Superior Hiking Trail Backpacking

- Wednesday -
2pm - I left work to meet up with Kris and Andy at Pete's house in Minneapolis. We all got changed into our hiking clothes, loaded up the gear into the Jeep and headed north to George Crosby Manitou State Park. Pete reserved us an epic campsite on the Manitou River, site 5. Crosby only has backpack in sites so we had to trek 2 miles to the site. You are right on the river and all you hear are the rushing water rapids. We also hiked in a special treat that night which consisted of Surly Bender, Furious and KBC PickAxe Blonde Ale.

-Thursday-
We woke up and loaded up our packs to start the Superior Hiking Trail. But first we need to get out of Crosby Manitou. We hiked the 2 miles out of the park and found the trail head for Superior. Our destination that day was Egg Lake. A couple hours into the hike it seemed I was not prepared for this type of a technical trail. I figured it would be similar to some trails Aimee and I hiked when we went to Glacier National Park 5 years ago. Also one thing that did not help was the rain that the area received prior to use arriving. I believe we hiked around 10 miles that day. It felt like we would never get to the campsite. Towards the end of the hike I was on a mission to get there and then finally I saw the sign to the site. I unpacked and put up the tent ASAP. I felt like I hit the wall and I needed to lay down for a little bit to rest. Feeling better we gathered some fire wood and we had nice fire going until the rain appeared. All tired we decided to go to bed around 8pm.

-Friday-
2am - I noticed the rain is coming down to all hell and has been since 9pm or so. It felt like something was not right. I feel the floor of the tent and it felt like a water bed. It had rained so hard and fast that the site we put the tent up at was not draining. luckily the tent was not taking in water so Kris and I were dry but we obviously can't leave it in this spot all night. Kris and I decide to man up and put on the rain gear to move the tent. We moved the tent to a better location that would drain. We get back in the tent and go back to sleep. All throughout the night I could see lightening and hear the thunder follow. The rain was relentless. It finally stopped raining around 8am. I went down to the lake to get some water and I noticed that the boulder I stood on the night before when filtering water was now under water. Be nonce to us it had rained 5-6 inches overnight! This is not going to be good.

We pack up and start our day with full rain gear since the skies still looked rather sketchy. After leaving the campsite we now learn what our obstacle will be all day, flooding. The rain has turned the trail into little rivers and muddy wetlands. We were navigating rather well until we arrived to the Baptism River which had swelled to over double its size and there is water up to our knees just to get to the bridge. Now with our boots and feet wet we have another challenge. This day was to be the longest of all of the hikes and we were only a quarter of the way through it. We made sure to take a 10 minute break every hour and a 20 minute break every 2 hours. Every break consisted of us removing our boots, ringing out our socks and trying to load up on some calories before continuing on the trail. To make matters worse this day also had the highest elevation changes with Section 13 and Sawmill Dome. We also ran into some issues at the Beaver ponds because of the high water flowing over the two 2x6 board walk. After 16 miles we arrived at the Kennedy Creek sites. Exhausted we hustled to get items dried out from the morning and focus on getting a fire started to dry our boots. Skies cleared up that night and we finally got to see all of the stars.

-Saturday-
We set out to go to Bear Lake but Kris and I just didn't have much left in the energy tank. Kris was puking earlier in the morning and was not quite 100%. We were exhausted from the hike yesterday. Just as we got on the trail we could see Wolf Ridge ELC across Raven Lake. A few miles into the hike Kris noticed his knees were beginning to hurt so we decided to cut the hike short and stay at Tettegouche State Park. We hiked around High Falls and the Baptism river was raging! I have never seen a river running that fast. I took some pictures and video of the river gushing over the fall so I can compare it to when we come back in mid July. Pete and Andy reserved us site "L" which is a cart-in site. BTW for future reference sites "H" and "I" looked awesome too. We setup camp and headed down to the beach to check out Lake Superior. We combed the beach for some Lake Superior agates. We found a lot of small ones but Pete found a huge agate that just needs to be polished up. Did I forget to mention that it was Petey's Birthday Day? Happy Birthday again Pete! We got back from the shore and just messed around at camp playing some Farkel. We had the fire going and I had the hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps rocking. Since it was a clear night Kris and I decided to keep the rain fly off of the Hubba Hubba for the night. It was awesome to be able to sleep out under the stars.

-Sunday-
We gathered all of our gear and hiked to the Park Office. From there Andy and Pete walked to the shuttle pick up site which was a couple miles away. Kris and I stayed back and watched the gear. Few hours later Pete rolled up with the Jeep and we were off. The one thing you think about while backpacking is food. We talked about it all weekend and there was only one place to go after the hike, Anchor Bar & Grill in Superior, WI. Anchor Bar has some awesome burgers and fries. Some how Pete managed to down 3 burgers which is equivalent to 1lb of beef. If you get to Duluth just head over the Bong bridge and take the first exit when you are over the bridge. Turn left onto 3rd st. and Anchor Bar will be a few block up on your right.

It was quite the experience to hike the Superior Hiking Trail and I learned a lot. I can't wait to take some of my learning to Glacier when Aimee and I go in August.

-MikeyB