Honeymoon Trip
Our plans had been to go do 5 days on Isle Royale National Park - hopefully with friends. Unfortunately, nobody has signed up to join us, and I waited too long to book the boat. By the time I tried, the boat openings available would not work with our schedule.... so, onto Plan B.
We're going to go spend those days knocking out another chunk of the Superior Trail. We started this 2 years ago, having to quit earlier than I would have liked due to Tina's knee. So we'll pick up where we left off and continue hiking north - this time from Tettegouche State Park to Temperance River State Park, about 51 miles.
We're 2 years older, a few pounds heavier, but still motivated. However, we are dialing our plans back / being more conservative this time with respect to planning. I learned a valuable lesson last fall with my Appalachian Trail trip. Though the ruggedness of the Superior Trail is not even in the same league as the AT between Vermont and New Hampshire, we're going to scale back to an average of 10 miles per day or less, and we're going to plan a contingency day on the back end just in case something slows us up.
Since we last hiked on the Superior Trail, both Tina AND I have had knee surgeries. Hers was a complete replacement, mine was just a debriding of a meniscus, but still. Neither of us has been training, so we're going to take this easy and slow.
Trip plan: Fly to MSP on Friday night. Do the wedding Saturday, then drive north to Temperance River SP to stay overnight. Next morning, park our car in extended parking, then take a shuttle to the trailhead outside Tettegouche SP. Hike Sunday through Friday. Drive back to Minneapolis Friday afternoon. Contingency day on Saturday - either still hiking, in Minneapolis, or with Tina's family. Fly back Sunday morning. Critter sitter is already set up, shuttles booked, plane tickets purchased, and arrangements made. We spent yesterday working from Lighterpack to pull out all of our equipment, make sure everything is in working order, and searching for missing items. We've got 2 weeks to find/purchase all the loose ends.
When we get to Minneapolis, we will need to purchase a fuel cannister and some items for our lunches. (All of the rest of the food is already packed and ready to go.)
We are looking forward to a very wet and buggy trip. That part of the country has had frequent and heavy rain this summer. Tina and I reviewing our lessons learned from last time and adjusting our packing lists accordingly. We are planning for warmer temperatures, more bugs, and more rain. Here are out two Lighterpack lists:
And here is our daily itinerary:
Wish us luck!
Post-trip update
Even before we started the trip disaster had struck. We ended up staying in the car at the parking lot at Temperance State Park waiting for our shuttle pickup the next morning. It was at that point that I discovered that I had lost my driver's license. It must have fallen out of my pocket in one of two locations where we stopped on the drive up from MSP. My biggest concern was what TSP was going to do when I got back the MSP airport.
Next morning we got picked up by Superior Shuttle Service and driven to the trail head just outside Tettegouche State Park and started our hike. Day 1 was the toughest day with roughly 2000' of cumulative climb. We got to see Johnson Lake, which quickly outpaced Bean and Bear lakes as our favorite (to-date) location on the trail.
Looking south from our first climb the sawtooth appearance of the Superior Trail patch - with hills on the left and waves on the right - was clearly evident.
The day was long, and Tina was tired by the time we got to the "Section 13" camp, but all was well. Weather was beautiful, with highs in the low 70s and sunny. We had homemade dehydrated minestrone soup for dinner, and I actually slept well that night. (Unusual for me on the first night of a trip.)
Next day we got up, had breakfast, and headed down the hill we were on and across the famed Sawmill Creek bog area. Everything was beautiful. Temps were in the high 50s. Bugs weren't bad.
About 3 miles in, as Tina and I were approaching a road, walking on flat and smooth trail, as we talked, Tina twisted her ankle on the smallest of rocks. It swelled up almost immediately. The only question: was it sprained or broken? It was extremely painful. Either way, the backpacking trip was done. The good news was we were only about 250 yards from a road - thank goodness for that. So as Tina sat I followed the road into town, walking approximately 4 miles before my hitchhiking attempts paid off. The guy who picked me up graciously drove me all the way to Temperance State Park where I retrieved the car and drove back to get Tina.
Change of Plans
So, it's Monday. Our plane leaves Sunday. What to do with the remainder of the week? We decided to do car camping at the various state parks along the north shore, go sightseeing, and generally enjoy what we could. We spent two nights at Gooseberry Falls State Park, one night at Temperance State Park, and one night at Tettegouche State park. We spent a day in Two Harbors, had good beer at Castle Danger brewery, drove up to check out Grand Marais (where we had lunch and beer), went to a number of museums and exhibits, visited the Superior Trail Association in Two Harbors to buy stuff, picked up beer from Castle Danger to have with dinner that night, went on a memory-filled back-road adventure so I could round up taconite pellets from where we remembered a huge pile of them when we were through the area in 2022, checked out roadside pitstops for the numerous waterfalls, and I got to do 2 days of solo dayhiking: one at Temperance where I hiked up to the top of Carlton Peak, and then one at Tettegouche where I did got to visit several of the lakes and ponds we could only view from a ridge top as we hiked bye in 2022. Oh yeah, and we went back to Castle Danger to pick up more beer to have with dinner. After all of that we drove back to Duluth, where we tried (in vain) to find my lost driver's license at the only place we stopped, then back to Eu Claire where Tina's daughter lived. We spent the day Saturday with Tina's family before flying back on Sunday.
We were already discussing when we could return to try again. One thing that is certain - Tina's days wearing UL footwear are numbered. Out of the 4 long distance trips that we've attempted together, she's had issues on all 4. 2 of those were related to footwear. While she may not like the idea of a high-top traditional boot with lots of arch support, I don't like to see her getting hurt.
Keep hiking my friends.
