Superior Hiking Trail Part 4: Silver Bay to Two Harbors

Michael and I are hiking the Superior Hiking Trail, a 306-mile trail along Lake Superior in Minnesota.

This is part 4 of our adventure: Silver Bay to Two Harbors. Make sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 5 as well!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 12

Silver Bay to Silver Bay – 0 miles

We took a zero day!

This wasn’t our initial plan. We went to bed last night with the intention of hiking.

We woke up at 6:30 am to very gray skies. There was rain in the forecast and we weren’t looking forward to getting soaked again, especially not after we were so dry and clean and not smelly.

After getting ready we headed down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. We talked about it a little more – Could we finish on time if we took a day off? Is it worth hiking through a storm? Does the hotel have rooms available?

We came to the conclusion that today we would our first, and hopefully only, zero day.

“Zero day” meaning that we stayed in town and didn’t hike any miles.

We spent the rest of the morning being very lazy. In the afternoon we headed into town for lunch and to grab some things for dinner from the grocery store. It was 80 degrees with 88% humidity. It was terrible.

I had been feeling guilty about taking a zero. I though that I should be out hiking and pushing myself, but after I walked a mile in that heat and humidity I was glad that we decided to stay off the trail today.

Also, there is something about hiking in the high humidity that makes me more worried about my heart. I know everything with my heart is fine now, but the humidity takes so much more out of me and I get exhausted more easily. Then I just get worried that something will go wrong. I’ve put my heart through a lot of tests this summer and everything has been totally fine. I don’t really have a need to worry, but it still happens occasionally.

Anyways, at about 4:00 pm it started storming – rain, thunder, lightning. It lasted for hours.

I hope the hikers out on the trail made it through while staying relatively dry!

Overall, I’m glad we ended up taking a zero. My body got to rest one more day and take in additional calories and we were able to avoid the terrible weather.

I’m hoping the trails aren’t too flooded tomorrow!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 13

Silver Bay to East Gooseberry River – 23.6 mi – 10 hours, 20 minutes

Michael and I got back on the trail today!

After waking up, getting ready, and eating breakfast we called Cadillac Cabs to get a ride to the trailhead.

Yesterday while buying groceries, Michael’s clerk ask if he was hiking. Of course, Michael said yes. The man gave Michael his business card for a cab service, Cadillac Cabs, and said he’d be around to give us a ride to the trailhead.

YAY!

The 3-mile ride cost us $10 plus tip and it was totally worth it.

It was a cool, dreary day that felt like fall. It was about 55 degrees with on and off sprinkling/misting. This meant the rain jacket was on, then off, then on, then off, then on, then off, then on for the rest of the day. That’s not an exaggeration. I get too hot wearing it when I’m hiking up and down hills and it’s not raining.

The first 15 miles of our day were spent hiking through rolling hills in the trees with about a mile of it along Beaver River.

Today we finally got to the “persistent beavers” section of the trail.

A week before we started hiking we were researching the trail on the Superior Hiking Trails website. On the Trail Conditions page there is a bullet that reads, “Just north of Fault Line Creek Campsite, a short section of the trail is flooded due to persistent beavers. The trail is fordable, but prepare for wet feet and legs. Some hikers have walked across the beaver dam.”

Michael and I though the phrase “persistent beavers” was (still is) the funniest thing. We’ve been passing a lot of beaver ponds, so we’ve been saying it a lot.

Thankfully the crossing wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be.

It felt like most of the trail was on boulders this morning, which makes me a little nervous when the ground is wet – will this be fine or will it be extremely slippery? It’s hard to tell, so I tread carefully.

Despite the potentially slippery rocks, we made excellent time all morning.

We made it to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park right around 3:00 pm. Unfortunately, there is a bridge out on the trail over the Split Rock River, so we had to take a detour on the Gitchi-Gami bike trail.

We caught a glimpse of the lighthouse through the fog from a hill on the trail, but didn’t hike close to it.

It was about a 4.5-mile walk on the Gitchi-Gami trail. The bonus was walking on flat, paved ground, so we could move quickly. There were also some close-up views of Lake Superior. The downside was that walking on pavement hurts more than walking on trail, especially when it’s miles 16-20 for the day. Fortunately the miles only took us 1.5 hours.

The Gitchi-Gami trail led us right into Gooseberry Falls State Park.

We stopped in the Visitor’s Center to use the bathroom and refill our water bottles. Then we decided to sit outside on their nice benches and eat dinner. Dinner consisted of summer sausage, smoked cheddar, and tortillas (we eat the heavy things first).

From there is was only a few miles to the campsite. The first bits of the trail weaved through more of Gooseberry Falls.

The day of hiking finished with trails along the Gooseberry River that were so, so muddy.

Mine and Michael’s shoes are so disgusting. They smell worse than you can imagine and are caked with mud. They will be thrown away as soon as we get to the southern terminus. If they smell bad now I can’t imagine what another week of walking through mud and water will do to them. It’s so bad.

Anyways, we set up camp at the smallest campsite we’ve been to yet. It didn’t even have a latrine! Or maybe we just couldn’t find it? Good thing both of us are capable of digging holes if we need to take care of business.

Since we already ate dinner all we had to do was set up the tent and then crawl inside.

It was a wet day, but it was a good day. And at 23.6 miles it was our highest mileage day!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 14

East Gooseberry River to Two Harbors – 24.7 mi (including 6.3-mile road walk) – 9 hours, 50 minutes

We woke up shortly after 7:00 am, ate breakfast, got everything packed up, and were on the trail by 8:10 am.

The first 4ish miles of the morning were basically walking through mud. It was like an obstacle course of puddles, slick mud, and deep mud. Every time we thought it was over we came across more.

It wasn’t the worst thing. It just got old real fast.

We took a break at about 10:30 am. The sun was shining, there was a beautiful view of Lake Superior, and an open area to sit down and relax.

It was so nice to have the sun and some views!

We were coming up to a section of trail that had a river crossing, because the bridge was out. Our plan was to take the trail and hope that it was fordable; however the entrance to the trail was roped off with detour instructions.

For the second day in a row, we found ourselves detouring along the road. We started out on gravel, but spent most of it walking on the shoulder of a highway. The detour was 6.6 miles. I could’ve sworn that the sign said it was 4 miles. Needless to say, I was pretty peeved when I found out it was much longer. Oh well.

We finished the detour shortly before 1:00 pm and took another break.

From there we only had 6 miles left to hike.

The trail was pretty flat and most of it was along Silver Creek. There was, of course, plenty of mud to go along with it.

There were also some sections that were quite grassy.

We made it to the road at 3:40 pm. From there it was a 6.3-mile road walk into town. We were really hoping to get a hitch into town, but no one would pick us up.

It was terrible. It went by pretty quickly, but we were so tired and our bodies were hurting by the end of it.

Subway was the first stop, then we checked into the hotel, showered, did laundry, and re-supplied at a Holiday gas station. We ended the night with some ice cream at Culver’s. Fortunately, the Holiday and Culver’s were both right next to the hotel. Neither of us could walk normally.

Hopefully a solid night of sleep and a bunch of water (and maybe a beer) will help!

Michael and I have been on the Superior Hiking Trail for two whole weeks! Tomorrow we’ll start our last leg. Our goal is to finish on Labor Day!

Superior Hiking Trail Mileage Totals

Part 4 miles: 42 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 6.3 additional miles = 48.3 total miles

Total miles: 206.7 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 14.3 additional miles = 221 total miles