On Thursday, the Fourth of July, Dharma and I set out to hike the 36-mile Waterloo-Pinckney Trail. We’ve been meaning to hike this route for some time and the long weekend finally provided an opportunity to give it a go.
On Thursday, we hiked from Portage Lake (starting point in Chelsea) to Horseman’s Camp, which was approximately 14 miles of hiking. It was a tough day. The temperatures were hot and humid. We found ourselves caught in a thunderstorm mid-way through the route. And, we had to fight off a constant barrage of mosquitoes and ticks. It was a rough day made even more challenging by the conditions of the trail. Some portions were overgrown to the point of losing visibility of the route. Further, some portions of the trail were obliterated from horses and rain. Despite these challenges, we were pleased with our progress and managed to get a restorative night of sleep at the campground. In fact, we were so tired we slept through the sounds of the fireworks.
Day two on the trail was supposed to be the easiest. Well, at least in terms of distance. We set off around 8:30 a.m. from camp and our destination was Green Lake. That’s about 10 miles of hiking. We had hoped to take things easy so that we would be well prepared to make the final 13-mile push through to the finish on day three. Well, things did not go according to plan. The temperature was punishing. The heat index climbed into the mid-90s and the humidity was absolutely brutal. We managed to get to Cassidy Road, about 1.5 miles from Green Lake, before calling it quits. It was disappointing, but the right call. It was just too damn hot to be hiking with packs. At a minimum, the two-day journey provided us with the opportunity to test out several new pieces of gear.
We’re already preparing our return to the trail. Our aim is to finish off the final portion sometime soon. Although, when the temperature is a little cooler!
