Black River State Forest - Smrekar Trails

     The Black River State Forest of Wisconsin offers a variety of outdoor activities.  The most notably is hunting, but a close second is the ATV trails.  In the Winter there are a set of cross country ski trails.  These trails work very well as hiking trails in the Summer.  They are not frequented as hiking trails.  Except, of course, by me.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/StateForests/blackRiver/

GPS Track
    
     Millston is the very popular entry point to the Black River State Forest.  The Pigeon Creek Campground, ATV trailhead, and two ski/hiking trail systems are a couple miles to the East of Millston.  There is gas and food as well.

     On a cloudy day in late May I took the 45 minute drive North to Millston and parked at the trailhead for the Wildcat Mound trails.  Directly across the road is the back side of the Smrekar trails.  I've hiked Wildcat a couple times, the most notable on a neat little Winter hike two years ago.  Made a hibernating porcupine angry.  I'd only hike about 1/2 mile of the lower Smrekar trails back in Fall of 2010.  Today I would tackle most of the trail system.

     The two trail systems are divided into 7 different loops.  Wildcat, Red Oak, Norway Pine, North, Central, Ridge, and South.  They pretty much describe themselves.  There are three connector trails for a couple of the loops.
     Map and literate can be found at : http://dnr.wi.gov/forestry/publications/pdf/FR-168.pdf

     My path today would take me from the Wildcat parking area to the North leg of the North Loop, the Ridge trail, the West part of the Central loop, and then back to the parking lot.
     I locked the car at 14:32.  The sky was threatening thunderstorms.  I doubted whether to come at all, but I just had to get out on the trail.  The need to get sweaty, dirty, and bitten by bugs was just too much.  The temps earlier in the day were mid 80's but now had dropped down into the mid 70's.  A fairly stiff wind blew from the West.  A storm was coming.  The first half mile was all through pine plantation and I had my rain jacket at the ready.

     The map, as expected in these loggable areas, does not show every path.  About 15 minutes in a recently used path cut across the trail running East to West.  I was expecting an intersection soon, but this was not it.
     At 14:55 I'd made the intersection to the Ridge trail.  The intersection is really more of a "two paths in a wood diverge" kind of intersection.  Stay LEFT!

     To this point the trail has been flat.  Shortly after the intersection, though, I was suprised to find myself in the middle of a climb.  The trail winds along the side of a bowl and continues to climb.  Just when you'd expect to start leveling, the trail turns and continues to rise.

     By 15:15 I was walking along a very narrow ridge.  The ridge snaked along with a few PUDs (pointless ups and downs).  I institued a mandatory 10 minute tick check.  I'd already pulled four of those nasty creatures off my shoes and leg in the last 10 minutes.

     I must digress here.  I hate ticks.  I vote to eradicate them entirely.  I don't buy into any notion they play a role in the ecology except to sicken and kill people and animals.  The predators they do have should be shamed and beaten for such a poor showing of skill.  Ehrlichiosis is a dangerous disease caused by ticks.  I came down with that in 2011.  I was very very sick.  You cannot heal yourself with this infection.  You need drugs.  You need medical care.  You need a wife that can handle the pressure of seeing her husband pass out on the way to urgent care.  Yeah.  Fevers that last 8 hours and subside for only two.  Muscle cramps.  That's the good part.  The bad part is Doxycycline.  Some people can handle that drug ok.  Some people, like me, need the car pulled over so they can vomit on the side of the road.
     I hate ticks.

     Up on the ridge the wind was a bit fierce.  Taking a break on a bench with an overlook I had to secure my backpack.  The wind was enough to blow it off the bench.  The good news is that with the wind the gnats and mosquitoes were practically non-existent.  Well, not practically, but I wasn't killing them left and right.
     I hate gnats.  They don't bother some people.  They bother me.  The last two years (2011-2012) I've not been able to step outside for more than 3 or 4 minutes without being swarmed by gnats.  I do not exaggerate this.  Swarmed - 3 to 4 minutes.  I've had a canoe trip nearly ruined by gnats.

View from Ridge Trail

     The view from the ridge was dark.  Although no rain had come to me, the sky was a dark dark gray.  In the distance I could see bluffs obscured by rain.  The storms were out there only a few miles distant.
The wildlife was not very abundant along the Ridge trail, but I suspect the high wind played a factor there.    The woods had long ago transitioned from pine to mess of Oak, Hickory, etc that make up the bulk of the Black River State Forest.  Heavy undergrowth.  I was able to get a good picture of butterfly on tree.  That'll make the wife jealous.  I had to wait 5 minutes for the little guy to decide to settle down.

     The intersection of Ridge and Central came along at 15:56.  A few mintues later the intersection of Central and South was passed.  I declined to do the short South loop today.  Save that for another trip.  Once off the Ridge the trail is once again a flat, flat, flat, wide ski and mountain bike trail.  By 16:03 I went through the Smrekar parking lot.  The bathrooms were being cleaned by a rather unfriendly lady.  Decided I could tinkle in the woods rather than disturb her job.  I've done the janitorial thing before.  I wasn't too happy then either.
     The West part of the Central trail has a mix of pine plantations and some younger fir trees.  Naturally, the ubiquitous oak and hickory as well.  The forest along this stretch is shorter.  Probably logged about 10 years ago.
     Along this stretch the sky became very dark, the wind dropped off, and the temperature dropped 10 degrees in a few minutes.  Out came the rain jacket again... and for nothing.  The rain simply refused to fall.  No, wait, here it comes, spit, spatter, nope.  Not going to rain. 
     The reduction in wind allowed the birdsong to be heard.  The crows earned the day, though.  A young crow was clearly upset about something.
     I'd only taken one 10 minute break and it was time to do so again.  At 16:30 I sat down on a stump just off the trail.  A large part of the inner of the Central loop had recently been logged.  Likely done so last Summer or Fall.  Not every tree was taken down and not all that were downed were taken out.  I've seen clear cut areas before and this did not quite qualify.  Perhaps 90% of the tree cover was harvested, but enough stood to still provide a forest feel.  The view opened up giving a feel to the lay of the land.  I'm not entirely sure what to compare this to.  I had some notion of the feeling I've had when break into the sub-alpine in the Cascades.  No, not quite that.  The effect was very interesting.  The picture I took does not do justice to the scene.
Tick number 12 crawling on the stump.  Tick 13 and 14 on my boots.  Time to move along.

Logged area of Central loop

     I was not hiking particularly fast today, nor was the terrain overly challenging.  The Ridge trail provided some short climbs and some PUDs, but overall this was an easy hike.  Still, I was pooped after just a couple hours on the trail.

     At 17:24 I unlocked the car.  6.78 miles in just under 3 hours.