Rainy Lake — Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026

I don't remember a hike where I've had as many close calls that resulted in minor scrapes, dings, and equipment damage that could have been MUCH worse if not for luck. This was much harder than Old Mailbox a couple weeks ago. For comparison, Old Mailbox took us 2:45, and this took us an even four hours up and a hair under three down. Encountered some dirty snow on the trail around 2300 feet, and then none until the last 150 feet or so. The blowdowns, slide alder, mud, and steepness made up for the lack of snow. I bent each of my trekking poles in separate falls on the descent, after having no such issues with them in several years of hard use. We lost the trail a number of times in both directions, but every time we did, both Apple Maps and Earthmate TopoActive agreed on which way we should move to find the proper trail again, so that was never our biggest problem except for when we ended up in some slide alder for it. Feet got soaked just due to raw statistics, rather than any single conspicuous event. Do not do this hike without poles, with fancy carbon fibre poles, or with aluminium poles you can't afford to replace.