Superior Hiking Trail

**pizza** · 10-25-2010, 18:26

Had a good weekend hiking and hanging with some fellow HF members on the Superior Hiking Trail in MN. We headed up on Friday afternoon and met at Cascade River State Park. Did some car shuttling leaving some cars at different trail heads as some folks were only staying a couple days. We had a short hike to camp for the first night at the Trout Creek campsite near Cascade River State Park.

Saturday morning we headed South on our way to Lake Agnes campsite which was a 12 mile hike. This was a very nice section of trail. The group split up into a few groups and I was solo for a good 6 miles of this hike. We had a nice campsite and campfire. I was beat and turned in real early as most everyone else stayed up and chatted around the fire.

Sunday morning I headed out an hour or so before everyone else as I got in a good 9 hours of sleep and felt refreshed and ready to go. I ended up being solo for the whole day except for when the crazy fast paced Storm Crow caught up to me at the halfway point.

I opted to keep plugging on as SC stayed behind to wait for the rest of the group to catch up at Lutsen. I was just in one of those moments where I was really enjoying going at my own pace taking it all in and taking lots of photos. The plan was to camp the third night at Rollins Creek Campsite.

I suffered a couple of minor injuries along the way. I did something to my right knee on one of the downhill stretches. It wasn't severe but was fairly painful when putting all of my weight on the knee particularly when going down steep downhills. I can still feel some pain today when going down stairs.

Later on I turned my left ankle

so I was hobbling a bit now and pretty tired out by the time I got to the campsite. It started to lightly rain and I sat around briefly at the campsite debating whether I'd stay the last night or not and opted to hike the last mile or so out back to my car at the Oberg Mountain parking lot to head on home. The mileage Sunday ended up being about 12 miles again. I was pretty happy with doing back to back 12 mile days though. I've never done that before as I usually do less than 10 miles a day. All in all it was one of the best trips I've done on the SHT. Here are a few shots.

**thorwren** · 10-25-2010, 18:36

Thanks for posting, Pizza! Now I know Stormcrow's still alive and kickin'... BUT NOT SEWING! I NEED him back!!

**ArcsandSparks** · 10-25-2010, 18:43

Very cool! I was up there in mid-August and finished a 33 mile weekend trek ending at Caribou trail. We passed the Lake Agnes campsite and were pretty bummed out that we didn't get to stay there. Lutsen Mountains area is kind of a pain, but still fun. I thought I would post this pic because I have the same one only 2 month prior....Hope to get back up there next spring.

Picture 253.jpg

**Debi Jaytee** · 10-25-2010, 18:51

looks like a fun trip! thanks for the pics, I love the SHT, the scenery is breathtaking!

**Shewie** · 10-25-2010, 18:56

Great pics Pizza, would love to see the SHT one day

**beep** · 10-25-2010, 19:13

Nice report, good pics!!!

I hope your recovery is swift and complete!! Knees and ankles can be aggravating!

**JerryW** · 10-25-2010, 20:04

Thanks for the report Pizza! It looks like you were among a great crew up there.

I hope you heal up quickly. I know what it's like to have an injury goof up a trip.

Jerry

**mbiraman** · 10-25-2010, 20:06

NIce pics,,,get well pizza,,,i pulled a calf muscle a few days ago on a hike and have had to pull back a bit and heal.

**Barefoot Child** · 10-25-2010, 20:34

Or as Gunny would say "Suck it up Son!....Pain is just Weakness leaving your Body!!!"

Just kidding....tankee for the great trip report and pics.

**pizza** · 10-25-2010, 20:39

One other note that I should mention from the trip is that I was really impressed with the Topo Maps iPhone app. It worked flawlessly along the trail and was virtually spot on. I have all of the maps downloaded for the entire Superior Hiking Trail on my phone. I imported a .gpx file with all of the campsites along the entire trail from here. http://www.shta.org/Trail/TrailGPS.php I checked all of the campsites I came across along the way against the Topo Map on my iPhone and it was pretty much spot on which was really cool.