Superior Hiking Trail – Day 5

Daily Miles: 17

Total Miles: 83

It was pretty cool when we woke up this morning.  We left with our wind shirts on, even though we knew there was a feature called “96 Steps” we had to go up within the first 1.5 miles.

It was pretty funny because there was a stretch of many steep stairs we encountered before the 96 Steps.  These other stairs weren’t noted in the data book, but the 96 Steps were.  The 96 Steps were these really nice stair-style steps and they were a piece of cake.  Not really sure why they were even noted as a point of interest…especially after the multiple spots of lots of steep stairs we have already encountered.

We spent the morning walking through the Cascade River State Park.  Usually the only indication we get that we are entering or exiting a state park is that the signage changes.  We climbed up to Lookout Mountain which was the start of multiple good vistas today.

Shortly after Lookout Mountain, there was a campsite with a shelter.  We stopped to enjoy the picnic table and to check cell service.  We wanted to call lodging options in Tofte and Silver Bay (our next two trail towns) to check availability and price…the price of lodging along this trail is pretty high.  We went back and forth about which town we should stay in and finally decided that we would stay in Tofte (which means tomorrow night).  We made reservations and by the time we were finished with that break, we had spent a solid hour.

In some ways, this trail feels like the northern part of the Appalachian Trail.  It is rocky and rooty…there are lots of bog bridges…and it can feel like a green tunnel.  But, today we saw a lot of new construction on the trail…multiple new boardwalks, a new bridge and some new stairs.  All the construction is so good and solid.  There was even a reroute this afternoon which was brand new and really nice.  It feels like there is a lot of money and manpower going into this trail.

In the afternoon, we walked along Agnes Lake which has several campsites.  These must be popular with folks coming out for a night or two.  We saw more folks in this area than we have in the last two days.  We did see a section hiker today who was out for over a week.  We have seen so few people on the trail, it is very noticeable when we encounter someone else out for more than a day or two.

The nice views this afternoon were enhanced with the beginning of fall colors. It feels like each day we are starting to see more fall colors.  While most of the forest is still bright green, every once in awhile we come upon a small tree full of red leaves.  A lot of the undergrowth is starting to change colors as well.

We knew that our campsite for tonight, Mystery Mountain, had no water, so we stopped at the recommended water source to fill up before getting to camp.  The water source was the Poplar River which was raging and which was down some steep rocks.  Since JJ is such a spritely mountain goat, he graciously went down and got water for all of us.

Our campsite tonight is quite big and has lots of good hangs.  Once again, we have the campsite to ourselves.  Tonight is the first night on the trail that we have not hung up our hammock tarps.  Hopefully we won’t regret that in the morning!