WeRmudfun
New member
On our continuing quest to stand on every site where a fire tower stands, once stood or was proposed brought us to Diamond Peaks in the 2nd College Grant. #61 of the 92 towers for us. To get to this one, it required a 2.2 mile walk in from the gate. Foot traffic is welcomed and unless you go to the college or are renting one of their cabin, you have to walk in.
As we start our trek down the road, we walked pass a swampy area. It was kind of a pretty area, but that is where the mosquitos hang out and they really really liked us. They would become our companions for the majority of the day. The one and only Geocache in the whole Grant is located within this area too. We found it, but paid for it. We had just come from hiking West Magalloway earlier in the day, where we were the food of choice for the bugs there too. Actually our whole week up here in the Great North Woods seemed to have us on the fast food menu. It doesn’t deter us though, we do enjoy being up here.
Anyway the road walk has limited things to look at, but there are a couple areas it seemed like a nice place. The only other time we had been on the Grant was to go to Hell’s Gate, but that was another way in. We eventually came to the Management Center and that is where we found our trail up to Diamond Peaks.
The Diamond Peaks trail is blazed in yellow, but all the trails on the Grant seem to be blazed in yellow. The beginning of the trail seemed like we were walking through a haunted forest, it was very dark as the top of the tree were very dense. That and the fact it looked like it was going to (and did) rain.
About 0.3 miles the trail started to make it way up and we gained a lot of altitude in a short period of time. The trail itself is not well marked. At one point it comes to a ‘T’ and the trails off to both sides are blazed in the same color…yellow. If you plan to hike to Diamond Peaks, you will want to take a right here. Alice and Linda Ledges are also not marked and there are more than 2 ledges, so we’re not sure which one was which.
The next spot of difficulty came when we got to a trail junction with the Diamond Back Trail. Care to guess what color that trail is blazed in? Yup it’s yellow. On top of that, it only shows the Diamond Back Trail and the way back to the Management Center. No sign for the Diamond Peaks Trail. We figured out that we need to go beyond and up past the junction sign and it was a ways before we saw a blaze so we knew we were right.
After that we started to guess where the summit was that we needed. There are a few outlooks that would offer really nice views if it haven’t been cloudy and rainy. Yes hiking it in those conditions is our doing, so we not really complaining about weather conditions.
We finally bagged the summit and as I was filming the Benchmark, it started raining heavier, so we put the camera away and headed down. We closed the video at the Management Center as we knew the bugs were going to be ready for us. They got so bad, that we started wondering if the Grant was raising them for some sort of a study. We drained the last of our bug spray before we got to the gate.
We kind of beelined it for our vehicle and jumped in only allowing a few of them to join us. It was still a good day, we guess! LOL
We did post a video of our day for anyone who might be interested in what this hike looks like. Just click the link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6fBYlRm_4U&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
As we start our trek down the road, we walked pass a swampy area. It was kind of a pretty area, but that is where the mosquitos hang out and they really really liked us. They would become our companions for the majority of the day. The one and only Geocache in the whole Grant is located within this area too. We found it, but paid for it. We had just come from hiking West Magalloway earlier in the day, where we were the food of choice for the bugs there too. Actually our whole week up here in the Great North Woods seemed to have us on the fast food menu. It doesn’t deter us though, we do enjoy being up here.
Anyway the road walk has limited things to look at, but there are a couple areas it seemed like a nice place. The only other time we had been on the Grant was to go to Hell’s Gate, but that was another way in. We eventually came to the Management Center and that is where we found our trail up to Diamond Peaks.
The Diamond Peaks trail is blazed in yellow, but all the trails on the Grant seem to be blazed in yellow. The beginning of the trail seemed like we were walking through a haunted forest, it was very dark as the top of the tree were very dense. That and the fact it looked like it was going to (and did) rain.
About 0.3 miles the trail started to make it way up and we gained a lot of altitude in a short period of time. The trail itself is not well marked. At one point it comes to a ‘T’ and the trails off to both sides are blazed in the same color…yellow. If you plan to hike to Diamond Peaks, you will want to take a right here. Alice and Linda Ledges are also not marked and there are more than 2 ledges, so we’re not sure which one was which.
The next spot of difficulty came when we got to a trail junction with the Diamond Back Trail. Care to guess what color that trail is blazed in? Yup it’s yellow. On top of that, it only shows the Diamond Back Trail and the way back to the Management Center. No sign for the Diamond Peaks Trail. We figured out that we need to go beyond and up past the junction sign and it was a ways before we saw a blaze so we knew we were right.
After that we started to guess where the summit was that we needed. There are a few outlooks that would offer really nice views if it haven’t been cloudy and rainy. Yes hiking it in those conditions is our doing, so we not really complaining about weather conditions.
We finally bagged the summit and as I was filming the Benchmark, it started raining heavier, so we put the camera away and headed down. We closed the video at the Management Center as we knew the bugs were going to be ready for us. They got so bad, that we started wondering if the Grant was raising them for some sort of a study. We drained the last of our bug spray before we got to the gate.
We kind of beelined it for our vehicle and jumped in only allowing a few of them to join us. It was still a good day, we guess! LOL
We did post a video of our day for anyone who might be interested in what this hike looks like. Just click the link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6fBYlRm_4U&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
