The Last Trapp Hills TR, I Swear!!

“Trapp Hills Tr

Trail Bloopers, Yoppers And Athena’s First Bushwack.

I rode up with Jimmysan, Hubcap and spirit Coyote. I’ll skip all the stuff about driving there as we had a pretty good trip up and I got to sleep some o the way. Cool!!
We arrived at Old Victoria, (A pioneer type village/museum place) around 3:30 PM It was raining and had been raining for quite some time, Hubcap, Spirtcoyote and myself changed into our rain gear and Jimmysan drove to meet Dhutch and Uplover to set up the shuttle. It stared raining even harder just about the time he left. Hubcap and Spirtcoyote crossed the road to find the trailhead and found one but it was the wrong one. That was gonna happen a lot on this trip!! We went back behind the log cabins of Old Victoria and found the right trailhead with signs telling us the mileage. I had agreed to stay and meet anyone that was coming in around 4:00 PM, so Spirtcoyote decided she wanted a head start and took off down the trial. I only saw her one other time after that!! Boom, she was gone!!!Me and Hubcap checked out the cabins and other building at Old Victoria and found what I thought to be a shelter for backpackers, it turned out to be a Sauna. It was built very well and had a stove complete with firewood and a fire extinguisher. I took some pics and then used the outhouse, that was built well too! I walked back to the parking lot and meet up with Chin and Athena. He had Mugsy with him as well. I told them we were waiting at the trailhead and went back to spend some time at the Sauna. That would be a good place to sleep if you needed to!! Hubcap, Chin, Athena and myself hit the trail with it still raining and followed the blues blazes and hopefully Spirtcoyote. I got talking to Hubcap and walked right past the first turnoff!! Chin picked it up and blew his whistle at us. Wow, that hardly ever happens!! Me missing a double blaze, better straighten up Randall!!
Up we went to this old smelting building (That’s the stone structure you see in all the pics) While we were inside checking it out, I saw something move past one of the windows and went to check it out. It turned out to be truck and it had some young Yoppers in it!! One of them said something about hikers coming outta the woods everywhere, waved his beer can at me and they drove off down the road! That was the first bunch we met, there would be more. The trail got all funky here and we finally found the blazes heading down the road. We followed to a four way intersection and I think this is where we lost the trail for the first time. Chin spotted some double blue blazes that had been spray painted on the trees and we figured that was the trail and followed them like the idiots we were. This road lead west and Chin had his GPS with some waypoints he had put in it. These waypoints turned out to very valuable ,even if they were just estimates that he pulled off of his Topo software!! I kept thinking we were going too far down the road, but we kept seeing the damm spray paint blazes, Chin said that his GPS was telling him that this was the right direction so we stayed our course. Pretty soon we lost the Spray paint blazes and went back to find them. They headed North into the woods and we knew that was the wrong way!! Hubcap and I both had a compass and those along with Chin’s GPS made us really double think our location. So we kinda hung out there trying to figure out the best course of action!! I’ll bet we looked pretty pitiful!! Bout that time the next truckload of Yoppoers came slowly up the road. I waved em down and they turned out to be some type of hunters!! They had on greasy old hunting clothes with blaze orange accouterments. This group was older and much drunker than the first. I asked em if they were hunting Bear and they said no!! I never figured out what they really hunting, probably a place to pee!! The driver stared laughing at us and gave us a big grin that showed off his fine set of black and brown teeth! His buddy told us we were lost and I said that wasn’t the case and that we were just weren’t exactly sure where we were. They had a women with them and after I asked what the name of this road she told us it was Victoria Road. That was all we needed to know as we had maps and could see that the trail was just to the south of us and ran parallel to this road for some ways. The Yoppers drove off and probably had a real good time telling people about the stupid hikers in the rain We had a meeting and decided to keep to the road until we were just north of Chin’s GPS waypoints for the first nights camp!! When we got there we would bushwack due south until we came to camp!! It was getting darker and was still raining. Athena was not overly thrilled with the prospect of bushwacking, especially in the dark and in Bear country. (Chin never told her about the bears until they made the trailhead) it was only .3 miles long and we found the trail right away. No camp though!! Up and down the trail we went looking for camp, no luck!! We set up right on Chins waypoint and got a fire going, We spent some time talking about where in the hell was Spirtcoyote and how Jimmysan was gonna have a bad time in the dark!! Hubcap called him and gave him some ideas as to what he could expect, He had not seen Spirtcoyote and we were starting to get concerned, turned out she was were she was supposed to be and we were the ones that had gone missing! Jimmysan, Dhutch , Uplover finally made the right trail and we kept in touch by cell phone, hoping to hear some good news. About 9:00 or so Jimmysan found Spirtcoyote at the camp and called us. We were glad to hear that and went to bed with hopes of a better day tomorrow!!

A Better Day Ahead, Well Maybe!!

I woke early and did the morning thing. The weather had improved, good thing that! I hit the trail with Athena as Chin and Hubcap were staying to wait on the others. We went down hill and got some water then followed the Blue blazes through the oak and tag elder bogs. Plenty of water here!! No problems with the blazing at this point though, just wet feet!! We stopped for lunch at a small creek and were joined by Chin and Hubcap. They said that Spiritcoyote was about an hour back and they had not seen any sign of the remainder of the group. Just them we heard them coming and we finally met up with Prosecutor, Dhutch and Uplover. Prosecutor wanted to eat lunch at Gleason Falls so we headed that ways. We hiked a small ways and came to the spot to turn off for the falls. I had already eaten so I left them there and hit the trail alone.(I said something about a horse) The blazes got worse the farther I went and then I spied my old friends, the spray painted blue blazes again. “You won’t get me this time damm ya!!” I just ignored them and went along the ridge line, turns out, that was the right way ta go. I got some good pics and headed down the into a small hollow to water up. I lost the trail there!!! The loggers had clear cut the trial and knocked down all of the blazes!! Bastards!! I looked for close to an hour, but could not find the crossing, so I kicked back and waited for the rest to catch up!

Loggers, Bad Knees and All Night Coyotes

They showed up about an hour after that, with Uplover saying something about me being a “Strange Bird” as they came upon my pack and me kicked back under a tree. LOL, Whatever!! Me and Jimmysan looked for a while and I finally spotted the blaze. Just as we were getting ready to leave, here comes Spiritcoyote! Me and Jimmysan point her the way to the hard to find blaze. It lead across a creek and on west. We crossed the creek in twos and threes, some people had some fun there, Dhutch and I went out in front, and about this time we hit the first of the decent climbs. Up and up, no switchbacks here!! Guess they don’t believe in em in the UP!! So this is why they call em Trapp Hills!! We went up and down like that for close to four miles. On the last climb we ran into Mata and she helped us find the next campsite, during this trip we always camped on the ridges and had to carry extra water as there was none up high, that made the climbs that much funner!! I picked a spot away from the group, set up and had my dinner. We spent the evening telling stories and I played some harmonica. Poor Spiritcoyote never made this camp and Jimmysan went back to see if she was ok, Turned out she was not!! She had set up camp about a mile from us after hurting her knee and was not gonna finish the trip. Plan’s were discussed for her evacuation with the group deciding to cut the trip short due to weather and time concerns. I said I would agree to whatever was best for all. Prosecutor came up with a plan that would give most of us an 11 mile hike on Sunday and less than one out on Monday. Time for bed and the dam coyotes howled all night!! Never heard that before!!

The Last Day And Night, Hey, We Got Beer??

The next day was colder and the wind had come back again. I got out early and was hoping for a good show from the blazes, wrong again!!! This last section turned out to be almost as bad as the start. As soon as we crossed Norwhich road, everything went way bad!! Jimmysan was in the lead and I was with Cowpatty and Athena, time to let some else figure this damm mess out!! After crossing Norwhich road the trail took us over a foot bridge (Really, a real bridge) the only one I encountered. The trail vanished in a bog filled with Tagelder, Scrub Oak and some kinda pretty spruce tree (Looked like a fancy Christmas tree) Jimmysan went looking and I did as well. Another 45 minutes lost!! I found the trail to the north of the bog!! I had to go a long ways to find it though and kept thinking about getting ate up by bears!! We got everyone through that was coming through and finally started to make some decent time. A beaver pound got in our way and some of us had lunch there. Chin and Jimmysan continued on down the trail. We had to bushwack around the pond and then made decent time, finally crossing 630 or 620 or sumpin like that. There were some young hunters there and they were gonna kill em a bear and then some deer!! Good luck guys and we kept on going, Up more hills and more trails lost, by this time we had gotten good at finding the blazes even after the loggers had knocked them down or the porcupines had eaten em up!! This section ended up at another road and trailhead. We saw Mata’s car parked there and figured we were close to camp. There was a big hill just to the west of us and since Prosecutor likes high spots, we figured that was where it would be, it was. I took a tea break and the girls went up the hill to make camp. Hubcap and I watched Jimmysan drive up first, followed shortly by Prosecutor. He had a case of beer with em, atta boy ED!!!! They had already set up and Spirit Coyote was up there as well!! Hubcap and I headed into camp to set up and eat.
The rest is as reported in the other TR’S’ I think the trail was great and loved the isolation of the place, The blazing sucked and needs lots of work, but it can be followed if ya got some guts!! See ya later.
Randall
last edited: 10/25/07 2:10:55 PM”

“Speaking of Hunters, don't read this book! You'll never want to hike in the woods up there again! At the very least stay of of the local bars.

http://www.amazon.com/Darker-than-Night-Homicide-18-Year/dp/0312936761

Nice trip report, seeing those Hunters as such, would have freaked me out,, if I was solo.”

“great job randall!”

“I've always had a soft spot for UP hunters, myself...enjoyed your TR, Randall...each one of us who writes one gives everyone a different perspective of the trail and the trip...I think that's what will always keep this adventure high on our "unforgettable" list...the one consistent issue was the blazing...that made this trip so special....LOL...”

“Pretty good TR considering it was wrote by a "Strange Bird" :)
It was a great trip actually....even if it didn't go quite as planned!
The scenery was definitely awesome, the company was great and there was just enough excitement to keep it interesting!
I say we do it again next year :D”

“Can I go too?”

“damn good TR Randall! Maybe next year I can get up there. I'm dying to get some trail time in the UP.”

“Maybe someday I will get to camp with ya UP LOL!

Great write up randall. I love hearing the diffrent views :)”

“What the heck is a Yopper? Did you mean Yooper?”

“Maybe someday I will get to camp with ya UP LOL!

Hey we DID camp together on Fri nite lol
You just didn't know it because you were already in bed when we got there and left before I got up!

And as for you Sass...I suppose, since you asked so nicely, you can come along! :p~”

“nice tr.

The trapp hills are a wonderfull place. I have onlt done day hikes there but know want to try it for the challenge..

-luke-”