Long time no post.

I haven't hiked since last fall. I broke my arm in November and missed out on all the winter hikes and winter camping. This past Sunday Susan and I did our maintenance check on the section of the Superior Hiking Trail we volunteer to maintain. It was my first hike since doing our maintenance check last fall. Back in March a ice storm hit northeastern Minnesota. The storm hit us in Duluth. The worst hit areas included our section of the trail which is about 80 miles up the shore of Lake Superior from where we live in Duluth. We saw much storm damage on the drive up. But it was still a shock to see the extent of the damage once we got out in the woods. It often looked like a tornado hit. Above is the Skou Road spur trail we take to get to the Cross River crossing where our section starts.
Trees were snapped off all over the place. The first half of the section is mainly second growth birch. It doesn't stand up well to ice and wind.

The view of the Cross River just to the east of the trail bridge crossing.

We happened to be out on the day they were airlifting in the new bridge for the trail. We had to get special permission to pass through the work area.

Susan and Dash Riprock crossing over the old, barely stable bridge. The pier for the new improved bridge is on the left.

Another view.

A view of the raging Cross River as it narrows through the rock under the bridge.

Just up river from the bridge is another place it narrows and drops through some rock. May 17th and there is still ice hanging off the walls. The SHT website says this area still had 2-4 feet of snow on the ground as recent as May 4th.
We carry some hand tools to take out smaller blowdowns. Susan swings the axe. Bigger trees we write-up and a chainsaw crew cuts out. Luckily for us a trail crew had come through less than a week before us and cleared out the storm damage. Still a lot of broken and damages branches and trees have yet to come down.

About a half mile upriver from the bridge crossing and we could hear and see the helicopter being used for the airlift operation. If you enlarge you can see a long cable dangling below the copter.

With recent snow melt and a rainstorm the river was flowing very high and at a high rate of speed.

A new footbridge on a side stream already had some major damage. Perhaps too long of a span for the type of wood they used.

Downed trees and limbs everywhere you looked.

Devastation.

Dash Riprock, Trail dog extraordinaire.

More broken limbs and blown down tree tops.

Gasco Road, an ATV trail that the SHT crosses had visible damage to the trees as well.

Evidence that Boney's Meadow has a new family of beavers. It's not actually a meadow but a swampy wet area that often looks overgrown like a meadow.

Dash likes to cool off in every puddle and water source he can find.

One of the few views of the big lake from this section is from Tower Overlook. A beautiful, dry 65 degree day.

I find it fascinating how the leaves are just about completely out in Duluth, yet drive only 80 miles to the northeast and the trees have barely started to bud. But like I said, less than two weeks ago there was still 2-4 feet of snow here.

One other highlight of the day occured on the drive up. A wolf ran across the road right in front of us just outside of Two Harbors. It's the first wolf we've spotted in Minnesota. We did see one last year in Wisconsin. What a thrill.

It was great to be back out hiking in the woods. We hope to do a lot more hiking and backpacking this summer.

Fall Maintenance hike on the SHT

We are Section Volunteers for the Superior Hiking Trail. Our section is along the beautiful Cross River. Responsibilities include walking the section in the spring and the fall, and then turning in a report to the maintenance supervisor. Susan and I usually do it together. However, Susan is still recovering from the cold she got earlier in the week. This fall I went alone. We always do a bike shuttle so we only have to walk the section in one direction. The section is only 7 miles. The bike shuttle is only four miles. The road is much more direct than the trail route.
The bike shuttle includes some gravel on Cook Cty 1. I was surprised to see the fall colors so far along on the ridges above Lake Superior where there were hardwoods. There is still just a hint of color down the shore in Duluth where we live.

This is the Skou Rd spur trail.

This overlook of the Cross River is at the trail junction of the Superior Hiking Trail and the spur from Skou Road.

Just below the overlook is the river crossing. The bridge has some major structural damage suffered since last spring. Don't ask me how they got that center pier place under the bridge in the rapids. It's a temporary fix. If one big piece of driftwood hits the pier, that bridge is history.

I was a bit nervous going out onto the bridge. Last spring this bridge appeared stable. Not any more.

Fortunately they are building a new bridge with steel reinforced concrete piers. Just in time!

The river narrows through a small gorge as it passes under the bridge. The roar of the water over the rocks is deafening.

We aren't required to do any trail maintenance we aren't comfortable with. And we can't operate a chainsaw unless we've been certified by the National Forest Service. This section is in the Superior National Forest. But Susan and I do carry an ax and a saw to clear out the smaller trees that have fallen over the trail.

Now you see it....

...now you don't.

The river was swollen from rains and thunderstorms the previous night. It was running as high as spring snow melt. The river was flowing at a very rapid pace in the above picture.

The trail follows the narrow river valley for over a mile and a half. Here is a small waterfall at the upper end of the river section. I stood on a rock and watched a small trout try to repeatedly leap up the waterfall. Every time being washed back down to the bottom.

Now you see it...

...now you don't!

Up on the highest point of the ridge the maples were at their peak color.

A small hillside of maples rising above Boney's Meadow was also at peak color.

There happened to be some active beavers in Boney's Meadow, which is now Boney's pond. This birch had been taken down only a few days prior.

Now you see it... (you can see my ax in the tree just to the left of the blue blaze)

...now you don't!

I took on a little more than I bargained for with this removal. It took me at least 30 minutes of chopping. I think if Susan had been along she would have talked me into leaving it for the chainsaw volunteers.

This section only has one spot that has a view of Lake Superior, at Tower Overlook. However, there is a ridge that runs between the overlook and the big lake that is all hardwoods. This time if year its' quite a site. You can see the lake, it blends into the the skyline.

I was able to get all the blowdowns out except two that were bigger. Anything over 8-10 inches in diameter I leave for the chainsaws.

What a great day to be out on the trail. Temps in the 60's and beautiful sunshine most of the day.

Three day weekend at the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

This weekend we drove three and a half hours along the south shore of Lake Superior across Wisconsin and into the U.P. of Michigan to the Porkies. It's a gem of a park a long way away from just about anything. It has 60,000 acres of nearly undeveloped wilderness. It is one of the few remaining large wilderness areas in the midwest. It also has the largest virgin hardwood-hemlock forests in the U.S. Many trees are over 200 years old, in an area where less than 1% of the virgin forests remain. Ever since I first learned of this park I've wanted to go and backpack some of it's 80+ miles of backcountry trails.

We attempted it the first time maybe four years ago on a Memorial Day weekend. We got our backcountry permit, drove to the trailhead. Before I had my pack out of the car I had 2 blackfly bites and a mosquito bite. It wasn't to be. We decided to day hike and return home. The bugs were too thick.

I've always maintained that the Superior Hiking Trail along the North Shore of Lake Superior is the most scenic backpacking you'll find in the midwest. This trip changed that view. There are options. This parks unbelievably beautiful scenery and virgin forests rivals many National Parks. In the last ten years I've backpacked over 3,000 miles in more than 20 states. This trip was one of the best. There are a lot of pictures in this post. I'll let them do most of the talking.

DAY ONE
We had the dog with us. We kept the miles to a minimum with a hot weekend expected. Dash doesn't do well in hot weather and we've never had him out on anything but an overnighter in the past. There are enough trails and backcountry sites that we didn't set a firm itinerary. We decided to make it up as we went. Backcountry sites con't be reserved. It's a first come, first serve basis. Although you do need a backcountry permit.

The first couple of days I didn't take many pictures. We had cloudless skies for most of the time. But the canopy of the virgin forests cut out a lot of light. It felt like nighttime much of the time. It was hard to take pictures in that lighting...at least with my limited photography skills.

Dash took every opportunity to cool off in every stream, river, lake and mud hole.

This is the Trap Falls. A beautiful spot in a ravine with towering trees all around.

The view from Government Peak at 1850'. That's about 1250' above Lake Superior a few miles away.

The first night we camped at this backcountry site just below Government peak. We slept both nights without our tent fly. We had a magnificent view of the stars through the trees all night.

On the map it looked like there should be a small pond here. It turned out to be a very wet meadow with a small stream running down the center. Good enough to filter water from.

The fire ring at this site. We didn't make use of it. We tend to only have fires when it's cold out.

DAY TWO:

The forecast called for temps in the upper eighties. We decided to take the shortest route to the Lake of the Clouds area. It's a holiday weekend with lots of backcountry users. There were 5 campsites around Lake of the Clouds. We figured they'd fill quickly. We thought we could head over that way, try to get a site and then dayhike from there.

The five miles over to the lake were mostly downhill in more virgin woods. What a thrill it was to walk in these old woods. It is so different than any woods I've ever been in. I was filled with a sense of awe the entire time.
Dash always leads the way. This is a bridge across the Big Carp River at the western end of Lake of the Clouds. We are only 3/4 of a mile from the Lake of the Clouds overlook. The bridges are always bigger when in reach of dayhikers.

We took a side trail to four of the campsites. The first three were set in the trees just above the lake. We arrived around 11 in the morning. To our surprise the first three were empty. The trail got a little more vague. But we kept going, maybe a full 1/2 mile from the start of the side trail, for what seemed like forever. We finally reached the last campsite, also vacant. What we discovered was a huge surprise. It was the best campsite we have ever scored!! We never seem to get the good sites to begin with. This site was on a small wooded piece of shoreline that jutted out into the lake. Triangle shaped with sandy shoreline all the way around. It also had a nice breeze blowing through it that was keeping the bugs down. We would both agree this was the best backcountry campsite we had ever stayed at. It was spectacular!!

The view to the east from the campsite.

The view to the north.

The view to the west.

North again.

East again. Dash did a lot of cooling down in this lake. It must have been deep, because it wasn't particularly warm.

And another view to the west. The highest point in the right of the picture is where there is a overlook. People can drive out to that point. We would later do a dayhike up to that spot and hike some of the ridge to the west.

A wet, happy dog.

A view form the Lake of the Clouds overlook.

Susan with Dash. We would hike a mile out the ridge behind her before heading back to camp.

That's me.

We were back to camp by 3:30. We did something we're not very good at. We lounged around the rest of the day. I went swimming. That felt great in the hot weather. After dinner we set up our chairs and watched the sun set. Another nice thing about this park is it's lack of big metro areas nearby and lack of roads. It is as peaceful and quiet as the Grand Canyon or the Boundary Waters of Minnesota.

DAY THREE:

We set up our chairs on the other side of our campsite for the sunrise.
Today we would be crossing to the other side of the lake and walking the Escarpment Trail.

The day before we could see people up on the trail from our campsite on the other side of the lake. Little did we know how incredible the hike would be.
Spectacular views most of the way.

With the heat also came some haze. It didn't lessen the awe inspiring views one bit.

See that small triangular shaped piece of land sticking out into the lake. That's where the campsite was that we stayed at. Best backcountry site EVER!

There you have it. I can't even begin to describe the day. The pictures will have to do. I think we'll be back. We left a lot of trails to discover. There's a whole shoreline trail along Lake Superior. Based on the number of backcounrty sites along the trail, it must be quite popular. And, fall would be a great time to be in these woods. It would be breathtaking in peak colors. Plus the North Country Trail cuts through the southwest corner of the park.

Put this part of the world on your must see list if you ever plan to be in the area.

A backpacking weekend

SATURDAY

This summer was supposed to be the summer we did more backpacking. Our summer weekends the past 5 years have had various obligations, jobs and trail work that has kept us from doing all the backpacking we had wanted to. This summer we made no commitments to anyone and decided not to take any jobs. Thus, we were going to get out on the trail much more. What we've found is we both have enjoyed lazy weekends around our own home this summer. However, we've decided to get out more the rest of the year. This weekend we did an overnighter on the Superior Hiking Trail. It's only our second backpacking weekend this year. We decided to do an out-and-back hike on our favorite trail. We kept it simple. No bike shuttles, or hiker shuttles. I chose a section that doesn't have any big features like waterfalls, or rivers, or inland lakes. We started at the Beaver Bay trail head and headed west. The trail is rocky and full of roots. The unique feature of this particular section is how deceptively hard it is. Many, many short up and downs that wear on you. It also has some wonderful ridge walking with views of the big lake and inland views. It's not a section that many people would list as their favorite. But in it's own right, it's a gorgeous walk.

Lots of inland views from the ridges.

We took Dash Riprock with us. He carries his own food and water in a dog pack.

Wild blue berries were everywhere on the exposed ridges. Delicious! I ate my share.

Above is Susan and Dash enjoying a panoramic view.

Endless views.

The trail was very rocky in many places.

A view of the big lake, Lake Superior.

Dash and I enjoying the day.

More endless views. Views that can't be captured on a camera. It's hard to believe this is the midwest sometimes.

Susan descending off a small knob.

A natural meadow with some threatening clouds overhead. We had temps in the mid-80's. We never did get rained on.

SUNDAY

The Superior Hiking Trail has established campsites every 4-8 miles with rustic tent pads, fire pits, benches, and a pit toilet. We stayed at the Chapins Ridge campsite. We pitched our tent on a nice soft bed of pine needles. I picked the ridge site hoping that being up on a ridge would provide a bit of wind to keep the bugs down. The mosquitoes turned out to be very light all weekend. I found it odd, we should have been swarmed with the buggers this time of year.
We shared the campsite with a solo hiker and a four person family out on their very first backpacking trip. They had a 3 person tent and a Hennessey Hammock. I've seen these hammocks in use before. But it was fun to see one again since I've been reading about Vik's recent trial run with one.

I snapped a picture of the main camping area the family was using while they were down at the creek filtering water.

Sunday we woke up to clear skies and temperature that were rising very quickly through the morning. We haven't had any temps over 85 degrees all summer in Duluth. And very few days in the 80's. We were a bit hot and making sure we were drinking a lot of water. The temp rose to 90 by the time we reached our car. The exposed ridgelines were especially hot.

Dash Riprock scouting out the trail ahead of us. He suffered a bit in the heat. He took several dips in various creeks, mud puddles, and beaver ponds to stay cool.

Above is one of the beaver ponds Dash took a dip in.

We enjoyed the get away with some great trail to walk and beautiful scenery.

We kept telling ourselves this is why we moved here. It's so we could be so close to the outdoors that we love so much. We only had to drive an hour and twenty minutes up the shore for this wonderful weekend experience.

Completed our contractual obligations

The past two summers Susan and I spent most of our weekends doing contract work for the Superior Hiking Trail. Our job was to upgrade the trail markings to a 2" x 6" blue blaze every 1/10th of a mile. Side trails were to be white blazed. We completed blazing over 200 miles of trail (that's over 400 miles of blazing) with the exception of one side trail in Silver Bay. We've felt the burden to get this last 6 miles of trail blazed the entire winter, spring and summer. This weekend we finally got it done. We headed up Saturday morning. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sixty six degrees, very dry air, endless sunshine and a moderate breeze. It doesn't get any better than that for trail work. The side trail is called the Twin Lakes Trail. It is "Y" shaped and creates a loop hike with the main trail used as a connector. We work alone when blazing. Susan hiked out to the right branch while I blazed up the stem. I then blazed the left branch out and back. Susan blazed the right branch out and back and then blazed the stem on her way back. It was about 6 miles of blazing for each of us. It took us 5 hours. We usually can cover a mile per hour when blazing.
How do you white blaze on a birch tree with white bark? Look above closely and you will see. I've outlined the white blaze in blue.
I've never had the chance to hike this side trail. It was much nicer than I was expecting. It starts in town. It leaves town within a half mile and the rest is wooded. Mostly uphill on the way out. All down hill coming back.
On the left branch of the trail it has a short side spur to Elam's Knob. I had lunch there. It was spectacular with the pleasant weather. The big lake was incredibly blue.
This is looking inland from the knob. I love this trail. Nothing else like it in the Midwest!

A dayhike from my front door

My wife Susan has been out of town. That means I become the dog walker. Normally Susan walks the dog. I'm not really a dog person and never wanted one. But I couldn't stop her from getting one. So now we have Dash Riprock. Part Boarder Collie, part mutt. Like many dogs he benefits physically and mentally from a daily walk. We are fortunate to live in an area that has access to one of the premiere long distance hiking trails in the country. The Superior Hiking Trail. Since we moved into our home 5 years ago, the trail has been extended through Duluth. It traverses the ridgeline just above our house. I've been accessing this trail the past several days when walking the dog. One block from our front door, crossing the tracks that the ore trains use when coming down from the Iron Range. Those are taconite pellets that have fallen off the trains lining the ground between the rails.

Another block we are into the abandoned rock quarry in the hillside above our house. There is an unofficial, yet well worn trail along the rim of the quarry.

Dash catching his breath after the quick steep climb to the upper rim of the quarry. I don't like dogs that much....but I have to admit he's a handsome guy.

We cross Skyline Parkway and then it's a short steep climb to the top of the ridge.

Looking down on my neighborhood and Wisconsin beyond after intersecting the Superior Hiking Trail. It was a bit hazy today.

Looking west from the trail.

A nice, cool section of hardwoods. On a hot day it seems ten degrees cooler under the tree canopy.

Boardwalks over a wet, sensitive area.

Dash Riprock cooling off in Keene Creek just above a small waterfall.

Dash checking out an old pump house along the creek.

The creek cascades and drops down little waterfalls towards the St Louis river.

The trail takes a right turn and crosses the creek on this abandoned bridge.

Dash and I continue on straight ahead on another unofficial path.

We take a short cut through the cemetery.

OOPS! I guess we shouldn't have been in there. No dogs allowed.

It's so nice to be able to live in the city, yet be this close to nature.

Our first overnighter on the NCT in Wisconsin

Susan and I first learned to backpack together 10 years ago. We learned on the Superior Hiking Trail along the North Shore of Lake Superior. We used to drive up from the Twin Cities. Later we moved to Duluth to be closer. Since 1998 Susan and I have logged over 3,000 backpacking miles including places like Big Bend NP, Grand Canyon NP, Glacier NP, Isle Royale NP, and an Appalachian Trail Thru-hike of over 2,100 miles. While we've backpacked in 20 or more states we've never backpacked in Wisconsin, a state that we can see from our front porch. This weekend we did an overnighter, in Wisconsin, on a section of the North Country Trail in the Brule River State Forest.
The NCT is a work in progress. When completed it will wind it's way from New York state to the western end of North Dakota stretching over 4,600 miles.
The section we chose was called Gaylord Nelson Portal to Samples Road. We started at the Portal and hiked out approximately 7 miles to the Winneboujou Overlook campsite. Camped for the night and returned back to the car today. This sections vegetation was widely varied from pine plantations (above) to mixed hardwoods, northwoods pine, and mixed. This area has a lot of managed logging. We crossed several recently logged areas.
The trail was beautiful. Despite following Hwy 27 the entire route, it seemed rather remote. We walked the bluff above the highway and the river most of the distance. The Brule River has 500-600 foot bluffs on either side of it formed by an ancient river that drained a larger glacial lake and later left Lake Superior. Now the relatively small Brule River flows into Lake Superior.
This was an interesting feature. The guide we had said it is a "large frost pocket or glacial pit that once held ice, and now holds colder air which prevents growth of brush and larger trees".
It was shaped like a huge bowl with a birch tree forest surrounding the rim. Very interesting feature.
The look of the forest changed every few tenths of a mile it seemed.
Most of the section followed the bluff with views through the trees of the river below and the facing bluff across the river.
Here I am on a bench at an overlook. There is a very active trail maintaining club for this section. There were half a dozen of these benches placed at overlooks along this section. With me is our dog "Tickboy", aka Dash Riprock. We renamed him Tickboy due to the thick layer of ticks he accumulated along the way. We did too. We had hoped that tick season was past. But alas, we have had only a few days in the 80's. Not enough hot weather to kill them off yet. I found two ticks on my pant legs before I had even pulled my backpack out of the car. We dealt with them. They made the hike a bit unpleasant, but didn't totally ruin it. In fact, we had a great time despite the ticks. We were pulling ticks off ourselves the whole way, both wood ticks and deer ticks. Dash was covered. Susan pulled 10-20 ticks off of him the first night and close to 30 when we got home. He gets Frontline treatments that kill the ones that attach. Dead ones were falling off him like white flakes from a bad case of dandruff. It was mass tick carnage.
This was a pretty wooded section that lasted for about a mile. Apparently it's days are numbered. The trees looked they were marked for logging.
Another nicely wooded section along the bluff nearing our campsite.
To get water while at the campsite I had to descend 1/3 of a mile down the bluff to the Little Brule River. Above is the nicely maintained side trail to the water source.
Above is the Little Brule. Very clean water.
We use a different method than most causal backpackers to get water. What we see other groups do, all over the country, is to gather up all their bottles and their water filtering device and carry it to the water source. Once there, they balance precariously on the edge of the stream, or lake, on rocks or a muddy bank and pump water through their filter into the various bottles. It requires good balance and strong quads to enable you to squat after a long day of hiking. What a pain in the arse!! Here's what we do. We empty out one of our packs at camp (if the water source is 1/3 of a mile away like this one was). Throw in our 6 or 10 liter MSR Dromedary Bag (whichever one we brought) and lexan coffee mug. At the water source, we fill the bag using the cup. Then we put the full dromedary bag in the pack for the walk back. Once we're back at camp we hang the bag from a tree limb or prop it against something while sitting comfortably. We put the hose from our filter into the bag and pump at our leisure. We often pump a couple of liters, stop, then pump more later as we need it or in the morning. It works great. We've also hung the dromedary bag upside down from a tree limb and taken a backwoods shower under it.
Our new home away from home. Lighter than our two person tent we love so much, yet gobs and gobs of room. There is room for the two of us, our dog and both our packs. And we still had spare room. Sets up and comes down in a flash. We both were very satisfied with our decision to try this kind of tent.
Today we woke up to the sound of light rain on the tent and the rumble of a distant thunder storm. The sky quickly cleared off and the temperature rose quickly. The forecast called for mid-80's, but it was nearing 90 by noon. A bit too hot for all three of us. Specially Tickboy with his black fur. He suffered a bit in the heat.
Great views of the river valley and bluffs. This part of Wisconsin, the north woods, is truly beautiful.
Tick heaven, tall grass, all the easier to jump onto passing mammals.
The Brule River can be seen from this overlook.
Tickboy and I leading the way through yet another Red Pine plantation.

Nearing the end of the two day trip. Susan leading the way downhill towards the highway crossing. Highways in these parts are two lane and very light traffic.

WILDLIFE sightings. The biggest thrills of the weekend were two amazing wildlife sightings. The first was only two tenths of a mile into the trip. I looked ahead up a planted row of red pines and what did I see standing in the middle of the trail about 50 yards away? A large gray Wolf. I've seen wolves in zoos and at the International Wolf Center in Ely, but I have never seen one in wild. It saw us, walked slowly off the trail, circled around, back out onto the trail and then walked off into the woods. Very cool!!!

Later in the day we were walking along the bluff. We heard the familiar sound of a startled animal running away from us in the woods. Normally we expect to see a white tailed deer. But this time is was a black bear running at full speed down the hill away from us. Not my first black bear sighting, but very cool nonetheless!!