Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trip Report -- May 1995
Sunday, 5/21/95
I slept in my car at the trail head. I put down the the back seat
of my Geo Storm, stuck my backpack between the front seat and the folded
down back seat and could almost stretch out. I got up just before 6am,
but didn't have any water so I simply packed my stuff and started hiking.
Because it was sprinkling I did as much as I could in the car and didn't
end up leaving until 7:05am.
The trail follows roadbed for the first 1/2 mile. I could see from
the beginning the trail was wet. I never went over my boots, but I
was constantly trying to avoid it on the wet, sloppy trail. I I head
one canoe before the first set of rapids. By the time I got there,
I was really getting thirsty and hungry. I stopped and got water and
took a picture of the trail near the river here.
While waiting for the iodine tablet to dissolve, I walked up another .3 mile
to a rock over looking the river. Just before getting there a group
of 4 passed on the portage which is on the other side of the river.
At the rock I ate a Wild Berry Power Bar and drank some water - it really
helped give me a boost.
About 10:30am or 11am a very low flying float plane sailed overhead east
to west. It seemed too low to be legal, but maybe it was USFS on official
business.
With little excitement I made it to Devil's Cascade just after 11am.
I took three pictures. One picture of the upper
part of the falls looking upstream to Lower Pauness,
one picture of the gorge-type middle section, and
one picture of a lower flatter section. I ate my bagel, took off
my socks and boots to dry my feet. My feet got cold and it started
to drizzle again. I ran into another party of 3 or 4. I started
hiking again by noon.
About a mile after Devil's Cascade, my knee started hurting - maybe early
signs of arthritis the doctor warned me of years ago when he removed all
my cartilage from my left knee. I continuously couldn't find myself
on the map. For someone who always likes to know exactly where he is,
this wasn't fun. The sloughs on the map and in reality didn't seem
to match up. As much as I didn't like the uncertainty of the map, I
like the sloughs. Water and openings in the woods always add to the
experience and help me realize I'm making progress. I take a couple
pictures. The first picture is one of an extremely
wet "beaver dam" for lack of a better term. The second picture
is of some open water in one of the sloughs.
I jumped a good sized deer in a dry slough halfway to Heritage Creek Portage.
I thought I would be able to see Heritage Creek before the portage, but there
was no sign of the creek. The sun started to come out and it warmed
up enough so that the blackflies where quite bad. I took a break at
the portage intersection, but mostly fended off the flies - at least they
didn't bite. After the portage my knee began hurting to the point that
it slowed me down.
I left the portage by 2:30pm. Heritage Creek had plenty of water
and was pretty. I was lucky to find a log jam to cross the river
on. Three-forths of the way from the creek to Pageant Lake I stopped
to rest and found I'd lost my map. I went back and found it only 10
minutes back. There where a lot of blowdowns after the portage that
weren't even cut due to the sheer number of them. I reached Pageant
Lake at 4:23pm. I was extremely glad to see camp with my knee that
was doing me in.
Once in camp, I set up the tent, found some
firewood and started a fire. I ate around 6:30pm - some fettuccine
noodles with alfredo sauce. It was a beautiful afternoon evening on
this out of the way lake. I took a couple pictures, one in the
late afternoon and one in the early evening
. I did some luckless fishing, had some hot chocolate and hung the
pack. Although the black flies have been bad around camp, I couldn't
ask for better weather. It's warmed up to about 60 degrees and the
skies have cleared. I dried my socks out and have had a nice evening.
After 2 Advil, my knee feels fine. Early to bed and hope to have an
early morning.
Monday, 5/22/95
I couldn't believe I woke to rain. It was totally clear when I went
to bed. I woke up at 5:25am, but stayed in bed until after 7am due
to the rain. The rain pretty much stopped while I broke camp at 8:35am.
It started again as I broke camp and sprinkled some of the next two hours.
The trail to Rangeline Lake was fairly bad with blowdowns. In some
places I even doubted the way because it was so logstrewn. Pageant
Creek was nice, but nothing special. Rangeline Creek was "pristine"
looking. Rangeline Lake campsite gets a solid 9 (on a scale of 1 to
10). Beautiful Lake. Pine covered flat table rock setting looking
out at a string of islands. Only down side might be bugs - it looked
"buggy". Pageant Lake campsite also gets a good 9, with it's only downside
being access to the water being a little difficult to negotiate. Devil's
Cascade site gets a 7, primarily for the distance from water (it's way above
the river) and portage traffic not too far from the site. Between Rangeline
and Hustler Lakes there was some old growth pine - nice, but as large as
I remember on Old Pines Loop. I crossed the
outlet of Hustler Lake in a swampy looking area of alder. There
was no trail to the northern Hustler Lake campsite (that I saw). The
trail from there to the eastern tip was relatively flat with no view of the
water. I ate lunch at the eastern Hustler Lake campsite. Long
trail, average site (5 out of a possible 10). I left Hustler at 1:10pm.
On the way to Emerald Lake there was a climb with some decent bald spots,
but no vistas.
I didn't go to the southern Emerald Lake campsite, but it too looked to have
a long spur. Shohola Creek had the highest dam so far - I'd say a good
8 feet tall. After the creek you climb. At the top is a decent
overlook to the east at the "corner". Here the trail cuts back to the
west, while an old (not maintained) version of the trail goes south.
I ate my Power Bar and was back on the trail a few minutes after 3pm.
West from the corner the trail stayed pretty high. In a couple places
along the "ridge" there were some bald spots, but the views were somewhat
limited to the immediate forest below. I took a 5 minute break at the
last spot before the trail descended into the forest
below. There was no trail to Agawato Lake (that I saw, but others
have since said it exists), but I did jump off the trail and climb a cliff/rock
on the south side of the trail that overlooks Agawato. While I was
on top of this rock, looking out over Agawato and some of Lynx Lakes I heard
what I thought was an owl chirp like a hawk. I could see it in a tree
not too far away and it seemed mad. Then it swooped at me like it was
going to attack. It happened twice more before I basically ran away
from the spot. It must have had young nearby. I decided I'd camp
on Shell Lake since I couldn't on Agawato. The trail had some overlooks,
but more than anything, I noticed that it had been cleared fairly wide in
many places (10 - 15 feet), but the waist to head high brush was terrible
in places. The trail along Little Shell is actually right on the water
which is really nice for a change. There was a nice flat spot just
after the Shell Lake flowage to camp on Little Shell, but I passed it up
and decided to try for the peninsula site on Shell even though there was
no trail to the site and it was a decent distance off the trail. The
spot on Little Shell was just too close to the trail, portage and lake for
my comfort. About halfway I found a decent spot and dropped my stuff.
I was over 100 yds from the trail, but fairly close to the lake. I
made camp at 5:45pm. One group paddled by and must have wondered who
and what I was doing. While I was back some from the water, the cover
was pretty light and they must have seen me. I camped in a grove of
pines. The wind is blowing in from the south to keep the bugs in check.
Even though I'm camped in a great place for fishing (the inlet is only 150
yds away), I opt for relaxation . I cook rice for dinner on my stove...no
fire tonight. I can't tell what the weather is doing. Just when
I think it's going to rain, the sun comes out.
Looks pretty, I take a picture.
My wildlife sightings for the day where relatively eventful. I saw
a spruce grouse appearing to be injured (protecting some young I'm sure).
The owl (or hawk) that wanted my head. I also saw another short-tailed
shrew (I think that's what it was). I head another half dozen grouse
drummings. At Emerald Lake (north) I saw two fish splashing along shore,
but was over 100 ft away and couldn't make out exact size or species.
Tuesday, 5/23/95
I woke up to cloudy skies, but got up and left camp before 7:30am.
The walk out started out with a walk along Little Shell, then cutting over
to Shell with a few good overlooks in the misting
skies. I watched a guy fish from an island campsite. The
Shell River crossing was very difficult.
I crossed atop a very slippery downed tree. The "beaver dam" was too
wet to use.
After the dam, it was pretty much up hill, but not too bad. I made
bad time to the river, but good time to the intersection of the main trail.
The main trail was a little wet again, but I managed to do a little better
this time.
I stopped for lunch at teh rapids of the Little Indian Sioux River.
I watched a couple groups portage and they never even looked at the river!
After unch I pretty much cruised out. I jumped a deer at the
last beaver dam, only about 1/4 mile off the "road" part of the trail.
I got to the car just before 2pm.
After an attempt at bathing along side the Nina Moose River south of the
Echo Trail in the near freezing drizzle, I headed to Ely to resupply and
meet a couple friends along the North Shore for my
Border Route Trail hike.
My summary of the Sioux-Hustler. The trail was relatively flat.
The scenery was good, but nothing extra-ordinary. The trail was good
and only hard to follow in a couple areas of extreme storm damage.
Parts of the trail where wet, but this is spring and it rained every day
I was on the trail. I really wish there was a hiking campsite on Little
Shell or Shell Lake for proper spacing. I saw a couple deer, but no
moose. The lakes in the interior, Pageant and Rangeline especially,
are really beautiful with beautiful campsites that rank up there with the
best I've seen. Good trail and good trip!
ahmoo@ahmoocreek.com
Posted: 30-Apr-2007