Thursday, September 06, 2018, 7 p.m.
Strup Lake campsite, Kekekabic Trail, 7.7 miles (30.2 miles total)

Colin actually had service last night on his cell phone, so he checked the weather and found out a low of 36° and a frost warning were issued for our area. Instead of keeping the fly down, we battened up the hatches. He wandered down to the lake and watched the stars for a while and said Mars was the brightest he’s ever seen it.

I tried some new cold sleeping techniques, including sleeping in my raincoat so I could continue to use my down puffy coat for my pillow, and I put the foot box of my quilt inside the plastic compactor bag I’m keeping my clothes in this trip. One idea worked great – the raincoat, the other resulted in a condensation trap and soaked my quilt. But I slept very warmly.

I don’t think it actually got down into the 30s though. I woke up at 7 a.m. to a laked socked-in by fog and a very cool, wet morning. The fog was so thick you couldn’t see the far bank of the lake only 100 feet away. Colin got up later and a strong sun broke through the fog soon after. We started hanging up gear to dry it out. We took another long, leisurely morning in camp, so leisurely we didn’t get out of there until 10 a.m.!

As I’d hoped, the hiking was much easier today with much less downfall. The stretch of trail from Medas Lake to Strup Lake is in beautiful condition. We took a short break at the Thomas Lake portage, then hiked through young forest recovering from the massive 1999 blowdown storm. We crossed at least four beaver ponds. The guide said that they could be hard to navigate across, but we had no trouble. We climbed up a low ridge to the north of Mosquito Lake and kept hoping for clearing of some kind in which to eat lunch. No luck. No vistas today.

We’d hiked way past my hanger stage and I got crabby, stumbly and ultimately tripped and fell flat on my face. We just sat on the trail and ate. We got to Strup by 3 p.m., very exhausted despite the easier hiking today. We tried to nap, but really just rested and read for a while. I’m hoping we feel stronger tomorrow. It’s both frustrating and scary to be halfway down this trail and so tired.

Looks like will have a more challenging hike tomorrow with more views and longer miles.

Colin crawls under downfall on the Kekekabic Trail

Gorgeous Strup Lake