Hatchet Lake east

Another cool, beautiful morning dawns on Isle Royale at the Hatchet Lake Campground, which I greet with my usual early morning pee run. With the campground completely to myself, there is no reason for any discretion, so I hold out until becoming a near emergency, as I am reluctant to break the seal of my warm sleeping bag.

Waiting proves to be my undoing though, as I discover during the pee run that my tweaked left groin (from way back at North Lake Desor along the Minong Ridge Trail) is much worse, causing me to grimace repeatedly due to a more significant and constant pain.

As I search for an adequate peeing spot, the sore groin forces me to waddle through the surrounding forest. Each step is small, calculated, and agonizing as if I am an old man equipped with a walker. How am I possibly going to hike out of here when just going to the restroom is a struggle?

Thankfully, I find an adequate spot and relieve myself, before the unthinkable happens and I pee myself. Then again, I probably would not reveal the unthinkable happening, even if it did so.

Not wanting to waste too much of the morning, I return to my sleeping bag only briefly before I re-bandage my poor, beat-up feet. The blister sores on my left foot from the Minong Ridge Trail healed nicely, but I lightly bandage them all the same, just in case the new skin is not strong enough to take the abuse in my hiking boots.

Section Stats:
Date: September 9, 2011
Length: 0.6 miles (0.6 total daily miles; 93.9 total trip miles)
Difficulty: Difficult (due to climb and groin injury)

The right heel is another story altogether. These blisters are fresher, from the Feldtmann Ridge and beyond, and they need much more attention. After some Spenco 2nd Skin, and a Duct tape covering, my right foot is good to go. For now. The same is not true about my poor left groin. No amount of bandaging can cure that pain.

The bird life at Hatchet Lake is quite active this morning, which helps to distract me from the pain. A common loon consistently calls off towards the northeastern tip of the lake. A white-throated sparrow sings its “Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada” song, one of my favorites, and possibly one of the last times I will hear it until next year. A pileated woodpecker and common raven call nearby, even a great horned owl hoots from across the lake early on.

The plentiful bird activity continues throughout my cold breakfast of Grape Nuts and granola cereal mix at campsite #3 (point #93). Now many white-throated sparrows are singing, one after the other in response, creating a daisy chain of songs. I hear an American Redstart overhead, and then suddenly the male appears nearby, flashing his orange spots against the black background of his plumage. A winter wren sings down by the water, another one of my favorites, while a black-capped chickadee sings near my campsite.

Even the red squirrels contribute to the morning cornucopia of sound. Several chatter repeatedly, as if they are protesting my presence. Again. Or, perhaps they heard about the happenings at McCargoe Cove earlier in my trip, and are plotting their revenge.

How many different critters vocalizing at Hatchet Lake can you identify on this very early morning recording? Or on these two recordings made later in the morning (two and three)?

Hatchet Lake west

And then I hear a weird sounding woodpecker calling from up on the hillside behind my campsite. Could it be? Using my binoculars, I try to find the bird, so I can either prove or disprove my suspicions. Finally, with my neck now hurting as much as my groin, I see it, and as I thought, it is a black-backed woodpecker. This boreal woodpecker appears out of place, flying from paper birch to paper birch, when typically they almost exclusively forage on spruce or fir. Then again, spruce and fir are never too far away on Isle Royale.

My left groin feels worse the more I walk around, rather than the opposite, as I would have thought. Initially, I thought it was just a tight muscle, but the constant aching makes me think it might be a strained groin muscle now. A strained muscle could prove quite an impediment to my plans for a long penultimate day on Isle Royale. Now, there is another issue to worry about, above and beyond my poor blistered feet.

I pop a few ibuprofens, pack up my stuff, and start hiking back toward the Hatchet Lake Trail, figuring it might take me a very long time to get to West Chickenbone Lake Campsite in my current condition. My pace is slow, anything faster and excruciating pain shoots through my groin.

Paper birch forest along Hatchet Lake Trail

Upon leaving the campground intersection (point #92), and climbing the steep trail through the paper birch forest back toward the Greenstone Ridge Trail, the groin pain increases exponentially, increasing my concern on whether making it back to Rock Harbor in three days is even possible. Different scenarios play through my mind, everything from catching a water taxi or other boat along the Lake Superior shoreline or crawling the entire way back on my stomach.

Lucikly, the pain decreases as I reach the Greenstone Ridge trail intersection (point #91), whether it is due to the groin muscles stretching out, or the ibuprofen kicking in, who can say. I am just overjoyed that the pain is less, relieving my anxious mind a little about making it to the ferry at Rock Harbor in the next three days.

There is still a chance I will make it off this rock, after all.

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