Trip Report Display
Linking people with nature by footpath along Lake Superior's North Shore.
Through-hiking the Superior Hiking Trail during the summer of 2007 along with good friends, three months after I retired, was a blast! We hiked 249 miles in 28 days including the recently finished 39 miles that traverses the City of Duluth.Kerry and I became friends on one of the SHTA's backpacking trips in 2002 that I was leading. Early in 2004, while visiting Kerry in Hawaii, the goal to do a through-hike of the SHT was born. Ayres, a coworker of Kerry's, became the third member of Tom's Trekkers, our group name created by Kerry. Preparation over the next three years included support from family, friends, SHTA staff and members, emails, and three five-day backpacking trips together.After a couple of warm-up hikes, we strapped on our fully loaded packs at Otter Lake Road trailhead to begin trekking 205 miles southwest towards County Road 301. The three of us were hardly alone during our adventure. Seven guest hikers joined us at different times to re-supply us with five-day food packs and partake in the journey. The first guest hiker was Sherri who shuttled us around and hiked with us for the first five days. The second guest hiker Amelia, my eleven-year-old granddaughter, arrived at the Kadunce River to hike for four days. Grand Marais is where my family held a party at the Harbor Inn Motel to celebrate my 66th birthday with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Cascade River State Park was very busy with guest hikers: photographer friend Gary spent two separate weekends taking photos while hiking. Ed, winner of the Titanium Chef Backpacking cooking award, with his wife Margo arrived for five days of hiking and good eating. Waiting for us at the East Caribou campsite just above the gorgeous Caribou Falls was the sixth guest hiker, Dick, who would be with us for 10 days. Some things do not go according to plan and this trip was no different! We adjusted for low water conditions, a campfire ban, and the weather. Sun, warm, cold, mist, rain, fog, wind, and thunderstorms added to the North Shore adventure. We camped at the Outpost Motel, Trail Angel Ken's home, and state campgrounds to dry out, take showers, eat real food from town, and put on clean clothes. Due to the extremely dry conditions that Minnesota was experiencing, we had to carry extra water as all the creeks and streams by campsites were dry. Our water filters got clogged occasionally with scummy water.Nice weather favored us for many days on the trip, including one of our favorite sections -- the Caribou River Gorge and the Manitou River with its dramatic topography. 80 degrees was the warmest day as we enjoyed the high falls of the Baptism River in Tettegouche State Park. We had lunch on the west side of the suspension bridge, chatting with many day hikers as Kerry scored us cold Cokes to drink. We picked up the pace passing the Beaver and Split Rock Rivers doing twenty four miles in two days to reach Gooseberry Falls State Park. We did the remaining fifteen miles the easy way, using daypacks, cars for shuttling, and eating at the Vanilla Bean Cafe;. The last few miles we heard trees crashing during a windstorm as we kept stepping over trees on the trail, completing the 205 contiguous miles of the SHT one day ahead of schedule. We celebrated with lunch at the Rustic Inn with a huge pie alamode.The Munger Inn in Duluth became our base camp for the last two days and 28 remaining miles. Each day after a breakfast of Belgian waffles, Will Munger Jr. drove us to the trailheads to complete the last 28 miles. We must have been a little too tired to celebrate after fifteen miles in one day -- there was no jumping or yelling. We just smiled a lot -- three friends enjoying their accomplishment. Photo albums of this though-hike are at http://picasaweb.google.com/sht.voyageur?pli=1. A longer version of this report can be viewed at www.backpacker.com/cgibin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=SF;f=613107219 |
| Submit a Trip Report Use this page to submit a trip report. |
Back to Events
