I have completed the Superior Hiking Trail

A friend told me I was being a little negative about the rain, so I apologize for that. Of course, I recognize rain as an incredibly valuable and necessary part of our world. The main reason it feels so challenging when it rains is the complete immersion of being out in the elements here. A day feels like a week when you are in the woods, and thus feels like a week of being rained on. Add in the facts that there is often no shelter from the rain, that it makes everything like fires and blisters more complicated, and that it is making the extremely muddy traila muddier, and it becomes hard to appreciate rain in the moment. Of course, the opposite is true. When the sun comes out blazing at 80 degrees, I find myself wishing for rain. When I reach the next stream to fill up on water, I am glad it has been raining and the streams are in full force.

That is how life can be. Expectations sneak in unwanted. This whole trail was quite like that. The first day, I was expecting it to be my return to the woods, to the Appalachian Trail. It very much was not, but that is wonderful! It was a completely new trail with different challenges, maybe even more challenges.

The last few days found us facing nice weather, very muddy trails, easy terrain, some swarms of mosquitos, car troubles, and some friendly people. Some things were crazy and even felt horrible at the time, but as woth the last trail, I would not have wanted the adventure to go any other way.

I must thank those who helped me along the way, especially all of my buddy Teabag’s family for being so very generous and allowing me to stay with them in my present state of disorder.

Soon, I will return home and start the next adventure.

Up in northern Minnesota, it seems I either have no battery life or no reception, but I ended up in town today with a minute to post. 

After the weather finally cleared up, we had a great series of hiking days. I dealt with a bit of poison ivy and sunburn, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle and adapt to. 

We picked up the miles, so most days leave me pretty wiped, hiking into camp around 7:00 p.m. The nice weather and holiday weekend brought in quite a few people. When before, there were only a few hikers out for the day, the past few days have revealed more than a hundred people out in the woods. My brethren. And sisteren. 

The climbs have started to pick up too, with a couple days of hiking reminiscent of the Appalachian Trail. Views of Lake Superior are always welcome. Don’t get me wrong – my first homage is always to Lake Michigan – but there are some great towns and people here. Nearly everyone here knows about the Superior Hiking Trail, and many have been supportive of our thru hike. 

It’s dwindling down to the last few days out here already. I feel like I just got back in the woods. A few more nights of cowboy camping and hopefully keeping this perfect weather of today. Fret not. There’s always time for more days in the woods. Full time or part time, I’ll always make it work out. 

Well, I think I hit rock bottom out here. It felt like in Breaking Bad Season 2, when Jesse is having a series of terrible things happening to him, one after another. It started when I woke up in the middle of the night with what I though was boogers plugging up my nose. When I tried to snot rocket to clear them out, I found out it was a nosebleed, and that only aggravated it more in addition to getting blood everywhere. I hoped it was just due to dehydration. It stopped, and I went back to sleep. 

The whole next day was wet and soggy trails. It rained on and off, and it stayed cold enough to be uncomfortable. My feet were having trouble keeping up because of the wetness and mileage. We have been averaging around 20 miles, and the terrain is more difficult than I expected for Minnesota. We had to take two long detours over the past two days, both of which were mostly wet road walking, and it has been so cold that my phone wouldn’t turn on. We finally set up camp the other night, exhausted, and it actually started snowing. I think Nature is just teasing me at this point. 

Yesterday, the Sun finally decided to show up. As we had to hike, I did not get a good chance to dry out boots and socks yet, but hopefully soon. We were able to hitch into town, resupply, and stop at a nice restaurant in Silver Bay. It was a tiny town with all the essentials and a huge boost in morale. A gentleman came over to ask us about our hike, and after chatting for a bit, he agreed to give us a ride back to the trail. He had actually played a big part in the initial construction!

Very friendly people. And the Sun is up! Cowboy camping tonight, enjoying the easy life. 

So maybe I romanticized the first couple of days. The sun helped me remember why I love being out here so much, but it spent most of the day shrouded in clouds. There were still plenty of puddles, and my socks are still mostly wet. As a result, my feet are pretty unhappy, forced to be wet and stomp out 20 miles a day. I can’t say I blame them, but I hope they toughen up.  
We attempted a fire, but most everything is still too wet, so we mostly got smoke and ash. I tried to dry socks out but not too successfully. 

We are a couple miles behind our ambitious schedule but plan to catch up tomorrow or the next day. I am really hoping for sun. There was a point today where the sun came out, and it felt too warm for hiking, a nice change. I may have even got slightly burned. 

We only saw a couple of families hiking for the day today. The word is there will be more traffic and more scenery the further north we get. Time will tell.  

What a welcome sight the sun was this morning. Yesterday, we hiked 17 miles in fog. All day was foggy and humid. It did not rain, but our gear was still wet from the first hike. 

We ran into one person so far. He was out for a five day trip or so. It was great to talk to a local, who knew the trail and some nearby towns. After lunching with him, we moved on. We seemed to be hiking flawlessly, making great time, until we stopped here for the day. 

Teabag took his pack off, pulled out his sleeping pad, and fell asleep, just about that fast. I wasn’t sure if it was intended to be a nap, but I was grateful for the break either way. It was still only around 4:00, but I started eating dinner. There were hundreds of birds around me, the only noises I could hear. A bald eagle took noisy flight from a dead tree nearby as I moved on to dessert, a chocolate bar and some spoonfuls of peanut butter. 

Since my friend showed no signs of movement, I set up my tarp and headed to bed. With few trees, I had to set it up on the trail, but I didn’t anticipate any hikers coming through. The one hiker we met said everyone was probably holding out for better weather. Which might be this morning. 

Well, the day has finally arrived. I am doing another thru hike this year. Sure, this one is a bit less ambitious, at 250 miles, but it is still a considerable hike, and I am eager to meet the challenge of the trail. 

Getting there has been an adventure in itself, hours worth of driving. My first stop was in Kalamazoo, to visit and congratulate my friends who recently got engaged! Then, I headed down to Chicago to meet up with Teabag. We stayed with his aunt and uncle, very generous hosts. It was great to see another hiker after so much time, one who shares that understanding and view of life. 

Today has been mostly driving up toward Duluth, Minnesota, where out hiking begins. It is presently raining, but is expected to stop in the next half hour (maybe). Either way, I am pumped to get out there, back on the trail. 

Here it goes. 

Though I am not currently on an epic long-term adventure, I have to remind myself that there is still plenty of cause to enjoy life! Especially in an area as beautiful as northern Michigan. My focus has been instead on mini-adventures: skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, ice skating, kayaking. Also, I have been spending some time substitute teaching 3-6 year olds, who are often the experts on appreciating life and adventuring. They are often radiating joy!

With a little bit of focus on my next big adventure, a stepping stone toward where my crazy life will lead, I will spend the rest of my preset time adventuring and learning what I can from those around me.

Get outside! Adventure!

I had my first wintry paddling experience recently, which was surprisingly quite enjoyable. Some of your first thoughts about winter and kayaking might be “freezing” or “terror” or “prolonged drowning,” but I was actually quite comfortable the entire time. Fortunately, I was with an expert paddler, so I felt quite prepared.

We traveled a section of the Platte River. The branches were all lined with fresh snow, and the cold air made everything crisp and bright. There were far fewer animal sightings at this time of year, but the beauty was all still there. We ended up getting stuck after only a short while at Loon Lake due to ice. The paddling back upstream helped me increase my muscles for the next time, which will hopefully be very soon.

I feel both proud and shocked admitting this, but when I first arrived back from the trail, I realized how much I actually missed northern Michigan. Not just the people (they are not half bad though), but I found myself really appreciating the natural beauty here. How silly, after having seen some of the most beautiful mountains in my corner of the world, but it is still how I feel. I am very fortunate to live here.

I had promised that the cold Michigan winter wonderland would not stop me from enjoying the outdoors, and so far it has not. I have been on plenty of wintry day hikes and even went on a short backpacking trip with my fellow explorer Kelsey. The winds were fierce, and the land was wet and snow covered, but we survived and even managed to enjoy ourselves a bit.

The path we hiked was a (relatively) short 21-mile loop that skirted along the edge of the Manistee River for nearly the entire trek. For the first day, we hiked south along the North Country Trail, and made it just past the Red Bridge Campground. It was early in the day when we stopped, but the view persuaded us.

Tenting and sleeping took longer than I was accustomed to, having so few hours of daylight. Winter hiking is a different experience. We woke in the morning to a fresh coat of snow and several cold miles to go. Would we make it?

Ah, the suspense!

Of course, we veterans would survive with no serious damage. I even hiked the whole trip in my short shorts, for nostalgia’s sake.

It really was not all that cold either, especially while hiking. I think it’s because I am hot blooded.

The moral of the story here is to get outside even when it is cold and snowy, especially if you live somewhere as beautiful as northern Michigan. Enough blogging for now. Today’s paddling adventure awaits!