Fall in the Kettles Trip Report

“FALL IN THE KETTLES
In preparation for our 32-mile shakedown hike and leaving my car at the egress trailhead for 4 days, I went to a local gravel pit the day before and raced it around on the dirt roads. First time doing that with a front-wheel drive car—like drift racing in reverse. Did about a dozen or so circuits with mud and gravel flying everywhere, pouring down rain, accompanied by hard core thrasher rock music at extreme decibels. Way too much fun as all adrenaline overloads are. Unusual hike preparation? Probably, but if I’m going to leave my Cadillac at a trailhead, a coating of serious mud splatter is a good thing.

After staging the car, my hiking partner, Keith, and I were dropped off at our starting point on the Ice Age Trail at the northern end of the Kettle Moraine State Forest-Northern Unit in perfect hypothermia weather: heavy drizzle and 35 degrees. The kettles, moraines, drumlins and eskers are all geologic features caused by movements of ice and glaciers during the ice age and makes for steep and numerous escalation changes. There’s also lots of rocks and with the rain, mud was a factor, too. What we didn’t anticipate was that all the slippery ankle twisting rocks and mud would lie hidden by the hypnotic mosaic of fallen leaves. Even with the chilly temperatures, my decision to forego rain pants was a good one. I’m always amazed at the heat generated by hiking and I would have been way too hot and therefore sweaty and wet anyway with rain pants. At one point I was sitting on a log taking a break with my hair plastered flat, rain dripping down my face, starting to shiver as I was cooling down fast from inactivity, and I looked around at the lush forest, the impossibly bright yellow leaves and felt, simply, happy.

Most valuable gear in these conditions were my hiking poles—they saved me from falling innumerable times. The trail gods, however, got their chuckle a couple nights later when I did an inglorious face plant on my way to the privy in the dark, poleless.

Our first day was actually a half day as we didn’t start until noon, but even with the slow going, we managed 8 miles in under 5 hours. Arriving at the shelter, we met up with The Griz and Cool Breeze. And Keith was appreciative of the beer I had snuck into his pack the night before, but since he had unknowingly carried it all day, he was unwilling to share. CB hammocked outside and three of us stayed in the shelter. My Neo pad was extremely comfortable but I felt a bit of ground cold coming through so put a 3/16” closed cell foam (CCF) pad under it. With the added ground insulation, my 30-degree down bag kept me toasty all night even though temps were a few degrees below 30. The thin CCF pad is only 7 oz. and I’ll use it in conjunction with the Neo during the first 2 months of my AT hike.

Hands down the most difficult part of this shakedown hike occurred the next morning when I had to put on my still wet and VERY cold hiking clothes. My agonized expletives were very colorful .

Second day brought us intermittent light drizzle and temps in the mid-40’s. Very pleasant hiking, not as many rocks, and the distance of 11 miles found me tired but not exhausted. I wore liner socks under wool hiking socks and am pleased with my Salomon Goretex trail runners. They had good grip and kept my feet dry and warm and most importantly, blister-free. I wore gaiters which took most of the mud but they also kept the rain from running down my pants legs and into my shoes so the socks, shoes and gaiters all got a thumbs up for the AT. The shelter this night had a wonderful sleeping shelf which Keith commandeered. CB hammocked again, Griz tented and so did I.

Third day was going to be a short one, only 6 miles, and CB and Griz were heading for home, so we tarried over second and third cups of coffee and leisurely broke camp, hitting the trail about 10:00. We only had just under 6 miles to the next shelter which was high on a hill with a great view. Glorious, sunny day near 50 degrees. Heard but didn’t see a couple raptors before dark and owls off and on all night long. Tried an ambitious bear bag toss and failed so found a tree with a good horizontal limb a bit lower and was successful on the second try. Keith and I both agreed that taking the short day was a nice break and that we’d prefer to do that on the AT rather than taking a zero. I wonder if we’ll be of the same opinion after we’ve been out there for a month.

Started raining within minutes of turning in. Keith stayed in the shelter again and I tented. The tent is a keeper. Stayed dry, LOVE the two doors and the two vestibules, and has adequate ventilation to preclude interior condensation. Stopped raining while we broke camp in the morning but started again as we hit the trail on Day 4 for the 8-mile hike to the car. Main topic of conversation this last day was where we were going to stop to eat. Both agreed that as long as it was red and rare, we didn’t care if it was hamburgers or prime rib. So we got our first taste of trail hunger. My food bag only had a half of a granola bar and a couple of dried apricots in it when I got to the car.

Besides doing a shakedown of our gear, another goal of this hike was to see how we hike together. Found our hiking speeds are pretty much the same. I’m a little faster on the uphills and have more energy in the morning, he maintains the same speed throughout the day. He takes more breaks than me but I take longer ones. So we found ourselves mostly hiking alone but yo-yoing all day long which is fine with both of us.

ROUNDING THE FINAL TURN
All this preparation is finally entering the home stretch. My “to be done” list is getting shorter and shorter and am looking forward to a 3-week road trip in December. Several weekend cross-country skiing/camping trips planned for January and early February. And an adjustment to our start date which is now March 4th. I can’t wait!

Now if I can only talk Lars into hiking the AT...

Photos are at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30362319&l=c7c4989f6b&id=1127911417”

“Nice pictures!”