Lake Superior shoreline at Little Todd

Overcast rules the sky when I finally arose myself from a night of restless slumber. An occasional rumble of thunder echoes over Lake Superior from an undiscerned direction. Between the thunder, the waves and the threat of the surrounding widowmakers, I did not get a very restful slumber. Unfortunately, the Minong Ridge Trail awaits, and it is not getting any shorter.

Dealing with my typical morning urge with a quick pee in the grass, I return to under my tarp to start the long process of taping up my blistered feet. Although soaking my feet in the cold water of Lake Superior surely helped, the blisters where still present and a little sensitive between my toes. Luckily, I have a lot of experience with blistrs. Any blisters present on my heel were scraped off long ago, and luckily the skin underneath is developed enough. A little bit of duct tape and I will be as good as new.

Section Stats:
Date: September 2, 2011
Length: 0.5 miles (0.5 total daily miles; 31.6 total trip miles)
Difficulty: Moderate (mostly uphill)

While fixing up my blisters, the sky grows darker and the wind begins to pick-up, making me regret setting up my trap with all these widowmakers waiting to fall. The possibility of a day of thunderstorms with torrential downpours starts rattling around in my brain. My resupply box is supposed to arrive at Windigo on Sunday afternoon, only two days from now, which does not allow an all-day rain delay.

I am bound and determined to get to North Lake Desor for the night, so I begin to stuff as much of my equipment as possible into my backpack. The tarp is left up, and my breakfast materials and rain gear stays out. My thinking is if I put my rain gear on right from the start it might just prevent any rain from falling.

As I set about making my morning oatmeal, the sky grows even darker and the wind becomes more intense. The waves crash against the Lake Superior shoreline with such ferocity, I half expect to see water just outside my tarp. Luckily, this does not come to pass, since I did not pack a raft with me.

When my oatmeal is finally cooked, the morning has turned to night. The dark clouds to the west are black, and the thunder, once in the distance, now grows louder and louder. I hurriedly gather the few pieces of equipment still scattered about my campsite and throw it under the tarp to protect it from the inevitable rain.

Grabbing my pan, with its cooked oatmeal still left uneaten, and I take shelter underneath my tarp. I slowly proceed to eat as the rumbling thunder becomes a crescendo, and lightening brightens the now dark sky. When the rain finally falls I am nearly finished with my breakfast and I stick my pan out in a feeble attempt to wash it out.

While watching the rain come down, I wonder where the early starters from Little Todd are on the trail now. I would not want to be on the exposed Minong Ridge right now, with the lightening so close. Today’s stretch of the trail to North Lake Desor is the shortest segment along the Minong, but supposedly the most strenuous due to the open rocky ridge and the numerous up and downs. Not exactly where I would want to be during thunder showers.

Campsite after thundershowers

As fast as it came, the rumbling thunder recedes, and the dark skies brighten a little. Not much rain fell at Little Todd, but somewhere must have gotten drenched. As the sun begins to peak through the lighter clouds, I start to disassemble what is left of my campsite. When the tarp comes down, I am committed; there will be no further rain delays today.

By the time I skip down to the shoreline for some final photographs, most of the dark clouds are long gone. Although there is ample blue sky now, there is still dark cloud masses scattered across the horizon. I remove my camera from its case at my hipbelt, take a few last minute photographs and then spin around and head back toward the Minong Ridge Trail before the dark clouds can catch me.

I stop at the toilet to take care of some business on my way back to the Minong Ridge Trail. Inside I find a plastic bag full of a lot of junk, including a pair of underwear. It is difficult to tell if the underwear is soiled or not, but why would someone leave it in a plastic bag if it were otherwise.

Little Todd Toilet

One thing of interest at the bottom of the bag is an empty small plastic bottle of Cutter’s insect repellant. Currently, I am using one to hold my all-natural repellant, but I did not have a second one to put in my resupply box, so I had to mail the entire large container.

Luckily, the Cutter’s bottle is NOT in contact with the underwear. Carefully, I extract the plastic bottle from the bag using some toilet paper and wrap it up without ever touching it. Unlike in the Adirondacks, the National Park Service keeps the toilets well-supplied with toilet paper. Too bad I brought at least a week’s supply with me, as well as another week’s in my resupply box.

By the time I emerge from the toilet, the sky has turned darker again. I begin to regret pulling up stakes and packing my tarp away but it is too late now, so prepare myself for another possible wet day as I head away from Little Todd Campground.

Unfortunately, the spur trail is almost entirely uphill on the way back to the Minong Ridge Trail. The only two exceptions are when crossing wet, shrubby areas, made even wetter by the recent rain fall.

Paper birch forest on way back to Minong Ridge Trail

After passing these wet areas, the trail returns to higher ground under full forest cover. The forest starts out as a beautiful paper birch monoculture, then shifts to mostly aspen before finally becoming a mixed forest of paper birch, aspen and spruce – just like a good deal of Isle Royale.

Soon I am back at the intersection with the Minong Ridge Trail. The sky remains dark, leaving me to stop and contemplate my options if a severe thunderstorm descends upon me. A little reconnaissance down the Minong Ridge Trail toward North Lake Desor reveals it almost immediately climbs to an open ridge, not the safest place to be during a thunderstorm.

Instead of continuing on, the most cautious course of action is to wait it out, and see what happens. Then again, I need to move forward to make my resupply in two days. Decisions, decisions.

Sign at Minong Ridge Trail

Minong Ridge

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