Superior Hiking Trail

This past weekend we backpacked the Superior Hiking Trail along the North Shore of Minnesota. Our small group dubbed last summer’s trip the “Death March”, so this year we set out with more wisdom and a more realistic amount of miles to be hiked. We were joined by our great friends Ross and Megan Jahnke.  With pouring rain at the beginning of the trail Friday morning, we wondered about our sanity but decided to venture on anyway. Thankfully, the rain stopped in the early afternoon. It remained dry the rest of the weekend except the extreme muddiness of the trail (which in my clumsiness I fell in twice).  We hiked from Temperance River State Park to Lutsen (a total of 17.5 miles with 3 different mountain summit hikes). We climbed Britton Peak, Carlton Peak, Leveaux Mountain, Oberg Mountain, Moose Mountain, and Mystery Mountain. Our starting point was 600 feet and we reached a height of 1600 feet.

Those are the facts of the trip. The things you can’t see in the pictures are the silly songs we created to distract our bodies from the pain, the extreme stink of three days without a shower, and the sense of pride and accomplishment you feel knowing you traveled so many miles with a 25-pound (or more)  pack on your back. The scenery was breath-taking and the company was a blast, but it is always good to be home…clean…eating real food…in a comfortable bed…with no bugs buzzing around your head…

Click on a photo and scroll through…enjoy (and join us next time)!