally loud people coming up behind me I was fairly alone to start. I put the pedal to the metal, got my cadence set and steamed forward. No sweat.. wow this trail is easy. I checked my watch when I stopped at a potential sunrise spot overlooking the first lake along the trail, and it said I was averaging 10.5 KPH, which is a new record for me. I don't know what happened to the guy behind who was bragging about having been 'all over the world' and that 'he'd finish this trail before everyone else' He was constantly chatting with his friends in a loud voice.. saying he had walkie talkies so they wouldn't get separated.. that he was a native, so he knows the forest.. etc... I seem to have left them all in my dust.. so with time, I found a few interesting shots, but nothing to write home about.. it'd be hard to defeat the experience from this morning. I kept going at my pace until things starting going up hill, and I had to slow down a bit, but I was doing well, and stopped when I felt my heart rate going a bit high, took a few deep breaths and continued on. Soon, I was out into white rocks.. but again, nothing more difficult than what I'd done in the morning, and I'd caught up to a 30 something couple with an elderly dog who was having trouble climbing some of the rocks. He kept looking back at me as I waited for them to move ahead, he looked like he wanted to go back down. I continued shadowing these two as I made my way forwards, sometimes passing them, other times climbing straight up to avoid a more round about route.. some areas were like Giant's stairs which required me to pull with my arms and jump with my legs to get up.. but still, nothing too bad. I passed a few people coming back from the top who looked dead in their eyes.. I thought it was odd. Anyhow, I found a nice place to stop overlooking the valley and had a snack and a drink before making the final ascent.

This is where things.. became.. 'technical' and so I became once again a member of humanity, suddenly the people on the mountain weren't just annoyances, but comrades in arms.. because, passing through the crack is basically mountain climbing, maybe you could call it 'bouldering' but it is a uniquely unique set of skills that not everyone has, and not everyone understands how to change the balance of their body to clamber rocks. Fortunately, I have some sense of this, I was able to plan my movements by looking up each section, and then execute the path.. but it was taxing. I folded up my pole and stuffed it in my backpack waist band so I could use my hands, arms, and legs to clamber up. It was slow going, and used muscles I don't usually use.. my abs were starting to burn specifically, probably good. But the top was in sight, and after about another 15 minutes I was there. The view was good, not great, but I did set up and take pictures - I didn't haul 60Lbs of gear up all that way to not use it. I wasn't happy with the shots, it was about 1:00 and the clouds have come in again, but in the distance there were some areas with sun.. so I ate my remaining trail bar and drank my fill surrounded with people. I helped a group of girls take a few photos and chatted with them and a few others as they completed the climb. It appears the two non-loud members of the people who were behind me had finally made it as I heard the walkie call from behind me. Apparently the 'Native' had fell 'down the mountain' somewhere.. and was lost. He finally joined them around 2:00, which was about the time I was rested enough (and worked up the gumption) to get back down. Climbing back down was a lot more difficult and I felt a great relief when I finally finished the rock slide section. Going down didn't take long, but I was getting very tired.. and my legs were turning to Jelly. Never fear though, because for the first time in my life I experienced the 'runners high'. Suddenly all the pain was gone, I broke out in a wide grin involuntarily and was able to move forward for around 10 minutes like I was walking on clouds. After that.. everything came back, and I lost focus enough to lose track of the trail and almost got lost... but used my Garmin to get back on track. I passed a few more people on the way in.. but it is already 3pm by now.. I don't know what they intend, they don't have enough gear for the Full La Cloche loop.. and there's no campsite up there. I expect they don't understand what they're in for. One group of Asian girls asked me when I was half way down taking a break how much farther.. and I said about 30 minutes and they were groaning.. they hadn't even reached the hard part.. and they were far younger and in far better shape than me. I'm what you call fat. I'm 280 Lbs. These girls looked like they wouldn't even make my weight if I put them all on the same scale. I almost said 'you could turn back, but then you'd know an old fat man did something you couldn't' but I just smiled and warned them about the technical section, before heading on. The rest of the trail went by in the blur, I was starting to get a bit dizzy, but I made it back. My feet feeling like boards, I fixed myself a shaker bottle full of LBCA powder.. hopefully it will stave off the stickman syndrome I get after extreme exertion as it has in the past.

4:00 Pm - Return to my site.

When I arrived, I found that my trailer was making a screaming noise.. it was high pitched, but not too bad. I opened the door to find out what was wrong, only to find out that my battery had dropped to 12% and the low charge alarm was sounding.. I silenced it and immediately unplugged the fridge and the dehumidifier, even with the sun - It wasn’t enough to offset the usage.. so I moved the panels into the direct sun and have been doing so for the last hour. The sun is now too low to be useable.. so tonight I'll be running nothing.. If I need light I'll just have to use the head lamp. I'm considering supper, but now that I'm warm and dry inside the trailer, I'm starting to droop. I'll probably skip dinner tonight, I'm not actually hungry after that exertion, and I've been feeding myself all day with high fat bars and oranges. Tomorrow morning I'll have a big breakfast, and then we'll see how things are.. I only have one goal left, and that is to visit the great tree.