The shelter came equipped with a map of the trail and I studied it. Before repacking everything and shifting things around – as you always do when hiking – I kept pressing on and hiking further and further to reach my goal of Coffee Lake. Up and down hills, zigging and zagging through the forest following the blue blazes. I came upon a wise old tree with the face of a man, coincidently he had a blue blaze for a mouth. And though he could not speak from such a mouth he still told me plenty. 
He told me that I was on the right path. The next stream I came upon was low flowing (always take raw water from rapid streams). The rocks were covered in moss surrounding the stream. It was not safe to drink from and I did not want to take the time or chance at boiling it so I kept on moving.
I was getting thirsty at this point the terrain was becoming increasingly more 
difficult or my pack was becoming increasingly more heavy. But I was getting thirsty. I checked the gps to locate a body of water in the area, I had borrowed this gps from a friend it was a car unit and did not display trails or any such useful information. But it did show bodies of water I zoomed out
and located one in the distance. A lake, not Coffee Lake but a lake none the less. I continued hiking on and on the ticks were incessant and I noticed a red blotch on Tiahgo’s belly. On we pressed to make it to water regardless.
Using the hand trick I estimated the time to be around 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon at this time. We reached the crest of a hill and seen a large clearing down below. It apeared to be a grassy field with a stream cutting through it. The lake was showing up on the other side of the clearing on the gps. I followed the trail down and came to a bridge crossing the stream at the forests edge of the clearing. 
The water was deep red from the gravely bottom. I stepped out on some of the large boulders and peered into the stream. And noticed a fish jump. It was small but it was a sign of life. I grabbed my fishing pole and took a few casts to no avail. I got up the courage to check out the water. I grabbed a water bottle and dunked it in and lifted it up to see how much color was actually in the water vs what I seen from the gravel bed. It was slightly pink tinted. Possibly high iron content, or the brilliant red clay I noted the roads were made of all of the dirt in this north land was of a red color.
Starving of thirst at this point I fired up my popcan stove and pot and boiled enough water to drink 2 water bottle and I drank one and refilled it then I put both in the stream to rapid cool. While I was waiting for mother nature to do my refrigerator’s work, I explored the area a bit. I scowered the stream for signs of craw-dads(crayfish) but did not find one. I noted a large tree that was chopped down by natures lumberjack. And I staged a picture of my friends gps leaning against the edge of the bridge (I set the picture up on his gps so when he turned it on it would be the welcome screen – I wanted to do something to the effect of the traveling gnome and pictures around the world).
Here I decided this trip was a bust. It was not a beautiful area the reviews on the Internet made it out to be. The town of Mellon was amazing. That small town feel was great. The morning I had just experienced felt almost like a different time then where I was several hours later. I estimate that I had gone 6 to 7 miles in at that point. 7 miles through ticks. What made me decide to scrap the trip was my huskies belly had gained several new blotches. I did not know what they were from and did not care to be around whatever caused them. And I felt bad for him, all the ticks I was not able to find right away.
All in all the town of Mellen and its inhabitants were amazing. The ticks made this trip unbearable and I did not wish for Tiahgo to suffer any more so I decided to cut the trip short and head back.
Thank-you Mellen Wisconsin!
