Backpacking – Rainbow Lake Wilderness

Sep 29, 2013 | blog, featured

Signpost at the southern edge of the Rainbow Lake Wilderness

Finally, I’ve gotten a chance to get out backpacking and hiking. It’s something that I’d meant to do quite a few years ago, but somehow it never worked out. Either something came up, or people would back out, or that nobody was really interested in hoofing it with me out in the woods.

A couple of weekends ago, September 14th-15th, 2013, I headed out to the Rainbow Lake Wilderness in northern Wisconsin. It’s part of the Chequemegon-Nicolet National Forest, which part of the North Country Trail runs through on its Wisconsin section. Very remote, very thick forest.

asdIt was a simple solo overnight trip, and I got a lot out of it. Quiet contemplation, and a chance to test out a lot of the equipment I’ve gathered over the last year or so, specifically for this purpose. I’ll be doing more of this next year, but wanted to get one short trip in yet this fall before the really cold weather to test out my new mens hiking boots compared super well to all my other, more expensive pairs. Of course, I just might try a solo overnight yet this winter, but use my snowmobile rather than try to pack along everything in the middle of winter.

There simply isn’t a very good way to describe how relaxing and calming it is to get away from all the noise, the interruptions, and stress of our hectic modern lives and just listen to the wind in the trees. I you like getting away like this, then you know what I mean.

Here’s a few more pictures from that weekend:

Trailhead of the North Country Trail at the southern boundary of the Rainbow Lake Wilderness in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

Map of Rainbow Lake Wilderness area.

View of Reynard Lake from the trail.

On the North Country Trail, Rainbow Lake Wilderness.

Don’t forget to check your six from time to time.

View of Reynard Lake from it’s boardwalk on the marshy north-east side.

View from the Reynard Lake boardwalk, facing east.

I took a lot of pictures around Reynard Lake. This one was from a fantastic campsite on the northern tip. I’ll stay there next time.

Another pic from that good campsite on Reynard Lake.

Always need to have a campfire. This was at Bufo Lake, where I ended up.

Here’s the view of my campsite that weekend on Bufo Lake. Great view all around.

The other half of Bufo Lake from my campsite.

Another view from the campsite looking back into the forest to the north.

This was actually the first set of pictures I took as a panoramic. I was only about 1/4 mile down the trail and hit Wishbone Lake. Simply gorgeous.