Poto, Solo!

Potowatami Trail (all of it!); 17.5 miles

Hiked the whole Potowatami Trail, solo! On the DNR map, started at "1" and went counterclockwise around. Took a wrong turn near "9," but was thankful for it because I saw a beautiful doe starting at me through the trees. Saw little wildlife otherwise, unless you count three tiny kittens playing trailside just north of Hiland Lake. Also saw three hunters -- two were standing right on the trail together; the other was about a mile further up and spooked me a little as he was crouched in the woods, holding his gun and looking at me (!). At that moment, my little orange bandanna, which I had worn on my head to be noticeable in case I encountered hunters, seemed woefully inadequate.

I took only one short break and finished the trail in a little over five hours. My hips were sore afterward and into the next day -- that's never happened to me during a hike! Getting old I guess. Then again, this is (I think) the highest mileage day I've ever had. I was happy to see a bench at point "9" (west end of the shortcut) where I ate my lunch. That was about halfway.

I felt empowered and happy about doing this hike alone, especially becasue my AT launch is just two weeks away. I was distrubed, though, to find out that the day after I hiked, a woman (who was also alone) was robbed on the trail. Yikes.

Update re: the woman who was robbed. I was misinformed; she wasn't robbed on the trail; she was running on the trail and came back to the parking lot to find out that her car had been broken into. Still. You want to be able to trust people in a place like this.