Jerry Gauld of downstate Fife Lake completed a major challenge Thursday, stepping across the Wisconsin border at Hurley to complete a walk across Upper Michigan on snowshoes.
He followed the North Country Trail from the Straits of Mackinac to North Ironwood.
The trip wasn't some sort of lifelong ambition for a 57-year-old bulldozer operator; it was more a whim.
"Somewhere along the line a couple of years ago I was on that trail and I decided to go and camp out on it," he said. "As soon as I camped out, I thought, 'I'm going to snowshoe across the U.P. I'll bet nobody's done it.'"
Nobody, maybe, since the late Bishop Frederic Baraga, the famed snowshoe priest who witnessed to the Native Americans here hundreds of years ago.
Gauld did some planning, but was only somewhat successful.
"How do you pack for a 400-mile snowshoe trip?" he said. "I'm not an experienced backpacker. I'm an experienced outdoorsman, and I've camped out in the winter a lot."
He started out on Feb. 1, but rain and heavy snow intervened.
"All my gear got wet, including my sleeping bag," he said. "I had to go back home, dry everything out and start over."
His wife brought him back north, but another big storm near Strong's Corners cut the trip short a second time. Gault went home to change equipment again.
On Feb. 28 he resumed his trek for a third and final time.
"My wife told me she was cutting the umbilical cord. I've been on my own until now," he said.
Things didn't get any easier.
"I had a lot of setback days," said Gauld. "They sold me maps that were obsolete. I got on a trail that had been discontinued and didn't know it. I walked until dark on the Baraga Plains and came to a clearcut area."
There were no more markers on the trees, but Gauld's cellphone saved the day.
"Lo and behold I had signal on my phone," he said. "I called a guy up and he said, 'That trail's been discontinued.'"
While the official trek was 400 miles, there were lots of side trips.
"I've always had to make a special trip to a town to get my own food, which made me meet a lot of nice people. I've met a lot of Yoopers," said Gauld.
Economic demands then intruded.
"I walked back out to a road and camped," he said. "I compassed out to a road. I looked at my phone and I had a call from my wife."
She had a message from the state, which requires regular contact from those collecting unemployment compensation.
"I had to show up at job services in person," he said.
He hitchhiked to Covington, then walked to the job services office in L'Anse.
"I get to L'Anse and the computers are down. After lunch I get all that taken care of," he said, adding. "I'm job seeking on showshoes."
A late-winter storm that dumped more than three feet of snow in some parts of Gogebic County also slowed his progress through the McCormick Tract.
"The snow was so deep up there the trail marks on the trees were covered," Gauld said.
Those trail marks are six feet off the ground.
"I jumped three moose. The mooses' bellies were dragging in the snow, it was so deep," Gauld added.
Gauld took a high-tech approach when selecting his snowshoes, using a pair of Tubbs shoes, the 30-inch Discovery model.
"They're a modern shoe, aluminum with a pretty advanced binding," he said. "They're aggressive, for climbing steep hills. I've been on snowshoes a lot. I've always used traditional shoes, but I bought these because they were lighter and I knew I was going to climb some steep hills. Out there by Rockland there's some serious climbing."
Gauld carred no weapons, and found that a global positioning unit was of little value.
"I just compassed around," he said.
He carried a hunting knife, but only "to get the peanut butter out of the jar."
"I didn't see anything but a couple of coyotes, a couple of snowshoe rabbits and some grouse, and moose," he said.
He quickly found that the tiny wood stove he was carrying wasn't of much use, so he quit cooking and began carrying light, high-calorie items like lunchmeat and taco shells.
"I lost 20 pounds," he said.
He recommends his "snowshoe diet" to any who dare.
"They can just snowshoe across the U.P. I guarantee them they're going to get hungry," he said. "But I'm in hellish good shape. I can climb a hill like an eight-legged dog."
Gauld said he plans to retire in a year or so, but he doesn't plan any further adventures.
"Not that I'm going to do it, but I thought while I was on the trail, 'Gee, if I did this a second time I could do it much better."
Maybe next winter?
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