Well SHT...

It was a plan that was hatched mid-February and after much planning was coming to fruition.  Amy and I were heading to Duluth to meet up with Mark, coming from Iowa.  We were going to hike the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT).  It was the most rugged trail we had hiked.  Planned on 8-10 mile days but the topography changes would test our mettle.  We ate dinner in Duluth after Mark made it, having thought the trip was a week later.  We dropped Mark’s car on the North end and ours at the South end of the route.  We had traveled less the 2 miles after a half day of hiking; we could still see the car.  The scenery was beautiful, but not the large views of the lake that we had expected.  Sonya screwed up her knee on our way to section 13 and before we made it to Sawmill Dome.  Sawmill had beautiful views and we could see the highway below but never seemed to reach it.  This was the way the SHT played tricks, your were never quite done.  Amy and I were in the lead and the upward trail always seemed to be ending but was loaded with multiple false summits that were demoralizing.  We had stopped along the trail for lunch, stripped off our shirts to dry and misread our map.  Hubris made us assume we had covered much greater distances than we actually had.  Section 13 had limited water, not surprising as a large granite knob has little access.  We found a small muddy spring and used a ziplock bag to collect small amounts of water that we could then filter.  We set up tents in a secondary but flat site and gathered some small wood for a fire.  The open sky at section 13 was glorious and we sat on the granite looking at the star filled night sky.  It was decided that we could push on but that it wouldn’t be an enjoyable hike we had envisioned.  Mark and I would hike out and hitchhike back to the cars and then we would drive to a trail head closer to Sonju Lake for the next night’s stay. It was about 13 miles on the trail and others in the camp said it wasn’t as steep, but we didn’t think we had it in us.  Mark would later decide to call the whole trip quits but the rest of us drove on north and then hit the trail again.  The trail wasn’t as topographically challenging but was rocky and heavily rooted…asking for a turned ankle.  The few creek crossings were covered with makeshift bridges of down trees, but water was more plentiful.  Sonju Lakw was very pretty, almost like an Alpine Lake with a crown of black spruce. We set up and then walked over to Lilly Island with the intention of swimming.  The trail register warned of leaches, the skies were clouding up and I didn’t feel as grimy as I originally thought.  We shared camp that night with an interloper that showed up around dinner time and wanted to hang his bear bag in camp. He was on the trail early and pleasant enough company.  We back tracked to the car and drove farther north to Crosby Manitou State Park for our final night.  We expected a pretty walk along the river and passed a group with plastic shopping bags filled with pillows and a cooler, even a wonderful campsite with popcorn.  We had earned this, we were wrong. The trail snaked under trees, I went high and the river fell away below us but nearly 100 feet.  Our camp itself was up a knob of a hill. A grab a tree for support climb up to camp type of hill, A we did not go back down to the river to fish kind of hill.  I collected water and then pondered our position, the trail map showed another trail about ¼ mile through the woods.  Usually, a bad idea to leave a trail, but we had to count it out.  We found the other trail easily enough, returning to camp was off a little bit, the next morning we headed into the woods and followed the compass bearing.  The trail we found was a grass covered pleasure stroll and an easy walk literally out of the park.  Crosby-Manitou was a bipolar trail system.  Back at the car and heading south allowed us to stop, albeit illegally, at Tettegouche State park and shower before the long ride home.  Having started were the road signage said Canada 13 miles.