For whatever reason, there was a backup on the bridge to the halfway point. I have never experienced this before, probably since I usually travel so early in the morning. The bridge is made to move - ALOT. I did not know that before. It is a really crazy, weird feeling. The backup lasted about an hour and people were even turning their cars off! The lady at the toll booth said they were not expecting such traffic and pointed out that the other side, heading downstate, was backed up all the way to US 2.
Once I got back on the ground, I made pretty good time to Marquette. I stopped at the Michigan Welcome Center, sent texts to everyone to let them know I arrived, stretched my legs and made the final leg of the trip to the cabin.
It was a crazy hot and humid 90 degree day, but luckily it had begun to cool a little by the time I found Harlow Lake Rd. Storms were predicted later in the evening and I just wanted to get settled before any rain began. It took me a few attempts to find the correct place to turn as there were a couple of trail heads marked "Harlow" but I finally figured it out after turning google maps back on. This was the last place I had any cell service and coverage was sketchy the whole way out of Marquette, so by some stroke of luck I was able to get connected and find the road.
There is a clear spot marked for Cabins 1, 2 & 3 to park. I kept on driving and eventually found the trailhead for Cabins 4 & 5. But there were 2 paths, side by side. Which one do I take? And as I am trying to pull out my first round of gear to hike 1/2 mile down the path, I am being attacked by black flies and mosquitos. There was no breeze, just humidity and a choice to make - the small skinny path along the water or the larger two-track beyond the metal gate. I took the larger path.
Wrong choice, but I was eventually able to see the cabin on the hill below. At this point, I really dont care about anything and just want to get inside the cabin, so I cut thru the woods, going down the hill thru the brush (and probably poison ivy, etc) to get to the cabin. Luckily I was in the right spot, found my code and entered it into the padlock to enter.
The cabin has two double bunks, a nice table with bench on either side and a wood burning stove in the corner. It was sweet, quaint and going to be home for the next week, but I still had a lot to hike into the cabin, so set my first load down and took the lake trail back to the car.
My second load was the worst. I had my craft bag, which is like a carry-on with wheels, filled with my food for the week and a plastic tub filled with all of my cooking gear, flashlights, etc. In theory I would place the tub onto the wheeled bag and pull them both along the half mile path to the cabin. I knew there would be roots, but didnt take into consideration how many, how high, how narrow the path, etc. This was my first lesson learned: don't try getting it all done in a hurry just to get it out of the way! About 100 yards down the path was the first time the plastic tub slid off the rolling bag and all my belongings scattered onto the path. Then again...and again...and yes again...but I kept picking up the pieces, shoving them back into the tub and dragging the bag again.
Then by some miracle, some kind stranger happened by. He was staying with his wife in Cabin 5 for the night. He grabbed the plastic tub, carried it the rest of the way down the trail and dropped it off on the path in front of the cabin for me. I realized after that my shirt was saturated in sweat, my hair dripping and my face was doing that beet red thing when I am not doing well with the heat. He must have thought I was never going to make it thru the week.
And at this point I was doubting the entire trip. I still had one more trip to make to the car and back. This is a 3 mile round trip, just to get the necessities into the cabin. I was tired from driving, dehydrated from sweating, cranky for getting myself into this situation....and then I turn around to see what I thought was a mouse crawling all the way up the screen door of the cabin and trying to get in!!! I screamed, then screamed at him, hit my hand on the screen to try to pop him off, slammed the wood door shut, sat down and decided that was it - I was going home! I can deal with rustic. I cannot deal with vermin in the cabin (at this point i was convinced they must be living inside, too, and that I was going to get chewed up at night and/or die of the plague)
Did I mention I was totally dehydrated? One of the last things Aaron said to me was "watch the water"...yea, yea, I know. Only I didnt. And I was really feeling it. In hindsight, I am pretty sure this had to do with my negative attitude and thoughts of "how am I ever going to make it thru the week?"
I sat down at the picnic table, which is near the fire ring. It was the strangest sensation, I swear it felt like the table was moving. Or I was "pulsing". Maybe I was feeling weird from driving all day, like that feeling in your knees when you get off of being on a boat for a long time. Was I having a heart attack? OK, this is exactly the stupid shit everyone warned me about - now I went and over-did it. Once I realized I wasn't dying and was pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating, I started to try to figure out what was going on. The ground was moving!! For real. The ground is really dark brown dirt made up of decayed leaves over roots. This cabin is surrounded by so many trees you can't see up to view the sky/starts very well and there isn't much of a view of the lake either. I think the wind was blowing just right that the trees were moving and so were the roots which made it feel like a bit of an earthquake under my feet. I didn't like it, it was really unsettling and I even had a quick though of "great...did N. Korea set off a bomb somewhere??" I didn't experience the ground moving any other night and still wonder if I lost my mind, but I swear it was real. But I had to just get busy and get stuff done and put it out of my head.
Now the rest of the set-up chores had to begin...Once I was sure the rats were gone (yes they got much bigger in my head), I had to go find the well with the hand pump and fill my water bags. I drank many cups of water before making the final trip to the car for my creature comforts - fold up chair, knitting, favorite pillow and photography equipment. Then, with the last light of the day, I made my fire and heated up dinner. I had no energy left for actual cooking, I tore open a packet of "Santa Fe Steak, Rice and Beans", heated it up over the propane burner, practically inhaled the whole thing and got started on my indoor chores - setting up my lanterns, mosquito netting over the bed, some old sheets on the rubber coated mattress and sleeping bag on top. The clouds rolled in and wind picked up a bit, but still no rain. I got out of my damp sweaty clothes, and ended the night with Nutella smeared on my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies and a benedryl. I was too tired to notice it was absolute blackness without a fire or lantern and never freaked out at the remoteness, quiet, dark or any of that...just the thought of those damn mice coming back! It was too hot to get into the sleeping bag so I wrapped up in a sheet and slept hard.
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