Michael and I are hiking the Superior Hiking Trail, a 306-mile trail along Lake Superior in Minnesota.
Here is part 3 of our adventure: Tofte to Silver Bay. Make sure to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, and Part 5 as well!
Superior Hiking Trail Day 8
Tofte to East Caribou River – 21.3 miles – 9 hours, 50 minutes
We slept in until about 8:00 am, got ready, and had breakfast in the hotel lobby. I didn’t hold back on the breakfast – waffle, ham, banana, yogurt, potatoes, coffee, basically a little bit of everything. The more you eat the more energy you have for hiking. This is how it works, right?!
Anyways, we left the hotel at 9:15 am and walked over to Bluefin Bay Resort. We heard that we may be able to get a shuttle ride to the trailhead. We walked in with our fingers crossed and asked. Jon, the part-time bike mechanic was totally willing! This was a huge relief. It would’ve only been a 3-mile road walk, but I’d rather spend that time on the trail. Michael tipped him $20 and Jon exclaimed that it (the tip) made his year and that if we made it back into Tofte he’d buy us a beer. Friendly folks!
We started the trail at about 9:50 am with an uphill to Carlton Peak. While taking a break to sign the trail register we met another girl who was also thru-hiking the Superior Hiking Trail southbound (SOBO). She was the first thru-hiker that we’ve met so far on the trail. We started hiking with her down to the Temperance River. It was fun to listen to her and Michael trade stories about the PCT.
A few miles later we made it down to the Temperance River, where we all took a break.
It was a beautiful day and a beautiful spot right on the water.
I chugged about a 1.5 liters of water and ate a snack. Since it was actually sunny and not humid outside I was so hot and thirsty.
Michael and I got up to start hiking again. We said good bye to our new friend. I’m sure we’ll be crossing paths with her again.
The trail followed both the east and west side of the river. It was so pretty!
After the river we started a longer (~500 feet) hike up. Similar to the earlier hike up to Carlton Peak it was hot and sweaty. We took a break at the campsites near Cross River. These were beautiful! If you want to hike a section of the Superior Hiking Trail I would recommend camping here! Since it was only about 2:00 pm we just stayed for about 10 minutes and moved along.
The rest of the afternoon moved so fast! There weren’t any major climbs, the trail wasn’t too full of roots, and there was some pretty scenery. We covered 6.5 miles in about 2.5 hours.
Our next break was at Dyer’s Creek. We took our time resting up here and filtered some water. We were planning on camping at the next site 3.5 miles away. It was 5:00 pm, so we had plenty of time.
We hiked into the next site, Sugarloaf Pond, and realized that there was no water and no good spots to set up our tent. Since we still had plenty of daylight we decided to hike to Crystal Creek, the next campsite 2.4 miles away.
The hike to Crystal Creek was wonderful. You could see Lake Superior from the trail, the weather/temperature was perfect, and the sun was getting ready to set. Plus, this part of the trail was well groomed, which made the hiking easier on my tired body.
It all made me so happy.
Then we arrived at Crystal Creek to find that, again, there was no water and the ground was super slanted.
Fortunately, the next campsite was only a mile away. It looked to be a bigger one and was next to a river, so we had high hopes.
We rolled into East Caribou River at about 7:50 pm. I went to get water while Michael found a spot to camp.
We set up the tent and then made our way to the food prep area. There were about 5 other campers hanging out around a campfire. It was our first night with a fire. It was really nice.
We made dinner, chatted with the other folks, and then headed into the tent.
Our original plan was to hike 17.7 miles, but we ended up at 21.3 miles! This is the most I’ve ever hiked in a day. I think I can attribute it to my giant breakfast. I guess I should eat 3 packets of instant oatmeal, instead of 2, tomorrow morning.
Superior Hiking Trail Day 9
East Caribou River to Leskinen Creek – 21.4 miles – 10 hours, 35 minutes
The forecast for the day wasn’t a pleasant one. It called for heavy rain in the morning with scattered showers the rest of the day.
We set the alarm clock a little earlier than usual in hopes that we would get all packed up before the rain started.
Luckily, we did. The rain started coming down as we were walking out of camp at 7:25 am.
Oh, and I did have 3 packets of oatmeal. I mixed them up in a Talenti container with water and a packet of Starbucks Via. It’s all about efficiency in the am.
It rained pretty solid for our first 2 hours of hiking. This made for cool, moody, misty scenery and very muddy trails.
I don’t know if it was more noticeable because of the rain, but the trail seemed to be so full of giant roots today.
We also had some steep uphill and downhill sections that were made up of large, slick rocks.
Because of the conditions we were hiking at a slower pace than yesterday. Also, we were both wearing rain pants and rain jackets, neither of which breath well, so if we went too fast it would get real sweaty underneath the gear.
We hiked along the Manitou River in George Crosby Manitou State Park. The highlight was coming across a 3-sided shelter. We figured we should take advantage of it and stop for a break. It was nice to be under a shelter for a bit!
In the afternoon we hiked along the east branch of the Baptism River, Sonju Lake, and Egge Lake.
After Egge Lake it was another 4.7 miles to our campsite at Leskinen Creek. I was moving pretty slow, so we took a break to rest a bit. We hadn’t sat down much throughout the day, so it was nice to rest the feet for 15 minutes.
We stopped to filter water for the first time of the day at a river and then had 2 miles left to camp. I was struggling a bit. I guess that’s what back-to-back 21-mile days can do to a person.
It didn’t help that we had to hike through a obstacle course of mud slop just before arriving at our campsite.
It also didn’t help that it started raining again as we were walking into camp.
After waiting out the rain for a bit we decided to bite the bullet and set up the tent quickly in the rain. We managed to get it done without getting everything soaked.
I’ll consider it a win!
It rained on and off throughout the rest of the evening. We basically didn’t leave the tent once we had it set up.
It was smart thinking for us to buy shooters of whiskey in Tofte.
And now I’m going to go to sleep and forget all about my wet socks and shoes until I have to put them on in the morning.
Superior Hiking Trail Day 10
Leskinen Creek to Round Mountain Beaver Pond – 18.5 miles – 10 hours, 45 minutes
I won’t sugar coat it – it was an icky morning. It wasn’t actively raining, but there was a lot of water dripping from the trees. The tent was soaked, the skies were gray, and everything was just wet.
One of the worst things ever: putting on wet socks and even wetter shoes. Although, truth be told, once they were on my feet for about 3 minutes I totally forgot about how wet they were. The act of putting them on is just kind of terrible.
We got everything packed up and crossed our fingers that the sun would come out for at least a little bit in the afternoon, so that we could lay out the tent to dry.
The plus side of the morning was that we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little bit. We didn’t get out of the tent until a little after 8:00 am. Since we got to camp last night at about 6:00 pm my body felt well rested and ready for another day of hiking!
We left camp at about 9:15 am with our rain gear on. The trail was pretty level and downhill to the Sawmill Bog. It was a slightly scary boardwalk. I’m so happy neither of us fell in.
Afterwards we had a pretty decent climb. At the top of the climb we were drenched with sweat on the inside of our rain gear and drenched with water on the outside. We took a break to dry off for a minute. Our break spot had some nice views even through the morning mist.
It was basically all downhill from there to the County Road 6 road crossing. We saw a group of people taking a break in the parking lot, so we decided to join them. It’s a rare treat to be able to sit down with a group of people to chat. We took advantage. Plus, we were starving. “Hiker hunger” is starting to become a real thing.
There was a short road walk before heading back into the trees for a 2-mile climb up to Sawmill Dome. As we were approaching it the sun started to shine through the fog. It was a miracle! We laid out our very wet tent on the rocks to dry. I ditched my rain coat and pants. I felt so free! After about 45 minutes of the tent lying out, along with some shakes and repositioning, it was dry-ish. It wasn’t 100% dry, but it was close enough.
At this point it was almost 2:00 pm and we had only hiked about 8 miles. It was time to keep moving.
A few miles later we stopped at Kennedy Creek to filter water. We were almost out by this point, so it was good timing.
After crossing Highway 1 it was another nice climb. We decided to take another break and eat some snacks to carry us through our last few miles of the day. Looking at the elevation chart on the map it seemed like we had a pretty decent (~800-foot) climb ahead of us.
We were in Tetteguche State Park, so there were plenty of people around and some nice wide, groomed trails.
While we were on our climb up to Mount Trudee a group was hiking down all with beers in their hands. They commented on our hiking poles and we commented on their beer.
“Do you guys want one?”
“YES! Thank you so much!”
I’ve never been so happy to be handed a Bud Light. I don’t think they realized the trail they were on aligned with the Superior Hiking Trail and therefore didn’t realize the magnitude of their simple gesture. I’m sure they were confused why two smelly people were so excited to get Bud Lights.
Michael drank his right away, but I saved mine for the top of Mount Trudee.
Even though the hike up to Mount Trudee looked to be straight up on the elevation chart it was more of a gradual to steep to flat to down to steep to gradual to flat to steep type of climb. We made it up to the top and decided it was the most beautiful view that we had seen so far on the trail, but would, obviously, be amazing in the fall.
We took some pictures and I drank my Bud Light. Dang, it was delicious.
Afterwards it was a quick downhill to our targeted campsite for the night, either East or West Palisade Creek. Unfortunately, both of them were quite full so we continued onward an additional .8 miles (through a lot of mud!!) to Round Mountain Beaver Pond.
We had just enough light to quickly set up our tent and boil water for ramen. The mosquitoes were out and biting, so we ate in our tent. Bad, I know, but it was eat or be eaten.
Then we called it a night!
For the morning being so icky the day actually turned out to be really fun!
Superior Hiking Trail Day 11
Round Mountain Beaver Pond to Silver Bay – 5.9 miles – 2 hours, 30 minutes
It’s a town day! This one is well timed, because we were starting to smell so bad. After sweating in the sun on day 8, being soaked with rain on day 9, and a mix of both on day 10 we’ve been getting a little ripe. At one point Michael said, “we smell like wet garbage.”
Lovely.
Anyways, we woke up at about 8:00 am, went through our normal routine, and hit the trail by 8:45 am.
It was in the low 60’s and the humidity was at 93%. We walked up one hill and I was already drenched with sweat.
The whole 4.7 miles of trail to the trailhead were rolling hills. It was also full of overlooks out to Bear Lake and Bean Lake. It was a beautiful morning.
We met up with another hiker on our way to the trailhead and it was fun to chat with him for a few miles.
We made it to the Penn Blvd trailhead and started our 1.2 mile road walk to Northwoods Family Grille. Both of us were super hungry. My burger, fries, and Pepsi tasted much better than my typical Cliff Bar lunch.
We stopped at the grocery store to pick up food for our next leg of hiking and then to the liquor store for a 6-pack (our normal town activities). As we were walking to the hotel, someone pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride.
Yes, please!
He said he’s hiked most of the trail and tries to give hikers rides whenever he can. His generosity saved us 20 minutes of walking. I mean, it’s not like we couldn’t have done it, but if someone wants to be nice and give us a ride we’ll take them up on the offer!
After getting to the hotel we had to wait about 20 minutes for our room to be ready then it was our normal activities of showering, doing laundry, planning the next segment of the hike, enjoying a beer or two, and being lazy.
Always a good time in town!
Note: that picture was taken before we showered.
Superior Hiking Trail Mileage Totals
Part 3 miles: 65.9 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 1.2 additional miles = 67.1 total miles
Total miles: 164.7 Superior Hiking Trail miles + 8 additional miles = 172.7 total miles
We made it over the halfway point!
