Bennam Lake

The various national forests vary, not only in topography but in the way they are managed.  One big difference is in the handouts they provide.

The Chequamagon-Nicolet National Forests provide lovely little booklets, one each about campgrounds, trails, and sites to visit.  The campground guides give a run down of what each place has to offer, a map and road instructions, opening and closing dates, and photos.  The trail guides give the difficulty, the distances, and things to watch for, and again, photos.

The Ottawa National Forest has only a one sheet listing of the campgrounds with not much more information.  There are no directions, no photos.  There are no trail instructions at all.

Instead, at each trail head there is a metal sign with a map.  The benefit is that these signs are durable, good for several decades.  Such is the Ge Che trail sign which serves for hikers and cross country skiers..

The upside is that the sign replaces paper maps, saving trees.  The downside is that hikers who don't have long memories (like me) forget just what the metal plate said when they are several yards down the trail.  I've solved that by taking a digital photo of the map before I set off.  But there is another downside. A metal plate map can soon be out of date.  This map, for instance, shows a short cut on the Bennam Lake trail.  It doesn't exist any more, yet that sign has years to go.  I've hiked the entire Ge-Che from Hagerman Lake to Lake Ottawa, and there are places the path simply disappears.  That can be a bit scary.

Still the  Bennam Lake section is still well worth doing.  The forest is deep and even when the path grows faint, I can still follow it from memory...and from the deer and bear scat, for the forest animals use human trails, too. 

 

The one mile trail (as the crow flies, not in real miles) should take me around 45 minutes, but one has to check out the rat-a-tatting of the black backed woodpecker, have a serious conversation with the chickadees, and check out the scat for age.  Fresh bear scat and I break into song to let Bruin know I am coming.

The lake is cool and refreshing, not a soul in sight. 

Is it any wonder that by the time I returned,two hours later, Gary was getting ready to send out a search party?