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Backpacking Salt Creek Canyon in Canyonlands National Park

October 18, 2018 by Jenna

A recap of a 23-mile out-and-back backpacking trip through the beautiful Salt Creek Canyon in Canyonlands National Park.

Michael and I decided to fit in one more backpacking trip before we started real life (AKA get jobs) again. We decided on Canyonlands National Park, because fall is an excellent time to be in the desert.

Canyonlands is pretty busy in October, so the available backcountry permits were limited. It was a similar to the situation we found ourselves in back in April. However, we were able to get permits for dispersed camping in Salt Creek Canyon for two nights. Woo!

Backpacking Salt Creek Canyon Day 0

We drove to Moab from Denver on a rainy/snowy Monday. It was a gloomy drive, but the skies started to clear as we were getting into town. We camped with some friends, Hugh and Sarah, who are currently the campground hosts at William’s Bottom Campground. They took us on a hike to Corona Arch and then made us some delicious pizza. It was a fun night of catching up with friends we haven’t seen in a while.

Backpacking Salt Creek Canyon Day 1

Both Michael and I slept amazing in the tent! I love when this happens. We rolled out around 8:00 am and started to pack up our gear. Since we didn’t have a lot of miles planned for the day, we weren’t in a hurry to start backpacking. We took our time eating breakfast and chatting with Hugh and Sarah over some camp coffee.

We left William’s Bottom around 10:00 am and headed to the Canyonlands Visitors Center. The skies were pretty dark and there was rain in the forecast. We were a little nervous about being caught in a flash flood while hiking through a canyon. Fortunately, the ranger in the backcountry office helped ease our worries and mentioned that if we did run into some flash flooding we should “get to high ground and enjoy the show. Not many people get to witness that sight.”

We started hiking from the Squaw Flats Campground Loop A Trailhead just before 12:30 pm. The first 5ish miles of trail were on slick rock with views all over the park.

Some dark clouds were rolling through and it rained on us for a few minutes. It wasn’t hard rain, but it was enough to get everything wet and slightly slippery. Fortunately, neither of us fell.

After the rain it was bright blue skies for the rest of the day.

We descended into Salt Creek Canyon via a scary ladder.

Here it didn’t seem like we were in the desert at all! There were lush green trees and some streams of water. Fall hasn’t hit Canyonlands quite yet.

The trail in Salt Creek Canyon is a little difficult to follow at times, especially with the amount of rain that they have been getting. Some parts were a little washed out, but since we were walking through a canyon it’s not like we’re going to stray too far off trail (AKA, stay between the canyon walls). I don’t think it is a highly used trail, especially the northern side.

There were quite a bit of mountain lion prints in the trail. This freaked me out.

At about 4:45 pm we decided that we should start looking for places to camp, so that we could set up the tent and eat before the sun went down. It took us about 45 minutes to find something decent, where we were near water and elevated in case it happened to rain. We found a nice spot under an overhang.

It was very pretty, but dang it’s hard to set up a tent in the sand! Next time we go to the desert we may need to rent a free-standing one.

After setting up camp we made dinner and watched the sun set below the rocks. Then we crawled into the tent just before dark and called it a day.

Backpacking Salt Creek Canyon Day 2

It was a rough night of sleep. There were a couple of strong wind gusts that messed with our tent. Michael had to get up twice to fix it. Ugh. I think both of us got our best sleep 6:00-8:00 am.

We eventually got out of bed, made breakfast, and packed up our stuff. We started hiking just before 10:00 am, heading south on the Salt Creek Canyon Trail.

After getting an updated weather forecast on our Garmin inReach we decided to change our plans. Originally we were going to continue to explore Salt Creek Canyon and spend one more night; however, knowing that there were high chances of heavy rain the following morning we decided to hike out. Neither of us wanted to hike on slick rock during heavy rain. It’s difficult enough on a clear, dry day!

We turned around where we were and started hiking back to the car.

It was a beautiful morning with bright blue skies and white puffy clouds.

We started seeing more mountain lion prints, like a lot of them. These were pretty fresh. I was started to get a little freaked out again and Michael started to tease me. I didn’t actually think we’d get ambushed by a mountain lion, but you just never know!

It didn’t help that some stretches of the trail were quite jungle-y.

I felt a little more at ease one we were up and out of the canyon.

Since the weather was better and we had clearer skies on the way out we were able to catch a glimpse of the La Sal Mountains. You can just barely see them in the distance under the clouds in the picture below.

We continued hiking and made it to our car by 2:30 pm.

Backpacking Salt Creek Canyon Thoughts

I always enjoy a trip to Moab. I’ve been in the winter and spring, but never in the fall. The weather was perfect at 50-60 degrees, but I was surprised by all the rain. I think the rain was an oddity and was driven by weird weather patterns from Hurricane Rosa.

The Canyonlands landscape continues to amaze me. It’s just so weird and beautiful! I love hiking there and taking in all the formations and layers.

I don’t think the Salt Creek Canyon gets a lot of traffic and oftentimes we lost the trail, but it never took us long to get back on track. Plus, it made us… me… feel more adventurous.

The downside of the desert is all the sand and the lack of water. Fortunately, since they have been seeing more rain than normal there was water present in Salt Creek Canyon and we only needed to carry 2 liters at a time. The sand was still difficult, especially when setting up the tent. I definitely recommend hiking with some dirty girl gaiters to keep the sand out of your shoes!

One of the many bonuses of hiking through Canyonlands is seeing petroglyphs.

Overall, it was a fun trip! Please, please, please go backpacking in Canyonlands! I promise you won’t regret it.

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Backpacking the Pawnee-Buchanan Pass Loop

October 4, 2018 by Jenna

I highly, highly recommend backpacking the Pawnee-Buchanan Loop in Indian Peaks Wilderness. There were beautiful views, two mountain passes, and gorgeous fall colors.

After finishing the Superior Hiking Trail and laying pretty low in Minnesota and Denver the last two weeks, Michael and I were ready for some backpacking. I, unfortunately, came down with a cold, so we had to push it out a a few days, but we still made it!

We were looking for a one or two night backpacking loop less than a 2-hour drive from Denver. We landed on the Pawnee-Buchanan Loop, also lovingly known as the Double Bypass Loop since you hike over two mountain passes.

Michael and I decided to do the Pawnee-Buchanan Loop as an overnight trip with the plan to hike counter-clockwise and camp at Crater Lake. It’s a 27-mile loop with an additional 2.8 miles to and from Crater Lake.

Pawnee-Buchanan Loop Day 1

We left Denver at 6:00 am and reached the Mitchell Lake Trailhead by 7:30 am. It was cloudy and chilly. I was wearing shorts. A cold front had just come through the night before and the weather was colder than I anticipated it would be.

I crossed my fingers that I would warm up as I hiked and that hopefully the sun would come out. If not, I had a hoodie and leggings in my pack to put on if I got desperate.

The trail started with an uphill to the Beaver Creek/Mount Audubon junction. We continued on the Beaver Creek trail, which dropped us down into the trees, slightly shaded from the wind, to the Cooney Flats Trailhead.

From there it was time to start making our way up to Buchanan Pass. It was a very gentle grade, which is a big help when hiking above 10,000 feet.

It was still cloudy and the wind was blowing. Fortunately, the clouds seemed to be moving pretty fast and we could see some patches of blue sky.

I begged the sun to come out and guess what?! It did! Kind of. There were still lots of clouds, but there was also way more blue patches of sky than before.

It definitely helped warm me up, but since we were getting ready to go over the pass I threw on my rain jacket. It’s always windy on mountain passes.

Michael and I headed up the pass with a slow and steady pace. We kept turning back to take in the view and noticed some clouds coming up just south of us.

As we got closer to the Continental Divide, the clouds got closer to us. We started to feel some graupel, which is like a snow/hail mix. Luckily, we were almost at the top!

However, our pace was nothing compared to the pace of the weather. By the time we were just about to crest we were getting pummeled by graupel. It was cold and it hurt! Not to mention the wind was insane. And again, I was wearing shorts!

There was a giant rock pyramid right at the top. We beelined to it and hid behind it hoping that the wind and graupel would die down a bit.

What an adventure. I guess that’s what happens when you hike across the Divide!

Once things calmed down a bit we started walking down the backside of Buchanan.

I say things calmed down, but the wind was still howling. I couldn’t feel my legs, but dang the views were gorgeous.

And what do you know, the sun came back out!

Once we got down into the trees we stopped to take a break at a campsite and I put on my leggings. It almost looked as if the graupel bruised my legs! Little purplish dots everywhere.

Afterwards, we continued to hike down, where we went through a forested area. The fall colors were outstanding.

We even saw a moose!

Eventually we made it to the Cascade Creek Trail junction, the lowest part of the trail, and started ascending again. By this time in the afternoon it felt quite warm – a nice change from the chilly morning! Warm enough to change back into my shorts.

The mileage on my GPS watch told me that we should have been to camp already, but we still had a few miles to go. This messes with my mental game and makes me feel more tired/slow than I actually should be. It’s frustrating. I think I’ll stop wearing a GPS watch. I didn’t use one at all on the Superior Hiking Trail and it was refreshing.

We finally made it to the spur trail to Crater Lake. Woohoo! From there it was only a little over a mile to campsites.

I couldn’t believe the view of Lone Eagle Peak over the lake. As Michael said, “this is so damn pretty.”

It took more time than I’d like to find the designated campsites. It was like a scavenger hunt with minimal clues. We eventually settled down at campsite 5, a little spot near Mirror Lake.

We immediately threw on our Melanzana hoodies. It got chilly again! Then we set up the tent, filtered water, and made dinner. That Mountain House lasagna tasted so good!

After dinner we enjoyed some whiskey by the lake.

Side note: How great is this flask?! I’m a Woodchuck USA ambassador. They make custom wood products from phone cases to journals to key chains. Bonus – they plant one tree for every product posted! Check them out and use my discount code – JennaD – to get 15% off!

It was starting to get dark, so we climbed into the tent to finish the whiskey, eat some chocolate, and hang out. I’m pretty sure eating chocolate before bed helps keep you warm. Let’s hope that’s true! It’s going to be a chilly one!

Pawnee-Buchanan Loop Day 2

We wanted to get an early start, so that we wouldn’t get home too late. I had my alarm set for 6:30 am, but when it went off it was still dark and so cold that we couldn’t get out of the tent yet. We snoozed for another 20 minutes and had to force ourselves to start moving.

Eventually we made it out of the tent and packed things up quickly. I’m glad we had a warm breakfast of Mountain House skillets wrapped in tortillas. My toes were already starting to get numb.

Before we started hiking we had to stop and take in the views from Mirror Lake for just a little bit longer. Absolutely incredible.

We started hiking back towards the Pawnee Pass trail and Michael spotted a black bear! I only saw his big, fluffy butt as he was running away from us.

On the Pawnee Pass Trail we started hiking up. Similar to yesterday, it was a gentle grade. The sun wasn’t quite up over the mountains. There was a crisp chill to the air and a thin layer of frost covering the valley.

Eventually the trail led us to an area where we were surrounded by mountains. It was gorgeous, but daunting at the same time. I knew we where going to have to hike up and over one of them.

We continued on the trail and took a quick snack and water break. We had the worst view…

Then the fun started. We began climbing up gradual, rocky switchbacks to the top of Pawnee Pass. There have definitely been some rockslides over time that have covered parts of the trail, but none of them were too bad until we got to about the last 100 feet to the top of the pass. It was like the trail was completely washed out and all that was left were loose rocks to scramble up. Or we just lost track of the real trail and made things much harder for ourselves. We’ll never know.

The view from the top of Pawnee Pass wasn’t as stunning as the one from Buchanan. The top was a little more rounded so you couldn’t see down into the valley from which we just hiked. I wish I would have snapped a pic from further down, but my fingers were pretty numb and I was just concentrating on hiking to the top.

Still beautiful despite my frozen rectangle smile. There is also a nice view of Granby Lake in the distance.

The opposite side of Pawnee Pass was bright, sunny, and warm with views of a few lakes in the distance. Fortunately, the switchbacks weren’t as rocky on this side of the divide. It was still pretty gradual.

After a few miles the trail leveled out to a flat, wide trail. We had seen very few people up until this point, but then there were a lot of people out hiking on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

A short road walk from the Long Lake Trailhead we were back to our car at Mitchell Lake Trailhead.

Pawnee-Buchanan Loop Thoughts

Michael and I both loved backpacking the Pawnee-Buchanan Loop! We’d both even do it again, which is saying a lot.

The loop has beautiful scenery throughout the hike. The fall colors were stunning, but I bet it’s gorgeous during wildflower season as well.

We both thought that it was prettier than the Four Pass Loop, which is also saying a lot. The fall colors and minimal people on trail could have played a part in this.

The Pawnee-Buchanan Loop was challenging with the two passes, but not extreme enough for it to be too uncomfortable. It wasn’t at all boring.

I can’t believe that I hadn’t done any hiking in the Indian Peaks Wilderness before this point. It is so pretty and so close (90 minutes) to Denver! I’m already excited to go back for more hiking and backpacking in the future.

I highly recommend backpacking the Pawnee-Buchanan Loop if you get the chance!

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Food & Water on the Superior Hiking Trail

October 2, 2018 by Jenna

I received a few questions about what Michael and I did for food and water on the Superior Hiking Trail, so I decided to do a quick post about it.

Water

Michael and I, for the most part, each carried only two liters of water at time. I carried two Smartwater or Lifewtr bottles, while Michael carried two Powerade or Gatorade bottles. All bottles are about one liter. The tall, slim bottles worked better in my backpack, while the opposite worked better in Michael’s.

We each carried the Sawyer Squeeze filter and one 2-liter pouch. It’s fast, light, reliable, and easy to use. Most of the hikers that we met along the trail were using Sawyer as well.

We would drink our two liters as we needed them throughout the day and filter water when we were getting low and came across a good water source. Typically we would filter water once in the afternoon and then again at camp – most Superior Hiking Trail campsites were placed next to a water source. In the northern sections of the trail the water sources were primarily beaver ponds and low streams. The sources got better as we hiked south and as we continued to get more rain.

Our first day we had to filter water at a beaver pond. Michael filled up the pouches while trying to avoid the scum and leaches. The water was pretty brown and tasted like dirt. Thank you Sawyer for being a great system and not giving us giardia!

We would add things like nuun tablets, mio, or crystal light to enhance the flavor a bit. I usually carried a liter of plain water and a liter of flavored water. The nuun with electrolytes were great to have, but once we ran out of our initial supply we couldn’t find them anywhere in the towns we went through.

One tip: Cut off the bottom of a Powerade bottle and keep it in your pack to use as a scoop. Sometime filling up the pouches can be difficult, especially when you’re at a small stream with a trickle of water. Scooping can also help you avoid getting sediment and dirt in the pouch, which can clog the filter.

I have this weird fear of running out of water, so I always, always leave about one-third of a liter of water in my bottle until we sit down to filter more. You just never know what is going to happen!

Overall, we always had enough water throughout the day on trail. There were some days where we had to fill up at sources we didn’t want to (AKA, beaver pond) or slow down our drinking until we got to the next source, but we never ran the risk of dehydration.

Food

As you can imagine, food is a pretty big deal on the trail.

We started the trail with a bunch of leftover dehydrated meals that we had gathered over the summer. Here’s what our initial food supply looked like:

Breakfast: Mountain House scrambles with tortillas, Starbucks Via
Snacks: RXBARs, Bobo’s oat bars, beef jerky, Lenny & Larry’s complete cookie, trail mix, PRObars
Dinner: Dehydrated meals from Mountain House and Backpacker’s Pantry

A little fancy.

Once we had to start re-supplying in towns we were limited to what we could buy. We were stopping in smaller towns, so sometimes our only re-supply option was a Holiday Stationstore (a convenience store/gas station) or a small market. Then our food changed a little bit.

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal, Starbucks Via
Snacks: EPIC meat bars, OATMEGA cookies, Gardetto’s, Haribo sour gold bears, KIND pressed bars, Quest protein bars, Clif bars, trail mix, almonds
Dinner: Ramen, Instant mashed potatoes with tortillas

A little less fancy, but not bad!

I typically tend to carry more food than I need to. Like with water, I’m scared of running out and don’t mind carrying the extra weight.

For each day of hiking I would plan for a breakfast, a dinner, and three bars, plus a bag of trail mix (or something similar) to snack on across multiple days.

If I had 3 days between re-supplies I would need 3 breakfasts, 3 dinners, 9 bars, and 1 bag of trail mix; however, I would usually throw in an extra couple of bars and another bag of trail mix/nuts/jerky just so my food supply didn’t get too low.

Here’s what a day of eating on the Superior Hiking Trail may look like:

8:00 am: breakfast consisting of 2 or 3 instant oatmeal packets with instant coffee – both usually made with cold water
10:30 am: an EPIC meat bar and a KIND pressed bar
12:30 pm: a protein cookie with a handful of trail mix
2:30 pm: a Clif bar with a handful of trail mix
4:00 pm: a packet of sour gummis, split with Michael
7:00 pm: dinner consisting of ramen, usually 1.5 packet’s worth

As you can see I typically try to eat every 2 hours. Sometimes this depended on the section of the trail – the intensity, the weather, stuff like that.

Some days I felt suuuper hungry and other days I barely had an appetite (during which I’d force myself to eat plenty of snacks anyways), but Michael and I both always had enough food.

Then we’d get into a town and have a beer and a feast!

Food and water is different for everyone on the trail. The above is what I did for this trail, my strategy for the next one may be a bit different. We shall see!

Reach out if you have any questions!

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Superior Hiking Trail Part 5: Two Harbors to MN/WI Border

September 5, 2018 by Jenna

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

This is part 5 (the final part!!) from Two Harbors to the end of the trail at the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Make sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 as well!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 15

Two Harbors to Fox Farm Pond – 25.6 mi – 10 hours, 10 minutes

Michael and I are on the final stretch of the Superior Hiking Trail! Woohoo!

Our goal is to stay at the last Superior Hiking Trail campsite – there are no SHT campsites through the Duluth area – tomorrow night, which means we need to cover 42.5 miles over the next two days. Because of where the campsites are placed – there is no dispersed camping – we planned to do 25.6 miles today and 16.9 miles tomorrow.

25.6 miles was an aggressive goal, but it was either that or only 18.2 miles. The weather looked perfect and the terrain seemed to be pretty flat, so we believed we could do it. Plus, tomorrow’s forecast is calling for rain, so we saved the shorter miles for the icky weather day.

Neither of us wanted to repeat the 6.3-mile road walk from yesterday, so we called Jeff from Cadillac Cabs last night to see if he could give us a ride to the trailhead. He said he could pick us up at 9:30 am. It was a little bit later than we wanted to start, especially since we had big miles planned, but it still worked. As a bonus, we got to sleep in a little bit. Our bodies appreciated the extra rest!

We woke up, showered, packed, ate breakfast in the lobby, and then got picked up by Jeff.

We started from the Reeves Road trailhead right at 10:00 am.

Most of the day was spent hiking through trees – a typical day on the Superior Hiking Trail. As we figured, the weather was great and the trail was flat. There wasn’t even a lot of rocks or nasty roots! We were able to hike quickly with ease.

The first 22 miles weren’t very scenic. We didn’t get any views from ridges or glimpses of Lake Superior. We did hike by some swamps and this mushroom was really cool.

We stopped at a couple different campsites for breaks – one to use the benches to sit and filter water and another to use the latrine. During both stops we met thru-hikers. The couple at the first stop had a few days left of their adventure and the guy at the second stop was just starting his. We wished them all luck. We have only met a few other thru-hikers, so it was fun to meet and talk to more!

By mid-afternoon we knew we were going to be able to reach our goal campsite for the night, since we were averaging 2.5 miles/hour. To get to Fox Farm Pond by sunset we just had to stay focused and move quickly. It was a race against time!

The last few miles of the trail were rolling hills alternating between thick forests and young, open forests. The sun was starting to set, the temperature was cool, and everything looked so pretty. The scenery was a good distraction. I was starting to get tired.

We got to camp shortly after 8:00 pm and about 15 minutes after sunset. It was getting dark fast!

It was completely dark by the time we set up our tent. Then it was headlamp dinner time – a tortilla wrapped around instant mashed potatoes. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it was actually quite satisfying.

And now it’s bedtime. I’m excited that I hit my first 25-mile day on the trail! I can tell that my body is getting stronger. I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do 25 miles as easily 10 days ago. It’s a great feeling!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 16

Fox Farm Pond to Bald Eagle – 16.9 miles – 7 hours, 45 minutes

Michael and I woke up to rain at 4:00 am. We knew it would come, but hoped that it wouldn’t. We fell back asleep until about 7:30 am. Once we decided that the drops falling on the tent were from the trees above us, we started to pack up.

We were happy it wasn’t actively raining, but it stills sucks to pack up a soaking wet tent.

Since we only had 16.9 miles to hike we took our time in the morning. We had one more Mountain House breakfast skillet, so we cooked that up to make breakfast burritos and heated up water for coffee. It was nice to have a leisurely morning!

We left the campsite at about 9:30 am with our rain pants and jackets on. We figured the trail would be pretty wet and that it would rain most of the day.

First view of the day? This swamp.

An hour into the hike Michael and I had enough of our rain jackets. It was so humid! We ditched them and kept moving.

Sucker River was the first stop of the day. We needed to filter water.

The trail was similar to how it ended last night – rolling hills through thick and young forests.

I was starting to get way too hot and decided to ditch the rain pants. I was drenched in sweat and it felt so freeing to walk in shorts and a t-shirt.

As my dad always says, “it’s not so much the heat, it’s the gosh darn humidity.”

It’s so true!

On top of the 90% humidity there were also tons of mosquitoes. It’s hard to keep the Deet on when you can’t stop sweating!

At about 1:00 pm the sun came out. We were both pretty shocked, but glad that we could lay out the tent and sleeping quilts to dry.

We were so excited to have a dry tent and crossed our fingers that we wouldn’t have to set it up in the rain.

The majority of the last 8 miles were spent on snowmobiles trails. We got our feet soaked by a flooded beaver pond, walked through cobwebs and overgrown grass, and got attacked by mosquitoes. Not the most fun hiking conditions. Fortunately, the trail was mostly flat and went by fast.

We got to our campsite, Bald Eagle, the last southbound campsite on the Superior Hiking Trail, at 5:15 pm. This was the earliest we’ve ever gotten to camp.

Bonus, it wasn’t raining yet!

We got everything set up and started making dinner. Another night of mashed potato burritos. I’m a fan.

We crawled into the tent early and waited for the storm to come.

Michael was watching the radar closely. Reading the warnings – 90 mph winds! Golf ball hail! Mobile homes will be destroyed! – made me very nervous. I distracted myself by reading The Pursuit of Endurance by Jennifer Pharr Davis (highly recommend) and crossed my fingers that hail wouldn’t ruin our tent and the winds wouldn’t knock down a nearby tree.

The first thunderstorm cell went through. There was a lot of rain and lightning, but wasn’t too terrible. The next one went through about 45 minutes later and was much worse. There was blinding lightning, booming thunder, and howling winds, also rain and hail. It was pretty scary laying in the tent. Fortunately, it passed without any damage to us or the tent. Whew.

Quite the experience for our last night in a tent!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 17

Bald Eagle to Haines SHTA Trailhead – 20.8 miles – 10 hours

We woke up shortly after 7:00 am. After the night of storms neither of us slept well. It was hard to get moving, especially when we knew everything was soaked.

Eventually we stirred up enough motivation to get moving. We shook out the tent and let it sit in the sun for a few minutes before folding it up. Since we didn’t have anymore camping we weren’t super concerned about it fully drying.

We hit the trail by 8:45 am. We spent about a mile on the trail and then switched over to our last stretch of snowmobile trails. We were so excited to be done with these.

After 3 miles of snowmobile trails and a short road walk we were at Martin Road.

Most thru-hikers that we’ve met on the trail started/ended here and skipped the Duluth section. Had we known this going into the hike we probably would’ve stopped at Martin Road too, but we committed to hiking the whole thing and both of us are too stubborn to cut it short.

With that said, we made it to the final map!

It was back on a trail for the Superior Hiking Trail. We walked along rolling hills through the trees and the occasional neighborhood. We walked through the Hartley Nature Center, where we could stop to use the bathroom and fill up our water bottles.

It was nice to be on trails again and we got a nice view of Lake Superior.

From here we walked through parts of the University of Minnesota and Duluth and then down to the Rose Garden. It was steep downhills on sidewalks that were a little rough on my feet and shins.

Afterwards we walked right along Lake Superior on the Duluth Lakewalk. It was sunny day and beautiful views, but since it was the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend it was pretty crowded. Everyone was out enjoying their last summer weekend and we were walking by smelling like sweat and garbage. It was uncomfortable, but also very pretty.

Then we decided to go into Fitger’s Brewhouse for a beer and burger break. It was a good idea. If we have to hike through a city we might as well make the most of it!

We finished up the lake walk, which meant we got to start walking on trails again. Unfortunately, the trail on initial ascent up to Enger Park was pretty gross. There was broken glass everywhere, empty bottles, discarded clothes, and an old tent. It wasn’t a nice area to walk through.

Once we were further up and away from that area we took a break.

This was my lowest point of the trail. Michael and I were so disappointed that we spent the last day hiking on snowmobile trails, then on pavement through a city where finding blazes was like a scavenger hunt, and then a sketchy area. Morale was low. I was upset with myself for not loving the experience and for having a bad attitude.

After the break we continued to hike and the trail opened up to a beautiful park, Enger Park. It was exactly what we needed. Finally a beautiful, open space in nature! It even had bathrooms and a water fountain with cold water.

We walked out of the park with refreshed attitudes.

The trail continued to a big climb up Piedmont Knob, where there was a beautiful view of Duluth. I’m so glad we got to end our day on a positive note.

From the viewpoint we headed down to the Haines Trailhead and decided to call it a day.

We got an Uber to the hotel. Then showered, did laundry, ordered Pizza Luce (oh, how I’ve missed Pizza Luce!), and called it a night.

Superior Hiking Trail Day 18

Haines SHTA Trailhead to Grand Portage Trailhead – 20 miles – 8 hours, 40 minutes

The second-to-last day on the trail and neither of us wanted to get out of bed. It didn’t help when we realized a storm would be rolling through mid-morning. Is it not possible to have nice weather two days in a row?!

We got ready and ate breakfast in the hotel lobby. The best part about the no-camping-in-Duluth thing is that we could “slack pack” today, meaning we didn’t have to pack our sleeping quilts, sleeping bags, electronics, etc. We essentially just brought our rain gear, toiletries, food for the day, and water. My pack is already pretty light, but today it probably weighed about 5 pounds. So nice.

We contacted an Uber to pick us up from the hotel and bring us to the trailhead. As we got in the driver ask, “You know it’s supposed to storm soon, right?”

Yes, we knew. We didn’t need the reminder. We also couldn’t wait to start hiking until noon.

We hit the trail at 8:50 am. It was raining within 20 minutes. Luckily the storm broke up a bit and we only got rain for about 40 minutes.

At about noon we were walking through the Spirit Mountain area. We were feeling pretty beat by the humidity and came across the chalet. We joked about getting a beer. Then decided to go in a get one. Might as well make the most of the experience!

It was a nice break.

From there it turned out to be a pretty good day! The scenery was beautiful and the trail was well maintained. There were a lot of up and downs, but it actually felt like a nice challenge after hiking a few flat days. It was so much better than yesterday!

We finished the day at the Grand Portage Trailhead. My phone had very unreliable signal. Fortunately Michael had enough to get an Uber. We crossed our fingers that the Uber would arrive before his phone died, since he only had 5% battery life left. It did!

Then we when back to the hotel and immediately got into our leftover Pizza Luce. So delicious.

Now we’ll rest up and get ready for our last day on the Superior Hiking Trail!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 19

Grand Portage Trailhead to Minnesota/Wisconsin Border – 16.3 mi (including 1.9-mi spur trail) – 6 hours, 30 minutes

Last day on the Superior Hiking Trail! What a crazy feeling.

We wanted to get an earlier start, so that we could finish by early afternoon. I told my parents to meet us at the trailhead for the southern terminus around 2:00 pm. We woke up at 6:30 am, got ready, ate breakfast, and got an Uber to the trailhead.

Michael and I started hiking at 8:15 am. The trail started out with a walk along the St. Louis River.

There were a couple of steep uphills and downhills and before we knew it we were at the Jay Cooke State Park Visitor’s Center. It was cool to see a sign saying that we hiked 298.2 miles and only had 7.8 miles to go!

We made it there in good time, so we took a nice long break ate a lot of snacks.

Side note: The best part about a hike like this is that you can pretty much eat all the snacks you want. The worst part is that you get so sick of eating the same snacks over and over again. Variety is the spice of life!

Afterwards we walked along the swinging bridge and admired the beautiful river.

We continued to hike on various trails through Jay Cooke State Park. The trails were nice and wide; it was refreshing to hike side-by-side and chat through this section.

After a couple more uphills and downhills we were at the final trailhead of the trail. Woohoo! It was just 1.9 miles to the southern terminus of the Superior Hiking Trail.

And then… we were there! We were at the end of the trail!!

We celebrated with a hug and kiss, then took our finisher pictures.

The southern terminus itself is a little disappointing with a trail register and a simple sign on a tree, but… whatcha going to do.

After we took as many pictures as we could we hiked the 1.9 miles back to the trailhead. It was perfect timing, because my parents had just pulled up a few minutes prior.

There were hugs, clean clothes, sandals, and more pictures. Shortly afterwards there were burgers and beers.

I’m so excited to have finished this trail and to have completed this goal! It’s even better that I was able to do it alongside Michael (and that we still get along and love each other).

I’ll do an overall recap post soon!

SUPERIOR HIKING TRAIL MILEAGE TOTALS

Part 5 miles: 97.7 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 1.9 additional miles = 99.6 total miles

Total miles: 304.4 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 16.2 additional miles = 320.6 total miles

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Superior Hiking Trail Part 4: Silver Bay to Two Harbors

August 30, 2018 by Jenna

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

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Superior Hiking Trail Part 3: Tofte to Silver Bay

August 27, 2018 by Jenna

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

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

Superior Hiking Trail Day 8

Tofte to East Caribou River – 21.3 miles – 9 hours, 50 minutes

We slept in until about 8:00 am, got ready, and had breakfast in the hotel lobby. I didn’t hold back on the breakfast – waffle, ham, banana, yogurt, potatoes, coffee, basically a little bit of everything. The more you eat the more energy you have for hiking. This is how it works, right?!

Anyways, we left the hotel at 9:15 am and walked over to Bluefin Bay Resort. We heard that we may be able to get a shuttle ride to the trailhead. We walked in with our fingers crossed and asked. Jon, the part-time bike mechanic was totally willing! This was a huge relief. It would’ve only been a 3-mile road walk, but I’d rather spend that time on the trail. Michael tipped him $20 and Jon exclaimed that it (the tip) made his year and that if we made it back into Tofte he’d buy us a beer. Friendly folks!

We started the trail at about 9:50 am with an uphill to Carlton Peak. While taking a break to sign the trail register we met another girl who was also thru-hiking the Superior Hiking Trail southbound (SOBO). She was the first thru-hiker that we’ve met so far on the trail. We started hiking with her down to the Temperance River. It was fun to listen to her and Michael trade stories about the PCT.

A few miles later we made it down to the Temperance River, where we all took a break.

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful spot right on the water.

I chugged about a 1.5 liters of water and ate a snack. Since it was actually sunny and not humid outside I was so hot and thirsty.

Michael and I got up to start hiking again. We said good bye to our new friend. I’m sure we’ll be crossing paths with her again.

The trail followed both the east and west side of the river. It was so pretty!

After the river we started a longer (~500 feet) hike up. Similar to the earlier hike up to Carlton Peak it was hot and sweaty. We took a break at the campsites near Cross River. These were beautiful! If you want to hike a section of the Superior Hiking Trail I would recommend camping here! Since it was only about 2:00 pm we just stayed for about 10 minutes and moved along.

The rest of the afternoon moved so fast! There weren’t any major climbs, the trail wasn’t too full of roots, and there was some pretty scenery. We covered 6.5 miles in about 2.5 hours.

Our next break was at Dyer’s Creek. We took our time resting up here and filtered some water. We were planning on camping at the next site 3.5 miles away. It was 5:00 pm, so we had plenty of time.

We hiked into the next site, Sugarloaf Pond, and realized that there was no water and no good spots to set up our tent. Since we still had plenty of daylight we decided to hike to Crystal Creek, the next campsite 2.4 miles away.

The hike to Crystal Creek was wonderful. You could see Lake Superior from the trail, the weather/temperature was perfect, and the sun was getting ready to set. Plus, this part of the trail was well groomed, which made the hiking easier on my tired body.

It all made me so happy.

Then we arrived at Crystal Creek to find that, again, there was no water and the ground was super slanted.

Fortunately, the next campsite was only a mile away. It looked to be a bigger one and was next to a river, so we had high hopes.

We rolled into East Caribou River at about 7:50 pm. I went to get water while Michael found a spot to camp.

We set up the tent and then made our way to the food prep area. There were about 5 other campers hanging out around a campfire. It was our first night with a fire. It was really nice.

We made dinner, chatted with the other folks, and then headed into the tent.

Our original plan was to hike 17.7 miles, but we ended up at 21.3 miles! This is the most I’ve ever hiked in a day. I think I can attribute it to my giant breakfast. I guess I should eat 3 packets of instant oatmeal, instead of 2, tomorrow morning.

Superior Hiking Trail Day 9

East Caribou River to Leskinen Creek – 21.4 miles – 10 hours, 35 minutes

The forecast for the day wasn’t a pleasant one. It called for heavy rain in the morning with scattered showers the rest of the day.

We set the alarm clock a little earlier than usual in hopes that we would get all packed up before the rain started.

Luckily, we did. The rain started coming down as we were walking out of camp at 7:25 am.

Oh, and I did have 3 packets of oatmeal. I mixed them up in a Talenti container with water and a packet of Starbucks Via. It’s all about efficiency in the am.

It rained pretty solid for our first 2 hours of hiking. This made for cool, moody, misty scenery and very muddy trails.

I don’t know if it was more noticeable because of the rain, but the trail seemed to be so full of giant roots today.

We also had some steep uphill and downhill sections that were made up of large, slick rocks.

Because of the conditions we were hiking at a slower pace than yesterday. Also, we were both wearing rain pants and rain jackets, neither of which breath well, so if we went too fast it would get real sweaty underneath the gear.

We hiked along the Manitou River in George Crosby Manitou State Park. The highlight was coming across a 3-sided shelter. We figured we should take advantage of it and stop for a break. It was nice to be under a shelter for a bit!

In the afternoon we hiked along the east branch of the Baptism River, Sonju Lake, and Egge Lake.

After Egge Lake it was another 4.7 miles to our campsite at Leskinen Creek. I was moving pretty slow, so we took a break to rest a bit. We hadn’t sat down much throughout the day, so it was nice to rest the feet for 15 minutes.

We stopped to filter water for the first time of the day at a river and then had 2 miles left to camp. I was struggling a bit. I guess that’s what back-to-back 21-mile days can do to a person.

It didn’t help that we had to hike through a obstacle course of mud slop just before arriving at our campsite.

It also didn’t help that it started raining again as we were walking into camp.

After waiting out the rain for a bit we decided to bite the bullet and set up the tent quickly in the rain. We managed to get it done without getting everything soaked.

I’ll consider it a win!

It rained on and off throughout the rest of the evening. We basically didn’t leave the tent once we had it set up.

It was smart thinking for us to buy shooters of whiskey in Tofte.

And now I’m going to go to sleep and forget all about my wet socks and shoes until I have to put them on in the morning.

Superior Hiking Trail Day 10

Leskinen Creek to Round Mountain Beaver Pond – 18.5 miles – 10 hours, 45 minutes

I won’t sugar coat it – it was an icky morning. It wasn’t actively raining, but there was a lot of water dripping from the trees. The tent was soaked, the skies were gray, and everything was just wet.

One of the worst things ever: putting on wet socks and even wetter shoes. Although, truth be told, once they were on my feet for about 3 minutes I totally forgot about how wet they were. The act of putting them on is just kind of terrible.

We got everything packed up and crossed our fingers that the sun would come out for at least a little bit in the afternoon, so that we could lay out the tent to dry.

The plus side of the morning was that we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little bit. We didn’t get out of the tent until a little after 8:00 am. Since we got to camp last night at about 6:00 pm my body felt well rested and ready for another day of hiking!

We left camp at about 9:15 am with our rain gear on. The trail was pretty level and downhill to the Sawmill Bog. It was a slightly scary boardwalk. I’m so happy neither of us fell in.

Afterwards we had a pretty decent climb. At the top of the climb we were drenched with sweat on the inside of our rain gear and drenched with water on the outside. We took a break to dry off for a minute. Our break spot had some nice views even through the morning mist.

It was basically all downhill from there to the County Road 6 road crossing. We saw a group of people taking a break in the parking lot, so we decided to join them. It’s a rare treat to be able to sit down with a group of people to chat. We took advantage. Plus, we were starving. “Hiker hunger” is starting to become a real thing.

There was a short road walk before heading back into the trees for a 2-mile climb up to Sawmill Dome. As we were approaching it the sun started to shine through the fog. It was a miracle! We laid out our very wet tent on the rocks to dry. I ditched my rain coat and pants. I felt so free! After about 45 minutes of the tent lying out, along with some shakes and repositioning, it was dry-ish. It wasn’t 100% dry, but it was close enough.

At this point it was almost 2:00 pm and we had only hiked about 8 miles. It was time to keep moving.

A few miles later we stopped at Kennedy Creek to filter water. We were almost out by this point, so it was good timing.

After crossing Highway 1 it was another nice climb. We decided to take another break and eat some snacks to carry us through our last few miles of the day. Looking at the elevation chart on the map it seemed like we had a pretty decent (~800-foot) climb ahead of us.

We were in Tetteguche State Park, so there were plenty of people around and some nice wide, groomed trails.

While we were on our climb up to Mount Trudee a group was hiking down all with beers in their hands. They commented on our hiking poles and we commented on their beer.

“Do you guys want one?”

“YES! Thank you so much!”

I’ve never been so happy to be handed a Bud Light. I don’t think they realized the trail they were on aligned with the Superior Hiking Trail and therefore didn’t realize the magnitude of their simple gesture. I’m sure they were confused why two smelly people were so excited to get Bud Lights.

Michael drank his right away, but I saved mine for the top of Mount Trudee.

Even though the hike up to Mount Trudee looked to be straight up on the elevation chart it was more of a gradual to steep to flat to down to steep to gradual to flat to steep type of climb. We made it up to the top and decided it was the most beautiful view that we had seen so far on the trail, but would, obviously, be amazing in the fall.

We took some pictures and I drank my Bud Light. Dang, it was delicious.

Afterwards it was a quick downhill to our targeted campsite for the night, either East or West Palisade Creek. Unfortunately, both of them were quite full so we continued onward an additional .8 miles (through a lot of mud!!) to Round Mountain Beaver Pond.

We had just enough light to quickly set up our tent and boil water for ramen. The mosquitoes were out and biting, so we ate in our tent. Bad, I know, but it was eat or be eaten.

Then we called it a night!

For the morning being so icky the day actually turned out to be really fun!

Superior Hiking Trail Day 11

Round Mountain Beaver Pond to Silver Bay – 5.9 miles – 2 hours, 30 minutes

It’s a town day! This one is well timed, because we were starting to smell so bad. After sweating in the sun on day 8, being soaked with rain on day 9, and a mix of both on day 10 we’ve been getting a little ripe. At one point Michael said, “we smell like wet garbage.”

Lovely.

Anyways, we woke up at about 8:00 am, went through our normal routine, and hit the trail by 8:45 am.

It was in the low 60’s and the humidity was at 93%. We walked up one hill and I was already drenched with sweat.

The whole 4.7 miles of trail to the trailhead were rolling hills. It was also full of overlooks out to Bear Lake and Bean Lake. It was a beautiful morning.

We met up with another hiker on our way to the trailhead and it was fun to chat with him for a few miles.

We made it to the Penn Blvd trailhead and started our 1.2 mile road walk to Northwoods Family Grille. Both of us were super hungry. My burger, fries, and Pepsi tasted much better than my typical Cliff Bar lunch.

We stopped at the grocery store to pick up food for our next leg of hiking and then to the liquor store for a 6-pack (our normal town activities). As we were walking to the hotel, someone pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride.

Yes, please!

He said he’s hiked most of the trail and tries to give hikers rides whenever he can. His generosity saved us 20 minutes of walking. I mean, it’s not like we couldn’t have done it, but if someone wants to be nice and give us a ride we’ll take them up on the offer!

After getting to the hotel we had to wait about 20 minutes for our room to be ready then it was our normal activities of showering, doing laundry, planning the next segment of the hike, enjoying a beer or two, and being lazy.

Always a good time in town!