Woke up to cloudy skies, and flurries on Clearwater, but still thought, “Today is going to be a good day!” I think having the water hazard behind us relieved a lot of stress about this trip and we were now exiting the ‘super bear’ highway.

We had breakfast at Clearwater, and then departed for Watap overlook where the snow and wind really started whipping up. Again, I have videos on instagram of all of this @mn_lindsey. I hiked happily today with a cushion of pine needle beds, less rocks, roots, thimbleberries, and general overgrowth.

Our destination today was Gogebic Lake, just a litttle 7.9 miles today, an easy day, finally!

We hiked happily, and were so excited how easy the trail seemed. Even throughout the tornado section, the volunteers had done such an amazing job it was effortless walking through that area. THANK YOU TRAIL VOLUNTEERS!!!

Of course, lots of downed trees make for good homes, so once again we “bop, bop bop, or “yooo hooo’d” along the way just in case.

We arrived easily enough to Gogebic Lake but at 2:30 p.m. Although we were fully planning on taking an easy day, we thought it was such a waste of daylight. The only issue was that the next campsite was 6.2 miles away, and we weren’t sure we’d make it there by nightfall. I am not the fastest hiker at 5’ tall, so huge mileage days are a little lost on me.

Bre ended up offering to take my URSAK so I could hike lighter and faster. We decided to go for it! There would be no stealth/disperse camping though because the only water source was the next campsite 6.2 miles away.

The fear of hiking in the dark, and what I can only say was the power of God propelled me to hiking FAST/power walking, and practically trail running for the next 6.2 miles up some of the most dramatic elevation changes on the entire trail.

I pushed, and pushed, and Bre had a hard time keeping up with me (so she says), but there was - no way - I was hiking in the dark.

We fantasized about there being another person or group camped at our campsite upon arrival with a fire going already, welcoming us to stay with them, but we shrugged it off as wishful thinking.

Unlike the Superior Hiking Trail, folks don’t share campsites in the BWCA, even on trail, but I was prepared to beg anyone to let us stay on the outskirts of the campsite if need be.

After what seemed like an incredible amount of time, we finally arrived to the spur trail just as the sun started setting. A true miracle. We hiked the 0.5 mile treck down towards the lake, and I tried smelling for fire, but I couldn’t smell anything, until we round a corner, and I saw a man chopping wood!

I realized, we made it! There were three of them, and they had a fire going. Immediately I called out, “Sir, Sir can we please stay here, we promise to stay out of your way”.

They were a little startled as they didn’t expect two women to come out of the woods as the sun was setting, but all in all they agreed, and we got to stay.

They too were hiking, but were doing a yo-yo from McFarland/Pine/Gogebic, and back. Turns out two of them were marathoners, and they were all up from Iowa. We were so grateful.

Before the weather started back up, we all had our respective dinners together (as they allowed us to sit near the fire with them). Mine was once again Camp Chow, Beef & Chili Mac.

After we got our food bags hung, the weather started back up, and we fell asleep fast to their camaraderie around the fire (they stuck it out), lulling us to sleep.