Probably the last Superior Hiking Trail post of 2013 … but we’ll see

Paul Lundgren Oct 27, 2013 9 Comments

I’m not sure if this is called Fox Farm Pond or Paisley Pond or both, but it’s funky as hell.

Most of my Superior Hiking Trail adventures this year took place in August and September, but I hit the Sucker River to Fox Farm Road section today and, wow, some serious logging happened while I was gone.

Apparently the forest was over mature and in decline, and the timber harvest will help regenerate things.

Someday I’ll compile the full story of my 14-year adventure, hiking all 296 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail. But at this point I still have 21.2 miles to go, so that will have to wait.

One section I haven’t done is the Encampment River area. I have a good excuse; the bridge is out.

I’ve been told the water level is low enough that I could cross without the bridge, but, well, honestly I kind of don’t want to finish. I like having a little of the trail left to do.

By the way, I’m curious if there is anyone out there who has hiked the whole trail and is not a skinny elderly man from the Twin Cities. Every person I run into on the trail who claims to have done the whole thing or intends to do the whole thing is a 60-year-old man with a walking stick. But I digress.

I was hiking with my wife today and we crossed paths with Andrew Slade (of the North Shore … There and Back blog) and his wife, which is funny for two reasons: 1) The last time I posted about the Superior Hiking Trail on PDD I mentioned that it was Slade’s blog that tipped me off that the new sections were complete, and we were days apart in our hikes of some of those sections. 2) I never thought one of my hikes would be Tweeted until today.

If only we had coordinated, we could have eliminated two 30-mile car trips.

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9 Comments

in.dog.neato

about 11 years ago 

Talk to Trevor Rasmussen...I'll point him in this direction. He's solo thru hiked twice. Once in fall and this last winter...

in.dog.neato

about 11 years ago 

As an aside, the Lymes disease vector has moved north. I picked up a tick somewhere between Lake Agnes and Cascade River the first weekend of the month...

This is twice in a decade. I'd shoot for three, but recovery is a bitch...

in.dog.neato

about 11 years ago 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzI58--XCNU&sns=em

Trevor makes the movies on the trail, too.

huitz

about 11 years ago 

I would be surprised if Dusty hasn't done the whole thing just for a workout. Oops, I just aged myself online.

Paul Lundgren

about 11 years ago 

Trevor Rasmussen is pretty much my new hero. 

I heard a long time ago that Dusty Olson ran the whole trail in two days. Not the whole modern 296-mile trail, but like a 200ish-mile trek that made up all or most of what existed at the time. Of course, like much Dusty lore, it's just something I heard, but it's probably true.

huitz

about 11 years ago 

I can vouch for Dusty lore, because I was there part of the time. He led me (pacemaker) to the finish line a couple of times in high school XC races. That wasn't his intent. He just inadvertently did it. I got my best 10k time by mimicking him.

He offhandedly mentioned sponsorship in the article I linked to. Well, that's where the guy already had it made physical fit wise. He was getting free Nordic skis in high school from Karhu, and nobody could touch him on the track.

Back to the trail. It's one of the (very numerable) best things I can say about Duluth. My brother and I often times sat and thought about how cool it would be to have the power lines (in the West Duluth area) become part of a full trail. We mountain-biked those all the time. You're not supposed to do that now of course. And now, here we have it; some of the best hiking in the world.

huitz

about 11 years ago 

My bad, it wasn't Karhu. It was some other brand. In any case, here's a piece of west Duluth heaven...

[img]http://www.perfectduluthday.com/wp-content/uploads/comments/trail.JPG[/img]

Shane

about 11 years ago 

Dusty did ski on Karhus when he was in high school. There may have been another brand or two as well.

rev

about 11 years ago 

I took a little vacation earlier this month, a short 40 mile solo hike on October 6-9. I did come across a young lady and her mom. She wasn't doing a through hike, but pretty close- the ~250 miles from the US-Canada border down to Gooseberry.

Her story was pretty cool- she recently graduated from one UMD (or CSS?) and working at a local restaurant. She said hadn't heard of the SHT before, but when she did a few months ago decided she would take some time off and hike most of it. Her mom and her dad both took turns with her on her trip. I really admired her in this - even before career and kids I can't imagine having the force of will or decisiveness to just stop everything and go on a 250 mile hike. If I ever run across Anna the thru-hiker around town I'll ask if she'd like to do a post on her adventure. :)

Some pictures from my trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75437125@N05/sets/72157637019942056/

Perfect time to be on the trail, to be sure! I never know if this is the sort of thing I should try to write into a post, especially as I'm not the best writer and not really in the PDD club.

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