By Matt Thompson
Trip participants: Mark Thole, Sam Maeder, Laura Huberty, Annie Kohman, Marti Norris, Kevin McNutt, Jeff McGinn, Charlie Urbia, Mike Ayotte, Matt Thompson, and Jamie O’Day
Alumni assistant: Patty Heien
Staff: Doug Berg and Ramona Anderson
We got underway at 6:30 a.m Tuesday, September 8th 1998. What a program! School had only been in session three days and Mini-School had a major trip out.
We stopped for breakfast at Mini-School’s favorite morning restaurant, the Grant House in Rush City, Minnesota, where everyone, especially Charlie, pigged out big time. After that it was a hard all-day drive to Grand Marais, Michigan, 575 miles from home.
We stayed in a campground along Lake Superior. After a beef stew dinner and a meeting down behind the sand dunes on the shore at which we discussed our expectations, we headed off to bed, looking forward to the big hike tomorrow.
The next morning was beautiful, clear and blue. After Mini-School’s favorite oatmeal breakfast, Doug and Ramona took us out to Grand Marais ranger station where we had to wait for them to shuttle the vehicles to the other end of the trail. While we waited we hiked to a waterfall, listened to Hank Toll, the local ranger, tell us about the Pictured Rocks area, and ate lunch. Bossy Patty kept us together and everyone behaved.
We got hiking by early afternoon, and even though our trek today was only 4 miles, new muscles and heavy packs caused some moans and groans. “Why didn’t I get in shape for this hike like Doug told me to” was the common phrase.
Our first campsite, Masse homestead, had no water so Kevin, Charlie and I hiked off to find some. We finally found a guy who gave us a few gallons from what looked like a gas can {it wasn’t}.
After dinner most everyone went hiking in the huge sand dunes. It was cool like a moonscape, and the hiking was hard, but fun. You could roll down the dunes, getting your hair and clothes full of sand, but the climb back up was tough. But it sure got dark fast. We all headed back to camp. After we got back Doug had a meeting. He counted noses. Just as he said “Where’s Sam?”, we heard Sam’s cry for help. We organized a search and in ten minutes Sam was found.
The next day, again clear and beautiful thanks to our tandem weather girls, Laura and Annie, worried everyone as it was a 12 mile hike, one of our biggest days. After breakfast we set out, and hiking hard, we covered 7 miles by lunch. Doug says it’s always best to try to get over half your distance done by lunch so the afternoon seems shorter. Still, it was one of the longest, hardest days I’ve ever spent. Late in the afternoon I saw a sign which said 1.6 miles to camp. That kind of cheered me up, but it seemed like 4 or 5 miles. Still, the campsite was beautiful. There was a nice creek where everyone washed up and the beach we were on, 12 mile beach, a 12 mile sand beach with no cabins, docks, swimming areas, just sand.
Tired as I was, I was on cook crew. On Mini-School trips two people are assigned to cook crew every day. Their job is to get the food out, organize it, assist Doug in preparing it, then clean up. After I got my job done, I crashed.
Our next destination was easier. We hiked to Coves Group Campsite, about eight miles. We hiked six by lunch and, since we were making good time, we had a little more leisurely lunch than usual. During lunch time Doug and Ramona divided us into three groups. Each group made a sand sculpture. Doug and Ramona were the judges and the members of the winning group all got an extra unit. A beaver was the winning sculpture. The others were a canoe and an obscenity, which was immediately disqualified.
I figured the last two miles after lunch would be a piece of cake. That was before Kevin and I decided to follow Mike Ayotte. He led us about two miles down the wrong path. We hiked through the woods figuring the trail had to meet with the other trail. After an hour of wandering through the woods and thinking we might have to set up camp by ourselves, we found the trail again. We also found Laura and Annie who had also gotten lost down by the beach. Before long we were at camp.
After dinner Doug read The Fox Man to us. It’s a really cool story, even better if read in the wilderness.
Our last day was 13 miles. We had a campsite reserved if we didn’t make it, but it was no problem. Packs were light, as we had eaten all our food, legs were stronger, lungs were stronger and the trails weaving in and out from the forest to the lake, were fantastic. We had lunch at an overlook where we could see a tour boat taking people to the log slide which was over 30 miles away. It felt pretty good knowing that we had hiked this distance.
The last 5 miles, more up and down, went very slow. But then, there was the van, which we hadn’t seen for a week. We drove to a campground and got there just as the rain started pouring down. We set up camp, went out to eat a sit down restaurant meal, spent a soggy night, and drove home the next day, ending another great Mini-School trip.