Superior Hiking Trail – Day 1

Daily Miles: 12

Total Miles: 12

Today was a really long day.  We woke up at 5:30am at Beardoh’s mom’s house.  Qball and JJ had arrived two days earlier, so we were all ready to head to the trail.  Beardoh’s mom was gracious enough to agree to get us to the northern terminus…over four and a half hours away.

We were on the road by 6:30am and then proceeded to drop things off on our way north.  First, we dropped our car off at a friend’s house near the southern terminus.  That will make things (hopefully) very easy when we finish the trail.  We all loaded into Beardoh’s mom’s car and then we dropped off three separate resupply packages along the way (three of our four resupply points).  We have come to accept the fact that we just don’t like (and are not good at) buying resupplies at grocery stores along the trail.  Luckily all our drop off spots were right on the road we were taking up north.

We finally made it to the trailhead for the northern terminus at 12:30pm.  It had been grey and cold as we drove up, but as we neared the trailhead, the sky cleared and it felt warm, even though the thermometer said only 59 degrees.

We hiked the one mile north to the northern terminus, which is at a viewpoint called 270 Overlook.  We sat down and ate lunch while enjoying the view into Canada…we figured we were just a half mile from the border.  We took some photos and then officially started our southbound hike.

There was a real mix of trail today.  There were sections where the trail was overgrown and we had to push our way through tall grass, bushes or tree branches.  Other parts of the trail were really clear and great walking.  At times the trail was flat, and other times we had a full introduction of the “steep and short” SHT trail.  This trail is well known as having lots of steep ups and downs but luckily they don’t last long, which is good because they are quite exhausting.

There was a large variety of mushrooms on the trail.  There were mushrooms of all shapes, sizes and colors.  This climate is quite moist, so it’s no surprise that there are a lot of mushrooms.

The only animals we saw today were a tiny baby snake and two grouse (that startled SweetPea).  However we saw multiple piles of moose poop, so we are hopeful that we will see one on this trail.  Especially because JJ has never seen one in the wild.

Today’s hiking included the high point for the SHT which was Rosebush Ridge at 1,829 feet.  Of course there were the obligatory jokes that it is all downhill to Duluth, but we know that is not the case.

We got to the Caribou Pond Campsite around 7pm and we were tired.  We felt like we were racing to eat and get our hammocks set up before dark.  We managed just in time…hanging our bear bags just as it was getting dark.

Our campsite is quite small and luckily we have it to ourselves.  All four of us are hammocking and the campsite is pretty small.  The big tree in the middle of the campsite that we were all hoping to hang off, turns out to be dead, so we all have pretty mediocre hangs, but at least we made it work.

It got cool pretty quickly once we arrived at camp.  We are right next to the pond, and there is already mist rising off the surface.  We expect a very cold night of sleeping.  Three of us have our tarps up…even if there is no rain (sky is clear), there is a strong possibility of dew from the pond.