Our plan after hiking at Scenic State Park was to go to Hill Annex Mine State Park before driving on to McCarthy Beach SP, the site of our next hike. Hill Annex Mine SP is located in teeny tiny Calumet. There wouldn’t be a hike at this state recreation area, but we had originally thought we’d walk around and maybe see if there was a tour. It seemed we arrived too soon – it hadn’t opened for the season yet and the entrance was blocked off. My husband isn’t easily deterred and thought there must be another entrance, but after some circling around we never found one. Onward!
A park named McCarthy Beach tells you two or three things: someone named McCarthy had some association with it, and by golly, there’s gonna be a beach there. Maybe even a beach on McCarthy Lake? Two out of three ain’t bad. The park land was previously owned by John McCarthy, and according to the pamphlet, you can “spend hours at the park’s sugar sand beach.” I’ve never heard of a sugar sand beach – have you? I’m quite impressed by the marketing department at MBSP. But the two main lakes are named “Side Lake” and “Sturgeon Lake” and there wasn’t a McCarthy Lake to be seen anywhere.
We found our campsite and got set up. It was a hot afternoon and although technically we had time to do the hike the same day, we both wanted to wait until the morning when it would be cooler. A lot cooler, actually – it was to get down to 43 degrees in the night. A cool night sounded good to both of us after the heat of the day. The frogs started in at sunset to croon us to sleep with their strange music. I was wakeful for several hours, so I spent some time pondering whether or not there were two tribes of frogs singing very different tunes, or if the same tribe was just musically diverse. The loons chimed in deep in the night, but due to diffidence or perhaps the weather, they kept their part short, just enough to leave you longing for more.
When we started the 3-mile hike about 9:00 in the morning, it was delightfully cool, about 48 degrees. Things that require exertion are always easier without heat and humidity – that’s how it is in my world, anyway. We had to drive over to the hiking trailhead and looking at the trail map, we decided to take the Big Hole Trail Loop first so we could be walking near Pickerel Lake near the end of the hike. Alas, not long after starting up the trail, we fell into the Big Hole and were never seen again. Ha ha! We did kind of wonder if we’d see a big hole, but if there was one, it had filled with water and become Pickerel Lake. Stranger things have happened.
We began full of vigor, bolstered by the cool breezes and fewer of the Insects Which Shall Not Be Named. Right from the start, we could tell that we’d be doing a fair amount of uphill work. I was wearing my trusty knee huggers, as usual, but even their performance was strained by the challenge of the up and down nature of the trail. Three consecutive days of hiking after the relatively inactive winter season was putting us both through our paces, although it must be said that my beloved hiking companion was getting to the tops of those inclines much faster than I was. I overheard my hips and knees arguing about which of them was aching worse, but I ignored them.
As usual, photos were taken.
It was getting late in the morning for dew, but I spotted some leaves still bearing sparkling drops of it. We had just read Psalm 133 together, so the words came to mind:
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the LORD commanded the blessing – life forever.
Dew, a picture of unity and blessing, right there at my feet. Do you suppose the makers of Mountain Dew knew the biblical allusion? I assign one of you to do some research and get back to me on that.
Speaking of things at our feet, we noticed some wrinkled mushrooms along the trail and hadn’t seen anything like them before. I admired their marvelous rusty color and wondered if they were wrinkled due to age or began their illustrious lives that way.
Right after we passed them, I noticed a birch tree had hung her clean laundry out on the line. It makes the journey interesting to see things that way.
At the end of the Big Hole Loop Trail, we saw the downward approach with Pickerel Lake in the distance – Ooh! Ahh! Kris reflected on the many memories he has of portaging with a canoe on his back and the happy moment of seeing the next lake ahead.
The walk along the lake was lovely; the cool breezes we had lost up on the loop returned to us there. Kris pointed out a beaver dam and along the trail we saw evidences of where the beavers had gnawed at the trunks of trees to get materials for their house.
I spotted a couple loons cavorting out on the lake and took some photos.
Meanwhile Kris had thoughtfully prepared a botany lesson for me. When I could take my eyes away from the loons, he showed me the difference between red pines and white pines, the red pine having needles in clusters of two, while the white pine needles had five per cluster. Pay attention, just in case there’s a quiz at the end of this post!
Leaving Pickerel Lake necessitated a long uphill slog and by this time, I had lost all of that initial vigor. I took it slowly, snapping a few more photos along the way. Kris got to the end before me and as I hobbled up those last few steps, he called out that he’d seen a red fox. Exciting! I missed it, but it was a fun sighting – it’s so rare that you see any actual wildlife on these hikes.
As we were driving away after finishing the hike, I looked at the pamphlet again and realized we’d never so much as seen, much less set foot on the “sugar sand beach.” It was too cold to swim anyway, but I’d have liked to have been able to boast of walking on sugar sand.
Knee Score: 8 out of 10 – should have used my trekking poles on this one.
If you can’t tell me the difference between the red pine needles and the white pine needles, I’ll just have to delete this in the morning.
Next hike: Red River SRA
Lynniebeemuseoday 
The reason you have never seen a sugar sand beach is that they dissolve where the water touches them. They are always adjacent to sweet water lakes.
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😄 That’s a very scientific explanation. Thank you!
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The white pine has 5 needles just as the word “white “ has 5 letters. Learned that awhile ago but recently read an entire book just about the white pine.
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You have saved the blog post AND imparted interesting information! Well done! Also, of all the people I know in the world, you’re definitely the only one I know who would read an entire book about the white pine. That’s Ph.D level learning, Dr. Lori. ❤️
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(1) Can you make iced tea with sugar sand? (2) Watch out for red foxes. The recently revealed rustic rabid moose in Alaska is thought to have been infected by a runty rabid red fox. (3) I have given in to old age (sort of). It pains me to hear of your suffering on these hikes.
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I’ll defer the first question to Kris since he is now the resident expert on sugar sand. A rustic rabid moose infected by a runty rabid red fox! I have wandered into a Dr. Seuss book! Lastly, it’s nice to know that someone is suffering vicariously with me. I’ve never been a fan of suffering in silence, as you can tell. 😊
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