Tag: Minnesota

Superior Hiking Trail: Epilogue

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We are back visiting our friends in Duluth, relaxing at the Chill-Inn and gathering our thoughts before we gather our belongings and head back to Chicago after five relaxing weeks spent exploring northern Minnesota. The song “No Regrets” by our new favorite artist, Forest Sun (check out his song “Morningbird”—it will melt your heart), is playing. Even though the song is written presumably following the end of a relationship, the words seem appropriate as we reflect on our experience of the Superior Hiking Trail—“Darling no regrets, I’m so glad we met, And even though we made a mess, I’m glad that we said yes…” (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 10: Oh SHT! Pulling the Parachute Cord

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After a good night of sleep because of the cooler weather, we pack up slowly, continuing to mull over our options. It’s so hard to stop short of our intended goal, but our feet are failing us right now. Maybe we pushed it too hard in Duluth, or perhaps we are just not used to this heat and humidity? Whatever the reason, we come to a unanimous decision that we can no longer continue hiking with the current state of our feet. (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 9: A Day of Reckoning

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We are super slow getting out of camp this morning. Our tent is wet from the rain last night, and taping up all of the blisters on our feet takes a while. With a slightly shorter distance to hike, we decide that this is a good morning to cook up our trail-tested (patent pending) crunchy Frito bean burrito, and it is a welcome change of pace after so many mornings of breakfast bars. (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 7: Grin and Bear It

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It’s nice and cool when the alarm goes off at 4:30. I hit the snooze button for 15 minutes knowing we will pay dearly for that later in the morning when the temperature begins to soar. Even so, it’s so hard not to indulge in a few extra minutes of rest. Once up, we break camp as quickly as possible, hoping to get a few miles in before the heat becomes unbearable. We do alright and are on the trail just after 6. (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 6: Sweating like SHT

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We wake up at 5 am and can feel the heavy humidity in the air and on our sleeping bags which we barely crawled into last night because of the heat. We are getting the sense that the drought and this kind of heat is a little unusual for Minnesota at this time of year. We move quickly but, tried and true, an hour and a half seems like our usual pace for packing up, so we hit the trail by 6:30, hoping to knock off some miles before the sun really starts heating things up.

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Superior Hiking Trail, Day 4: A SHT Ton of Work

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After three days of significant mileage on the Duluth section of the SHT, today is a deliberately light day of hiking, only 7.4 miles from the downtown Rose Garden to the Martin Road Trailhead parking lot. This is an opportunity to rest our feet a bit, but we also need to end early because we have a lot of other work to get done. When we are finished hiking today, we need to shuttle our car to the northern terminus and then drop off our three resupply boxes in towns along the way back so that we can begin the true backpacking portion of the SHT tomorrow.  (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 3: Variety is the Spice of SHT Life

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Today’s endpoint is at the Leif Erickson Rose Garden, which is on the waterfront in downtown Duluth, only about a mile and a half from our friends’ house, so our shuttle times are getting a lot faster. I follow Matt down to the lakefront, park the car and hop in the passenger seat beside him. It’s a 15 minute drive back to Waseca Street where we will continue hiking along Kingsbury Creek where we stopped yesterday. (more…)

Superior Hiking Trail, Day 2: A SHT View from Ely Peak

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The alarm goes off and we begin to stir. This is Day 2 of the Duluth section, and we need to start establishing a routine. I make coffee while Alison gathers breakfast and throws it in the cooler. Then it’s out the door to do our self-shuttle, dropping one car off at today’s ending destination and then driving to the Grand Portage Trailhead where we ended yesterday and will begin hiking today. (more…)