It's been a little while, so I feel like I should probably send an update. Last week I spent some time backpacking on the Superior Hiking Trail with some friends.
It was a nice little trip. We drove up on a Tuesday--the day after classes ended. We dropped off one vehicle at the end location--just past the Devil Track River near Grand Marais, then packed up the second car and drove back to our starting location on a forest road about 15 miles away. That first day we basically just set up camp and hung out; it was 3:30 pm by the time we arrived at the second location and our campsites, which were less than a quarter mile from the road.
Day two was our big day, hiking a chunk of 10.4 miles; all in all not a huge day's worth of hiking but enough to take it out of us. I should probably mention I was going with two others who really hadn't done this kind of overnight backpacking before and third who is recovering from ACL surgery.
We made it all the way to the Devil Track River, which is--by the way--one of the sweetest places I had never heard of before in northern Minnesota. It's basically all rapids and falls flowing through an enormous canyon. Hiking out was fun in part because we were often within a few feet and a couple trees of a 200-300 foot drop down to the river below.
The final morning three of us left the packs at camp and climbed up Pincushion Mountain. It's a mere 1400 feet, but considering Lake Superior (in the background) is 600-some feet above sea level, it's a nice overlook.
We hiked out on Thursday about 2.5 miles and headed into Grand Marais to Sven and Ole's, because it's basically something I have to do when I'm up there and my companions obliged my obsession. Anyway, all in all a very successful trip. We didn't see much wildlife, except a bunch of wolf tracks, but we had some nice views and good companionship. Looking forward to heading up again soon and checking out more of the north shore hiking.
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