Superior Hiking Trail – Pincushion Mountain to Cascade State Park -17.8miles on August 5th-7th, 2017

One of the feelings/things that was really difficult for me after coming back from our long vacation was really missing the feelings of being on the trail and wandering.  I really love having everything that you need on your person.  My family honored that want/desire in me and all agreed to go backpacking on a trail that is here in Minnesota, that is absolutely beautiful and sacred to me-The Superior Hiking Trail.  Pre-children my husband and I have hiked sections of this and pre-husband, I have also hiked sections of this trail with friends and my sister.  My oldest daughter, Gretchen, and I have an agreement to hike every section of this trail before she graduates from high school.

The Superior Hiking Trail has over 300 miles and goes from the Canadian Border to south of Duluth, Minnesota in Jay Cooke State Park.  You are basically on a ridge line overlooking Lake Superior, that being said the lake is not always in view.  It is a footpath only.  The Superior Hiking Trail’s website, shta.org, describes it like this:

A FOOTPATH ABOVE LAKE SUPERIOR

The trail is routed principally along the ridgeline overlooking Lake Superior.

• The SHT is 326 miles if each section is hiked separately. This breaks down into 310 miles of main trail and 16 miles of spur trail.
• The southernmost segment from the Minnesota border through the city of Duluth is 43 miles (41 main trail miles and 2 miles of spur trails). This section provides only day hike opportunities.
• The North Shore segment from the northern city limit of Duluth (Martin Road Trailhead) to the northern end of the trail is 269 miles if each section is hiked separately (255 miles of main trail and 14 miles of spur trails.) This segment provides both day hiking and backpack camping opportunities.

The Trail is characterized by ascents to rock outcroppings and cliffs, and descents into numerous river and creek valleys. Most rivers and streams are crossed by bridges. Overlooks of Lake Superior, the Sawtooth Mountains and inland woodlands, lakes and rivers are abundant. The trail follows rivers and creeks, often for distances of a mile or more, showcasing waterfalls and rapids, bends and deep gorges where thousands of years of rushing water has cut into layers of ancient volcanic rock.

One of the more challenging aspects of hiking the trail is the elevation changes. Instead of long climbs and descents found in mountains, the SHT is constantly ascending and descending.

• At its lowest point, the trail goes along the lakeshore, which is 602 feet above sea level.
• At its highest point the trail is 1829 feet above sea level and more than 1000 feet above Lake Superior.
• View a table of the elevation changes by trail section.

The section that we were doing the first day was from Pincushion to Bally Creek.  Because we were going to hike from one section to another, we needed transportation to get from where we were leaving our car in Cascade State Park to the trailhead that we had chosen to start.  We hired Harriet and can not recommend her highly enough.  She is a character, that you can totally depend on.  She met us a bit early, had GREAT stories to tell about living in Grand Marais, and she is one of those salt of the Earth women who does not put up with shit.

Hanna starting out

The first part of the trail you can see Lake Superior and you go through parts of the forest.  You cross the famous Gunflint Trail and start hiking up a hill.

Yes, Brad did carry our 14-year old Dachshund, Oscar, the entire time like this

Hiking with Hanna who was 6 at the time, Brad and I knew that we would have to take a lot of breaks and have snacks on the ready.  So we were totally prepared for that.  Gretchen kind of plows through all situations, be that good or bad, so we weren’t as worried about her.  She loves nature and challenging herself.  We got to one section of the trail that linked up with a snowmobile trail (The North Shore State Trail) for 2-miles.  When reading about this in the guidebook, we figured, great this part of the trail will be well maintained and groomed.  Boy, were we wrong!!!!  This 2 mile section, yes 2 miles, was full of LONG grass that rubbed against you.  I am not a tall person at all, 5 ft 2 inches, and found this sensation irritating but I adulted my way through the situation and knew that it would end at some point.  Poor Hanna, the grass was as tall as her at some points of the trail, so she was constantly being irritated by that sensation.  There were many points of this section that she would yell at me and tell me how much she hated stupid hiking.  All we could do as a family was listen and reassure her that this section will come to an end.  No pictures were taken of this.

We made it out of the tall grass

Hanna could not be any happier to be done with the grass and enjoying a snack

The rest of the trail you go through a red pine forest which is beautiful and past Sundling Creek.  The campsites were by a beaver pond.  There are two designated campsites at this section of the trail.  The first one that we came upon was already occupied by three tents.  So we made our way to the second site which had 2 tents already there.  Our fellow campers were 3 young women from St. Paul in their young 20’s, that were experiencing the trail for the first time.  The other tent was a couple that we assumed were in down in Grand Marais at the Fisherman’s Picnic and just using the campsite for a free place to stay.  They arrived super late and just packed up and left first thing in the morning.    This is not encouraged, but most likely happens.  Hanna’s FAVORITE part of the trail was definitely chatting up our fellow hikers.

After setting up our 2 tents, we had to pump water from the pond, which was very interesting.  There wasn’t a great spot to do this and Brad & I both agreed even using a great water filter, we may get some intestinal bug, BUT were thirsty enough to drink it.  I am writing this 3 months after the fact and happy to report we are all fine.  We cooked by the fire pit and enjoyed being at the campsite.  After hiking 8 miles with heavy backpacks, we were all tired and slept good.  There was a very slight hill so we all kind of slipped around in our sleep that night.  There was a little rain during the night, but not so much to affect all of our equipment being soaked….which happened to Gretchen and I the first time we did the trail together.  I am totally surprised, but not because she is awesome, that she wanted to still continue with our plan of hiking the trail in it’s entirety.

Oscar enjoying the sun

One of the inspirational things Gretchen and I decided to do, was in the guidebook after each section of the trail, she would write a lesson that was learned or experienced from that section.  From this particular section she wrote that,”Irritations are temporary”.  I think this is a great life lesson, yes there are going to be things that irritate the heck out of you, but you need to experience them in order to appreciate the experiences that are joyful.  And yes, that irritation will pass.

In the morning we made breakfast of oatmeal and this freeze dried egg, sausage, peppers, and hash browns which was really good.  We took down camp and started on our journey.

The next section was from Bally Creek Road, which is .1 mile from the campsite, to Cascade State Park.

Hanna less than thrilled to be hiking again

This section of the trail was really pretty.  You hike through more red pine forests.  As many of you know from reading my previous blogs about hiking the Camino, I was subjected to crazy blisters.  So this time I made sure to wear my hiking boots and use hiking poles and really pay attention to foot care.  Crazy enough though, I have had my boots for about 14 years and they started to fall apart on this hike.  I learned my lesson this summer about taking care of feet.  Poor Brad experienced blisters and so he had to care for his feet.

Luckily Brad had duck tape with him so we could duck tape them up.

As we entered Cascade State Park, we got to choose if we wanted to hike on the west or east side of the Cascade River.  For no particular reason, we chose the west side.  You cross over a street and hike along the road for a tiny bit, about a city block for comparison sake.  Then you get some great views of the river.

We set up camp at the Cut Log campsite.  It is named this because there is the remains of a ginormous tree that was laid to rest there.  Gretchen set up her hammock and we all set up camp.

To access the water source, you needed to walk down about 125 steps to the creek. This creek was beautiful and flowing.  We all enjoyed spending time there.  Quite refreshing after the beaver pond from the previous evening.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this campsite was our campsite mate named Jack.  He was a super interesting man from the Milwaukee area who was out on the trail for about 2 weeks.  He had a very gentle way about him and cherished his time on the trail.  He would wake up early to experience the forest waking up around him.  He practices Tai Chi and really seemed to live from the heart.  He enjoyed asking us questions and getting to really know us all.  We all made dinner together.  Jack was giving this wonderful homemade dehydrated meal from his campsite mates the evening before.  It gave me some ideas for future camp meals.  This camping trip because I did not have a lot of prep time beforehand, we did dehydrated meals that were store bought.

These directions make you smile.

Hanna has this fear of fire and Jack helped her with that.  He showed her how to build a fire and how to respect that fire.  It was great seeing her confidence build around that interaction.  I feel like there are certain things that are better taught by people that are not your parents in order to fully listen and get that lesson, this was definitely one of those times.  He also taught the girls the importance of hanging up your food bag to keep it out of the reach of bears.  Brad and Jack had a philosophical talk about religion after I went to bed and I fell asleep with Hanna while listening to their interesting conversation.

There was a full moon and Gretchen had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.  The brave soul, walked alone to the latrine.  She said it was so well lit from the moon that she had no problem.

The next morning we got up, made breakfast, packed up, and Brad duck taped the bejesus out of my boot.

We had a nice hike out.  We walked through the forest and found really nice spot to take a break along the Cascade River.

After playing in the water, we finished our hike up.  We crossed over the well known bridge that you can see the Cascade River Falls.

The lesson learned from this section of the trail is, “Friendships can be made around the campfire”.  Also, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS BRING DUCT TAPE.