Thru Hiking the Superior Hiking Trail: Ten Years Later

“It is so lovely out this evening. There is a wonderful cool breeze coming in through the tent door. I watched the sunset from the comfort of my bug-free zone…I hope the breeze continues. The sound through the pines is wonderfully soothing. Every once in a while on this trip I have gotten a whiff of fall – this is one of those times. Perhaps it is because I’m inches from the ground, but I can smell autumn leaves.” – Anna, last night of SHT Thru Hike, 2013

Recently I was going through some old things and I came across the journal that I kept while attempting my first solo long-distance trail: The 300 ish mile Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) here in Minnesota. For those who might not know, thru hiking (or through hiking) is when a person hikes from one end of a trail to the other, all in one continuous trip.

The SHT had been on my “maybe I’ll do this someday” list for years, but it wasn’t until I found myself at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina early in the summer of 2013 that I finally decided to do it. The Appalachian Trail runs through that area, and as I hung out there for the week I saw hiker upon hiker walk through on their trips towards Maine. It was romantic to think of travel like that, to only have the gear on your back and just relying on your own two feet to get you to a far away destination, so when I got home I started crunching the numbers and preparing for my own “little” thru hike on our prime local trail.

I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was determined to figure it out. I read quite a bit about gear, nutrition, reducing pack weight, and physically preparing. I came up with a plan for resupply and packed boxes to mail to myself via general delivery. I assessed my gear and decided it was “good enough” (even though now I’m a little in awe of the heavy-ish gear I carried that whole way). To train I walked loops with my pack around the bluff trail in my home town. I experimented with making my own stoves – after a “twiggy” stove I tried to make out of some cans wasn’t working, I settled on an alcohol stove I made out of some pop cans.

Finally, I was as ready as I would ever be. I mailed my two resupply boxes with the estimated arrival dates to a couple of towns along the way and drove up to Duluth. The Superior Hiking Trail at the time started a bit south of Duluth before heading through the town itself and then the rest of the way up the north shore of Lake Superior to an overlook with Canada. Duluth posed a logistical challenge – at that time there was very few camping options within the city, so my plan was to camp at the one paid campground and just hike the rest of the way out of town (25+ miles) … and just figure it out.

To add complication to this whole project was the fact I needed to leave my car somewhere. I had planned to park it at the state park that was the southern terminus at the time, since I had left my car at the state parks many times for shorter trips. When I checked in with the rangers and asked them where I should park it they balked – wait, how long? Three weeks? No, you can’t park here that long.

This was the day before I planned to start hiking.

Instead, they sent me to the local sheriff’s department to ask them what I should do. Long story short, a couple hours later I had parked my car at a park-and-ride off the freeway and had six miles of road walking to get myself back to the state park. My adventure was not quite starting as planned.

Following are some shots of my journal of my adventure – I included alternate texts if the photos aren’t clear. My journal for this trip was more a list of happenings (also content warning, there is the occasional swear word). Many entries probably don’t make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me, but I certainly had a good time reading them as I put this together! If you don’t have time to flip through, I’ve included a summary of the trip below.

Some key points about my experience: the first week was really rough. It was physically and mentally challenging. Not only were a couple of the days really long mileage-wise, but I also got pretty soaked and eaten alive by mosquitoes and biting flies every day. However, my trip took a major upswing after I got to Castle Danger/Gooseberry, and while I still was nearly at my limit physically and mentally, I found my stride after that point.

Here are pictures of my journey. They are mostly in order. Apologies in advance for the low picture quality!

On my last night camping, I wrote a bit of a reflection about my experience. In addition to the quote that started this blog, here are some more snippets:

“Last night ponderings: It is so strange that this is the last night. In some ways it seems as though I’ve just gotten started. In other ways, this adventure has been going on for what seems like forever. I’m really not sure what I expected from this trip. I figured pain and bugs, but never counted on or even really thought about people that I would meet along the journey and how much of an influence they would have on my experience. It seems strange to come on such a physical adventure in such a beautiful place and say that the random people I met along the way were part of the coolest things, but they were…I’m glad I wrote them down so as not to forget [them]. It was fun to hear people’s stories. Why they were on the trail, where they were coming from…so many people were so passionate about the SHT… Though the people have really made this trip spectacular, one cannot hike this area without a sense of awe and wonder at how f*ing amazing Minnesota is. I’ve hiked through so many ecosystems! … Last but not least, I’ve been impressed with how my body has held up. I’ve put this poor thing through the wringer and she’s still kickin’ … My legs feel strong powering up hills and I don’t feel like a weakling when I pump my water…

When I think back to the adventures that I’ve had between this trip and now, I can see many instances where I have applied things that I learned on this trip to my “regular” life and future adventures. While this thru-hike wasn’t my first big adventure, it definitely pushed me to my limits and redefined what I was capable of.

I’ve had folks ask if I’d ever embark on this again, or what I’d do differently if I did. The short answer – yes, I’d love to hike the trail in its entirety again! If I did it again, I would take some zero days (rest days). When I hiked this I had some shorter “rest” days but I didn’t ever actually REST. I’ve gotten wiser now! And, even though I got away with it when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t be able to now. My experiences out west on the Pacific Northwest Trail also solidified the value of taking rest days – a valuable lesson that can be applied to life as well.

I now know folks in the Duluth area (and live there myself) so I wouldn’t try to hike a hilly marathon and tackle that whole Duluth section of trail in one day, so I wouldn’t end up having to bend rules that are actually pretty important to follow. Additionally, while I still use a lot of the same gear you’ll see in those pictures, I’ve also been able to upgrade to some lighter options. I’d carry less water and fill up more often. So, in short, if I did it again I’d try to do things to make it easier on myself!

While a repeat trip isn’t likely to happen within the next couple of years, if (when) I do embark on it, I’ll be sure to share my experience. Until then, thanks for allowing me to reminisce! Feel free to reach out if you are planning a similar trip and have questions, or if you have your own stories to share. Happy Trails!