Superior Hiking Trail – Day 15

Daily Miles: 16

Total Miles: 233

We got up in the light, which feels more like a luxury, since we had gotten up in the dark so many times on this trip.  We knew we didn’t have a lot of miles today, but we also wanted to get to camp before 5pm when there was a chance of rain.

A lot of the trail today had markers for sections that had been harvested for timber in previous years.  Each set of markers specified the year the section was harvested, going back twenty years or so.  It was pretty amazing to see how quickly an area can fill back in…not necessarily with big trees yet, but lots of saplings and bushes.

We took a break at a spot signed as 12 Mile View.  We figured that the sign was put up at least twenty years ago, because now there is no view.  We joked that we needed to add a dot in front of 12, to make it a .12 Mile View.  That would certainly make it more accurate.

At the next campsite, we took a break on the benches.  We met another thru-hiker (that put our count up to 7), and another section hiker who we ended up leap-frogging with the rest of the day.

The terrain today has been rather boring, so we put in our earphones for one of the only times this trip.  We listened to a few podcasts to help pass the time.

We arrived at the Sucker River Campsite around 4:15pm.  There was already a hammocker and tenter (both thru-hikers, putting our count to 9) set up at the campsite.  The tree situation was pretty unfavorable for multiple hammocks, so it took us some time to decide where we could hang.

By the time we started to set up, we felt the first rain drops.  Qball ended up hanging next to the woman in the tent, Beardoh had a long hang which turned out quite good, JJ had a high hang above a bunch of logs, and SweetPea had to hang in the trail to the latrine, making it difficult for folks to go back there.

By the time we had finished setting up, the rain was starting in earnest.  We all ate separately under our tarps and then just went to bed.  We were all in our hammocks by 6pm.  It was too bad that we couldn’t hang out socializing on our last night, but we were just glad that we were dry and warm under our tarps while it rained.