When I was finally ready to continue on, I spotted a tick, and worse yet a deer tick, on my leg. I cringed to think how many ticks I’d be picking off over the next three days. And I’d need to manage this before I got home since deer ticks can spread disease after a day of attachment. Luckily, this stop did not set the tone of the remainder of the journey. I set off down the road knowing the next several miles may be the hardest mentally of the journey with several extended sections on highways. With my heavy pack, my gait was a shuffle as I tried to minimize my pack bounce and the chafing that I had hoped wouldn’t be an issue on this FKT (unfortunately I was wrong). Although I didn’t begin chafing as severely as last time on the SHT, the entire width of my back chafed, rather than just one side.
I dreaded the road walks, but filtering my water on the go over the course of 10-15 minutes staved off boredom. I would have preferred to do this on the uphills since I wasn’t coordinated enough to run while filtering my water. There weren’t any hills, so I looked for the slightest incline to justify walking. Unlike the SHT, I opted to stow my poles for most of these road miles to free up my hands to filter water and eat.
The sun was going down, so I was glad to not have the sun beating down on me, which would make this section brutal. That night, the clear sky provided an incredible display of stars with the lack of light pollution and sliver of moon. Additionally, the frog serenades were beautiful each evening. With all the deer I saw during the day, I couldn’t believe I never saw any eyes reflecting off my headlamp over the three nights.
I was happy to only encounter a handful of cars after dark with only a single car slowing down where a driver asked me what the hell I was up to. I said in a chipper voice, “Just going for a run,” as I observed the glow of his cigarette and dent and duct tape near his front bumper. Luckily the answer satisfied the driver and he continued on. I decided that if I encountered any more vehicles as the night progressed, I would mention that I was training for an overnight race, but I never had to use my scripted answer. When I unexpectedly came to a “Road Closed” sign, I hoped it was for soft road conditions since there was no warning on the NCT trail status webpage. I just hoped there wasn’t a bridge out, since I’d need to backtrack since it would be stupid to ford a frigid remote river in the dark. On the plus side, this meant no more car encounters.
Back on the trail
At mile 54, I finally got back on trails at the Moose River Trailhead. There were several miles of flat, loose rocks through the Douglas County Forest that often forced me to walk. Turns out this would be the most technical section of trail I would encounter over the duration of my journey.
The frost was so mesmerizing I couldn’t fixate on it, otherwise I’d get dizzy. According to weather data, the temperature dipped five degrees colder than the forecast, down to 26F, and remained below freezing for eight hours. When I reached an open field in the lowlands of the Saint Croix Flowage that seemed to continue forever, the radiant cooling was bone chilling. In a few spots standing water on the trail was forming ice, although not thick enough to bear my weight. I took solace in that at least it wasn’t full sun. I wasn’t drinking much, so my protein drink resembled a Wendy’s Frosty as I dumped the snowball into my mouth – nothing like also being chilled from the inside! Then I realized my water filter may be in danger of freezing. I couldn’t suck any water out of it, so I simply turned it upside down and hoped for the best. With the slow filtration rate, it wouldn’t be terribly catastrophic if it had froze and was now damaged (it ended up being fine).
I entered Solon Springs just before first light. It was cool to see the NCT transversing the community. The world’s longest train came exactly when I needed to cross the train tracks. Eventually I crossed and entered Lucius Woods County Park. I wasted several minutes hunting for a water spigot, but all the water in the campground was still off (and for good reason with the frigid temperatures!)
