Spring maintenance time on the Superior Hiking Trail

Susan and I have been Section Leader volunteers since 2002 on the Superior Hiking Trail along Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior. The section we maintain starts at Cook County Rd 1 to the Cross River. We are required to walk the section once in the Spring and once in the Fall and then submit a report to the Maintenance Supervisor. We are also encouraged to do whatever maintenance that we feel comfortable doing. Susan and I carry tools to remove the smaller blow-downs and prune back the yearly overgrowth that tries to consume the trail. We don't use a chainsaw because we have to be certified by the National Forest Service in order to operate a chainsaw on the trail. We are not certified.

Due to Susan's recent health issues she stayed at home this year and I did the work solo. So I don't have to re-trace my footsteps I use a bike shuttle. I park at one trailhead and bike to the next. Then I work my way back to the car. It works slick on this section because there is 7 miles of trail to walk, but only 4 miles for the bike ride. The road takes a much more direct path than the trail.

I did this yesterday. Despite a slight chance of showers in the Duluth area, 90 miles up the shore I had a crystal clear blue skies all day long. With the temperature in the mid-50's, it was perfectly ideal weather to be out in the woods. Plus no bugs yet since we've had mornings below freezing.

The first mile and a half is on a Spur Trail that connects up with the Superior Hiking Trail. It's all uphill and loosely follows the Cross River as it cascades down the slopes towards Lake Superior. The river follows a steep sided, almost canyon like route. You can hear the river the whole way, but rarely get a glimpse of it down in the trees until you reach the main trail. Yesterday I got curious to see parts of the river that I'd never seen, but can always hear. I figured there had to be a few waterfalls along the way. I bushwhacked down some steep slopes towards the river.

Sure enough there was a narrow gorge that the river plunged into. It was hard to get very close due to some sheer drop-offs and thick brush.

Eventually I was able to get out onto a rock at the top of the gorge where the water drops and rushes into the narrowest part. The sound of the water was thunderous.

Looking upstream as the water cascades towards the gorge. The funnest part of this is the fact that you have to earn this look at the river. There is no way to drive up to it. You have to walk in and do some bushwhacking to reach it.



After that little bit of fun, I made it back to the trail. This is the view of the river where the Spur Trail intersects the main trail. A few more small waterfalls and cascades.

This is the new bridge put in two years ago. It crosses a narrow spot in the river. The water really rushes through this spot under the bridge. Our maintenance work starts as soon as we cross this bridge.

The water rushing through the narrow spot in the river under the bridge.




The view of some smalls falls from the North Cross River Campsite. That white spot on the right bank is snow. This site is situated right on the edge of the water within sight of the bridge. It's a beautiful spot, but I would have a hard time sleeping here. The river is at a fairly high volume going over all those rocks. It's loud enough that it is hard to carry on a conversation next to the river.



My favorite trail clearing tool: a lightweight Gerber Axe made in Finland. We can usually expect a half dozen to a dozen blown down trees in the Spring. More if there was any ice storms during the winter or spring. No ice storms this year, but this area received more than the average amount of snow this year. Most of our trees are under 6 inches in diameter. We have several different types of forest. Some areas are all birch. But we also have a stretch of older hardwoods.

I will take out any tree under 6 or 8 inches. Anything bigger is a real chore with the axe. Although I'm getting better every year. The larger trees I write-up and a chainsaw volunteer will come in and take care of it.



This tree I've written up twice and no one has come to take care of it yet. So I thought I'd give it a go with the axe.

I must be getting better with the axe. It took me fifteen minutes, but I got through it. Two campsite volunteers came along just as I was about to move it off the trail. It took the three of us to budge it. Without their help, I would have had to do a second cut. Talk about good timing.



The trail along the river. The trail follows the edge of the river for about 1.5 miles. It's a beautiful section.




It's May and there were patches of snow like this all along the trail.


Just before the trail meanders away from the river, there is one more small waterfall. The water drops violently off this ledge. It is so loud, it is nearly impossible to have a conversation with anyone that you are with at this spot.


A blow down across the trail:

Now you see it....



....now you don't.
I love my axe!

The next stretch I didn't take the time to take pictures. Maybe because I was already getting tired. Maybe because of the large volume of work that had to be done. We have brushy areas with newer growth between the river and the hardwood section. It has hundreds of small trees under 1" in diameter. The heavy snow this past winter weighted down all these closely grouped trees. They bowed over the trail leaving less than 5 feet of head clearance in many spots. All this had to be cut back. I've never seen it this bad in the nine years we've been working on this section. At some point I realized there was no way I'd get it all done in one day. That's never happened before. And then my loppers, or pruners, broke. That was at 4:00, and I was only half way through the section. Normally we do the whole walk in 6-8 hours. Here I'd been out on the trail for 6 hours and was only half way done. When the loppers broke, it was decided for me that I'd have to come back another day.

Once I knew I'd be coming back, I called it quits for the day. That meant all I had to do was walk the three miles to the car. What a pleasant walk that was. It was a gorgeous day. I listened to the hundreds, or thousands, of frogs in all the low lying wet areas. I heard Grouse thumping away with their mating dances. And I heard the call of several pileated woodpeckers throughout the day. It was a glorious walk.




And I took in the view of Lake Superior from Tower Overlook. On this section of the Superior Hiking Trail, this is the only spot you can see Lake Superior. Other sections have endless views of the big lake.


That's a perfect blaze. Sometimes I find it hard to believe we painted these blazes every tenth of a mile for over 200 miles back in 2006 and 2007. Sometimes I stop and admire our work. This was a particularly nice blaze. Painted free hand....and I would bet it measures almost perfectly 2" x 6". We were good!

You can see in this picture how late Spring comes to the Northland. This is May and no sign yet of a single wild flower or a leaf on a tree. For all you know, it could late Fall. But it isn't, it's May 7th.

What a great way to spend an early Spring Day....walking around in the woods.