Buck30 - North Country Trail Journal - 2018

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I really liked North Dakota. I'm not sure everyone would agree with this but I loved the constant wide open views and easy walking. North Dakota only has 3 main areas of trail. Lonetree WMA, Lake Ashtabula and the Sheyenne Grasslands. This is like maybe 150 miles total of the 445 miles in ND. Lonetree needs to be mowed annually and was in poor shape when I was there, Lake Ashtabula seemed practically abandoned and was in absolutely awful shape and the Sheyenne Grasslands were in excellent condition. There is also the McClusky and Rockford canals which are like 115 miles of dirt roads along the canal and enjoyable. The rest of North Dakota is basically remote dirt/gravel farm road walking. I loved it. Super flat and easy and really scenic with big views and probably the most bird life I've ever hiked with except New Zealand/Australia.

The main problems with ND are the wind and camping. The state is one of the windiest in the country and man, when it blows it's brutal. There were a couple days where I could barely keep walking the wind was so strong and unbearable. This also plays into camping. It's so windy so often that you almost absolutely have to have trees to camp except there basically isn't a single natural tree on the NCT in ND. I'm mostly serious. Except for a few small sections there are basically no trees other than the shelter belts which separate farm fields. These were the go to camping spots. I would use google satellite to pick out a shelter belt at days end, making sure it wasn't near any houses or people and then I would just slip in the trees. Yes, technically this is private property but there is really no other way to do it unless you are vehicle supported the whole way or get picked up by trail angels all the time combined with hiking 30+ mile days when needed to find a legal camp site. I feel fine with what I did. I never make fires and barely had any impact at all. Maybe down the line if there are dozens or hundreds of hikers this is an issue but practically no one has hiked North Dakota so it's unlikely to be an issue at the moment even though if you said this the NCTA facebook group would tear you apart. I also camped in the occasional WMA, the canals and the trail sections but these are few and far between.

As for bugs, I had really really bad ticks in June. I also had pretty hot temperatures at times in the 90s. It was never really cold for me. Heather, who started a week earlier in mid May had her first week with a wicked strong head wind and cooler temps. Most people who are thru hiking would probably start April 1 which is going to be most likely quite cold and possibly significant snow still around. May 1 is probably a more ideal start date if you aren't thru hiking.

Lastly, to get to the start I flew into Bismarck (or you could do a one way car rental) and took an Uber for about $ 100. There is a cheap motel at the start in Pick City.

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Mostly because of the season I hiked Minnesota I didn't enjoy it as much. Honestly, there's almost nowhere good to be in the dead of summer on the NCT. The bugs are going to be horrible and the heat and humidity will be horrible too. Minnesota was no exception.

Minnesota has a lot of miles as it winds around the state. To start it's a busy roadwalk to Fergus Falls and eventually beyond to around mile 105. These roads were much busier and paved than North Dakota which was disappointing. Then you have a long trail section of around 250 miles to Grand Rapids. For me this was brutal. It was only partially well maintained (more maintenance was done later in the year), the mosquitoes and ticks were beyond insane and it was hot and humid and really just a green tunnel of forest. If I stopped to tie my shoes I was clouded by mosquitoes. I once picked 62 ticks off my shoes/socks/pant legs at break, including many deer ticks which carry Lyme. This was a common occurrence. This was mostly due to my timing, if you start earlier or later this section will be fine and you'll have the bug insanity in a different section.

After Grand Rapids you join the Mesabi Trail which is a long paved bicycle path with lots of towns and gas stations along the way. Maybe not exactly wilderness hiking but it was fine as a long connector. Then you head up to the Boundary Waters and to the Kekakabic and Border Route trails. These trails are quite scenic and very rugged and remote. Both were in pretty poor shape. The Kek was much worse off than the Border route. Historically these trails were basically abandoned so the current condition is a massive improvement. There are workgroups that do several work trips a year, I imagine it's just tough to keep up with the insane growth.

After the Boundary Waters you head down the Superior Hiking Trail for 300 miles to Wisconsin. The SHT is mostly in excellent condition and you will see many hikers. The northern part is a little less maintained and the entire trail has a good amount of ups and downs. The towns along the way are small, touristy and expensive. Choose your town/motel carefully. The SHT is nice but personally the green tunnel is only so scenic to me. The bugs for me were around but not bad at all. During prime season I hear the bugs can be terrible including the deer and stable flies.

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Wisconsin is short but pretty nice. The entry and exit are road walks but in between are long stretches of trail through the Chippewa National Forest which was in quite good condition. Not much else to say, I blew through it in 10 days and enjoyed Wisconsin.

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