Tuesday, May 8, 2012
I thought I got up in plenty of time to take my time to get ready. But then Jan came over to the cabin with a hot chocolate and said it would be twenty minutes before we’d be leaving. I looked at the clock and sure enough, it was twenty to 8. I started jamming stuff in my backpack. Luckily, I had sorted some stuff the night before. First I put my nice and dry sleeping bag in, that always goes in the bottom. Then I put my tent, kitchen/food bag, clothes bag and finally my diddy bag that holds all the little items. I had the backpack ready. Then I went out to the van and grabbed a big Rubbermaid container and took it to the cabin. I started jamming all the gear I didn’t need in the Rubbermaid Container. With all the jamming going on, it’s too bad Bob Marley wasn’t there.
I hauled everything out to the van and went back to check the Barter Cabin one last time. Everything checked out, and I went back to the van where Kathy was waiting. We decided that she would drive. Jan said he would meet Kathy at Finland, where we had agreed would be the van drop off point. So we headed down Highway 61. As we were going down the Highway, I thanked Kathy for all her help. I asked her if $60 was a fair amount to give her for shuttling the Van twice and staying overnight in their cabin. Plus, I had treat Jan for supper the night before. She said yes, and I put it into an envelope I found in the glove compartment and gave it to her. She said I was the first customer of the year. That’s quite an honor.
She drove me up to the Sugarloaf Road Trailhead and I got my backpack out of the van. There were a couple last things I had to do before she left. I opened up my backpack and checked the diddy bag to make sure I had my set of keys, then I took a photo of her next to my van. That was it, and off she went. I had to wait a while because I put out my Spot Messenger to mark the beginning of today’s hike. I got my backpack bundled up again and put it on. I grabbed the Spot Messenger and started walking with it in my hand. Sometimes I’m a little impatient with it. But eventually after I was walking a little ways, it shot off its message. Mission Accomplished.
I could hear the whine of the cars down on Hwy 61. At this point I was just over a mile away from Hwy 61 up on the side of a ridge. I was hiking through a mixed forest here with all different types of trees. Pretty soon I came out at an Electric Line Right of Way. There were very big wooden electric structures, but not quite as big as the metal ones I’d seen yesterday near Hwy 1. I hiked through the grassy right of way then went back into the woods. But this time the woods were different. It was a birch forest. And the odd thing about this birch forest was about half of the trees had their tops snapped off of them. At some point there must have been a bad windstorm. But it must have been last year or further back than that because the trail was pretty clear.
I was still hiking on the side of a ridge. That’s pretty rare for the Superior Hiking Trail because it seems like it always want to go on top of hills. But there was a sign saying we were going on private property, so maybe that had something to do with it. I went over a small creek on a small bridge, then the trail takes a gradual downhill run and I came up to a trail bridge. But this wasn’t just any old trail bridge. It was a trail bridge with a roof. It was a covered trail bridge. My first reaction to that was “Why the hell did they do that?” It seems like they used a lot of extra lumber just to put a roof on it. But I know why they did it. It’s purely for aesthetical purposes. In other words, it’s just for looks. It does provide a nice rustic feel to the area.
The bridge is down in a gully. I hiked down and crossed the Crystal Creek Covered Bridge and went up the bank on the other side. That’s where I saw the sign for the Crystal Creek Campsite. The campsite trail went to the left, up on the bank of the gully. But I didn’t see the campsite down that way, and you could see a quite a ways because this is a birch forest. Birch trees don’t have as many branches getting in the way of the view, so you can see farther. I set my gear down and started walking down the campsite trail.
I walked a ways down the campsite trail, and I still couldn’t see the campsite. I kept going, after all, I am developing a campsite class so I needed to check out every campsite now. I kept walking with the Crystal Creek gully down to the left of me. Eventually I did see the campsite off in the distance. It’s an okay campsite with a few pines around it, in otherwise a birch forest. I walked over to the campfire area and there’s a sign near the gully saying “Old Mine In Creek.” I walked down the water trail to the gully and I wasn’t exactly sure where the old mine was. There looked to be a place that might have been dug out to create a waterfall. It was a cool spot, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Maybe if I took a little more time to explore it, I would find more evidence of the mine. I went back up to the campsite and followed the Latrine trail. I could see it off in the distance, it had a wooden privacy shield around it. But the privacy shield wasn’t good enough, because you could still see the latrine. The boards were up higher on the privacy shield. In other words, people would still see your butt on the pot. Howard Cosell used to say the “The Prevent Defense Prevents nothing.” Well this privacy shield shielded nothing.
I hiked the long campsite trail back to my gear near the covered bridge. I started hiking as the trail went on an upward pattern for a little ways, then it took slightly downhill run for a long ways. I went through an Electric Line Right of Way again with big wooden structures and passed a few forests two track roads. Then I came up to a creek and the trail went along the bank of the creek for a while. As I walked along the creek I began to hear the sound of rushing water, and obviously the creek was too small to make that kind of loud rushing water sound. Soon I got to the junction of the small creek and the Caribou River.
And right at that junction there is another junction. There’s a sign for the East Caribou Multigroup Campsite and a trail going up a small hill to the right. I walked up a short ways until it leveled out and found a huge campsite. This campsite has two campfire areas with board benches, a bear cable, a latrine and flat areas for about 25 tents. It’s huge. You could almost have a Scout Camporee here, but the latrine wouldn’t be able to handle all the people. The other thing I remember about this campsite was that at one of the campfire areas, someone had carved a face into a tall tree stump.
I went back down to the Caribou River where there was a whole series of waterfalls. To my right there were 2 or three waterfalls and to the left the river went into a little gorge where there was a big clunk of ice. I explored the area taking some self-shots next to the waterfalls. Then I headed downstream hiking next to the little gorge. Soon a came up to a big red metal trail bridge going over the gorge, and there was a trail register box to the left of it. I wrote my usual stuff in the logbook then headed over the bridge. There was a side trail before the bridge heading down to a parking area on Hwy 61, but I chose not to explore it. I took some nice shots of some waterfalls right from the bridge.
I crossed the bridge and at the other end of the bridge there was the usual SHT Mileage sign. There would be a campsite in .1 miles and another in 3.3 miles. Bob Silver Road would be in 1 mile, the Manitou River in 5.6 miles and the Crosby Manitou State Park Parking lot would be in 7.2 miles. I headed down the SHT to the right along the river. In .1 miles I came to the campsite trail going to the right for the West Caribou Campsite. This was just a single campsite, not a multigroup campsite like on the other side of the river. I went down the trail and found the campsite. This is the type of campsite that I call a “campsite in a line.” First you see a tent pad to the right of the trail near the river, then you see another tent pad to the right of the trail, and then finally you get to the Campfire area with wooden plank seating. Most other campsites have a different configuration where there are tent pads around the campfire area. The other place where I had seen the “Campsite in a line” configuration was the Woodland Caribou Campsite down to the west of Hellacious Overlook near Hovland, Minnesota.
I went back to the SHT and it went over a little hill and left the Caribou River. It’s a mixed woods here, with a lot of birch, but a fair amount of spruce and pine. In a stand of spruce I came up to a sign saying “Pork Bay Trail.” Evidently, it’s an historic trail that gold prospectors, voyageurs and native people used a long time ago. It didn’t look like much of a trail now. As I went down the SHT now I could glimpses of a big hill out in the distance. This was an ominous sign of things to come. Soon I came up to the Bob Silver Road, which wasn’t much of a road, more like a jeep trail. The trail was still in the lowlands for the next 1/2 mile or so, going over short boardwalks every once in a while. Then the trail went uphill at a pretty good rate. It went up and over some rocky areas, had a couple views, and went down a ways. Then it went up for another really good view. Then the trail went on a little downward run, and that’s where I found a spur trail going to the left. This spur trail wasn’t mentioned in the Superior Hiking Trail Guidebook, but it was prominently shown on the McKensie Map that I was carrying. A horseshoe looks like a U, and this trail went out on one of the sides of the U of Horseshoe Ridge.
I set down my gear and started hiking the spur trail. The trail doesn’t look all that well maintained but it does have white ribbon marking the trail. I followed the trail to a nice view. Then I kept following the trail hoping for an even better view. I came to the second view, and it was about the same. I kept going to an overlook with a stone bench. This was the end of the line, and I was hoping for an even better overlook, but that didn’t happen. In fact, all of these overlooks were about the same as the last overlook I’d seen on the main SHT. So, what’s the point of going out there. Maybe that’s why it’s not mentioned in the SHT Guidebook.
I headed back to my gear, but now I had to get my poncho because it started raining. The trail went on a slightly downhill run and I went over a little creek. Then I came up to the Horseshoe Ridge Campsite sign with a short path heading to the right. I went into the campsite and noticed a tree had fallen over in the campfire area. It was kind of funny because the tree was over the campfire ring itself and had some burn marks on it. It was a tall pine tree and most of the limbs were cut off of it, and presumably used in the fire. The campsite had some barren tent pads and the creek nearby didn’t look that substantial. Maybe it would be dried up by August. I don’t think this campsite will be making my list of the coolest campsites.
I left the campsite and followed the SHT up over some rocky areas. Off to the left I could see a little beaver lake in the distance, down in a valley. The trail went down a ways then up to another overlook where I could see the little beaver lake again. The problem with going up and down was that it was raining and there were many rocky and root filled areas, making it very slippery to walk on. The trail went up to another overlook featuring the same beaver lake. It was pretty cloudy, with low clouds, so maybe you could see Lake Superior on a nice day. But it wasn’t a nice day. And it wasn’t a nice trail either. It went down sharply. There were wet rocks and roots the whole way down. I had to walk really slow. I got down to the bottom and crossed a creek. This was a much better flowing creek than the one at the Horse Ridge Campsite.
When I crossed the creek I noticed there was another big bluff in front of me. I was hoping the trail would go around the bottom of the bluff. But this is the Superior Hiking Trail, it’s just gotta go up to an overlook if there is one. Nevermind, that I had already seen a bunch of overlooks. And yes, the trail started going up this big bluff.
And the trail going up this bluff was rocky and root filled just like going down the other bluff. I was gassed. I was slipping on rocks, and wobbling a lot. I made it up to the top to see some more overlooks that looked almost the same as I seen before. Finally, I got to another overlook where I was getting delusional. I thought this was the same overlook that I had been to before. I thought that at one of the overlooks I must have gotten mixed up and headed back the other way. All these overlooks were looking the same. Of course it didn’t help that it was raining and I couldn’t see very far due to the low clouds.
I was having a case of Déjà vu, where I thought I had seen it all before. I remembered an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation where a space ship came out of a nebula and crashed into the Starship Enterprise. And somehow this crash created a time loop where the spaceship would come out of the nebula again and crash into the Enterprise. This happen several times until Data figured out that he had to open the main bay doors to get the Enterprise to lurch out of the way. Finally the time loop had ended. I was hoping for the end of my time loop. I was so certain I was going the wrong way and that I’d be seeing the Horseshoe Ridge Campsite again. I had a new name for this ridge. Instead of calling it Horseshoe Ridge I began to call it Horseshit Ridge.
I started heading downhill again, expecting to see the same creek as I saw before. I set my gear down as I headed down the rock and root filled hill. I figured why hike the gear all the way down the hill if it was the same creek. Then I would have to start hiking the other way anyway. So I headed down to the creek and took a look at it. It wasn’t the same creek. Yeah.
So I headed half way back up the hill and grabbed my gear. Then I went down to the creek again. This was a creek with a lot of rocks in it. I had not seen that before. I was so happy, exhausted, but happy. This was one if the few times that I wished I had a GPS unit. Maybe that would have reassured me that I was going the right way. But of course, now that I was down by a creek, I had to go up another hill. And yes, the SHT went up to even more overlooks, then went on another less severe downward pattern then up to another overlook. Then the trail went down fairly sharply and I heard the sound that I loved. It was rushing water. I was finally making it to the Manitou River. I hiked down a ways and the sound got louder, and I could see the white water in the river and a red metal bridge crossing the river. Wow.
So I went down to the bridge and there were a bunch of cascading waterfalls right by the bridge. It’s a cool location. There are some stairs to get up on the bridge so I went up and over the bridge then I decided the take a break on the other side. I ate a power bar and filled up my water bottle in the river. I decided I would make a video here. I got the camera all set up on the Monopod hiking pole and I started shooting the video. I did the intro then I walked over and grabbed the camera to look around the area. I was planning on going up on the bridge and film the river. But, when I got over to the camera, it had already stopped because of low batteries. I dug into my backpack for my diddy bag and got a new battery out. I changed batteries, but after that I thought I should conserve my batteries and just gave up on doing a video. And besides, I had noticed the Big Fricking Hill I would have to walk up.
So, I packed up my gear, and started up the trail. And oh man, this was a steep uphill section. It was really exhausting going up that hill, but at least I knew where I was instead of being dazed and confused. Going up the hill, I stopped at a spot, well, actually I stopped at lots of spots. But there was this one spot where there was an excellent view of the Manitou River. It curved around and there was one waterfall after another. This fast falling river is an amazing sight. I took some photos, but you already knew that because I take photos of everything. Another weird thing about this stretch of trail was there were no blue blazes on the trees marking the trail. I thought this might be bad because I soon would be encountering some State Park Trails. I estimated that this trail rises 300 to 400 feet in elevation within a quarter mile.
Finally I got up to a trail junction with a SHT sign with an arrow pointing to the right. Wow, that ascent kicked my butt. So, I went to the right, and it was easy walking for a ways, thank god. Then a funny thing happened, the trail descended a little bit and I was right next to the river again. This really was a fast falling river, because I had made a rigorous climb, and now I was right back next to the river. Soon I found the first campsite that’s shown on the McKensie Map. I could stay there, but the rules say that you have to hike out to the registration station and pay ahead of time. Well, if I’m going to hike out to the Registration Station, I might as well camp at a campsite that’s a little closer to the Registration Station. These are State Park campsites now and they require a fee. Where as SHT campsites like the one on Horseshoe Ridge are free to camp. I wasn’t quite satisfied that I should stop yet, so I kept going.
I hiked next to the river up to the another campsite and that’s where I met Steve and Dave. They had a tarp set up in the campsite, and had a tent over to the right of it. It looked like they were preparing some food when I came up to them. They were great to talk to. They gave me directions to the parking lot and to some campsites near the parking lot on Benson Lake. They also said that the water pump was at a rather odd location. You had to go down the road from the parking lot, then along the road there is a sign and a trail to the pump. They also said that the SHT followed the road out to Hwy 7 and then started up again. The Campsite at Aspen Knob would be about a half hour walk from Hwy 7. They really seemed to know the area. They must come here often. It looked like they were just base campers and had walked in from the parking lot. They didn’t seem like through hikers.
So, I hiked away from the campsite and found the Middle Trail just like they told me, and I was hiking toward the parking lot. I came up to a camping shelter, which I considered staying at. But I continued on. Soon I came to a trail to an overlook, but I wasn’t interested and continued on. This trail wasn’t exactly a picnic, it had some ups and downs, but it was much better than what I encountered for most of the day. But still every little up and down seemed to add insult to injury. Then I saw a big boulder on the side of the trail. It was obviously a glacial erratic that was placed there by the glacier. Then I saw a little brown outhouse and I was out to the Parking lot. It was a medium sized parking lot with room for about 30 cars. I used the outhouse then decided to hike down the road. At the end of the parking lot there is an SHT mileage sign saying that it would be a .5 mile roadwalk to Hwy 7. Then it listed a bunch of other stuff. I hiked down the road, this was the easiest hiking I had in a long time. Soon I found a sign saying water, and there was a wooden stair trail heading up a little hill. I went that way and found an old park maintenance building with a picnic table and a Water pump next to it. I filled up my bottles. Then I was thinking this might be the spot to camp. There was a little grassy area there, but I thought it was too close to the building. So I walked around and went down passed the building about 50 yards and found another grassy area with a picnic table and a fire ring. This was a bigger grassy area, about a quarter of the size of a football field, and down at the other end of it was a radio tower. I thought this would be an excellent place to camp. This place had every thing I needed. There was water just 50 yards away, and an outhouse near the building if I needed it. And there was the picnic table, campfire ring, and grassy area. What more did I need? So I grabbed my Spot Messenger and set it out to mark the end of today’s hike.
This was not a designated camping spot, but I figured that if a Park Ranger came along that I would tell them that I was too exhausted after going through the State Park, that I couldn’t make it out to Aspen Knob. It wasn’t in danger of raining right away, so I just got out my cook kit for supper. Besides, I didn’t want to set up my tent yet in case a Park Ranger came along. And I might decide to hike out to Aspen Knob after all. It was around 6 pm. There still would be daylight until 8:30 pm. So, I had some options. But, I was very worn out at this point.
This time I didn’t have my Kelly Kettle. I brought my Antigravity Gear Pepsi can stove this time. The Kelly Kettle is a little heavier and bulkier so I decided to switch it out. I set up the pepsi can stove and put some denatured alcohol in it. I filled the little pot with water and got everything ready. I lit the match and got the stove going. I waited until it was really going then I put the pot on it. In less than 5 minutes the water was boiling, but I had to wait until the stove burned itself out. That’s the thing with alcohol stoves, you can’t shut them off, you just have to wait until they burn out. Soon it was burned out and I put the hot water into my dehydrated meal bag. It was chicken and rib meat with mashed potatoes. I stirred it up and sealed the package. I had to wait 10 minutes for it to rehydrate. At that point I just put my alcohol stove away. It all nests into the little pot, and I put it back into cook kit and food bag.
Then something funny happened. I heard a car. The car was passing the park out on Hwy 7. At this point I was only a quarter mile from Hwy 7. Then about 5 minutes later, I heard another car out on Hwy 7. The ten minutes were up and I dove into the Chicken, Rib, and Mashed Potatoes Meal. It was really good. Then I heard another car out on Hwy 7. I was really beat from hiking through George Crosby Manitou State Park. I now realized that my van was only 7 miles down Hwy 7 at the Finland Recreation Center. Perhaps I could hitch a ride down there, then I would be able to sleep in the comforts of my van. I looked in my backpack and brought out the paperwork folder. I looked through the folder and found a piece of paper that had FINLAND, SILVER BAY, BEAVER BAY, and TOFTE printed on in it in big 4 inch letters. I had premade this printed sheet, just in case I had to hitch hike someplace. Then I grabbed my wallet out of the diddy bag and put it in my pants pocket. When I’m hiking I usually keep my keys and my wallet packed in my diddy bag inside the backpack. Then I don’t have to worry about stuff falling out of my pants pockets. Then I heard another car go by out on Hwy 7. I jammed everything back into the backpack except for the piece of paper. Then I started hiking out to the Highway.
I passed the registration station and continued down the park road a couple hundred yards to Hwy 7. There’s a brand new sign there for the park, so I took a photo there. Then I stood out on the edge of the gravel County Hwy 7, just waiting for the next car to come along. I grabbed ten dollar bill out of my wallet. Then a Delivery Truck happened along and I stuck out my thumb with one hand and the piece of paper saying FINLAND with the 10 dollar bill in the other hand. The Truck stopped and I hopped in. Wow. I told the truck driver that I wanted to go to the Finland Recreation Center. And he said we’d be going right by there. I had a short conversation with the Truck Driver. I handed the 10 dollar bill to the driver and he didn’t take it. He says he likes to help people when he can, because he’s been out fishing in the backwoods and it’s always great to get help when you need it. In no time we were down to the Finland Recreation Center. I told him that I really wanted him to take the 10 dollars so he could have a beer. But he still didn’t take it. I hopped out and thanked him, and he was on his way. Wow, I was back to my van.
I hopped in my van and drove toward Finland. The Recreation Center was actually outside of the town about 2 miles. The Center had a nice new building, some softball diamonds and a nice playground. The building wasn’t open because there were no cars in the parking lot. It had a separate parking lot than the trailhead. I made it down to MN Hwy 1, which is a paved road. I turned to the left because there looked to be businesses down that way. I drove past a bar, restaurant, then there was the Junction with Hwy 6. I kept going and found a Gas Station and Grocery Store. I turned around and went back to Hwy 6 because there was a sign for a Forest Campground. I found the campground and drove around it. There was nobody camping there. It was a nice little campground next to the Baptism River.
I headed back into town and stopped at the West Branch Bar. The reason it was called the West Branch was that it was right next to the West Branch of the Baptism River. In fact there were a couple camping trailers over there that looked like there were people camping in them. I walked into the bar where there were 4 guys sitting at the bar and a female bartender. I ordered a beer. Right away these guys in the bar knew that I was different. I announced that I was hiking the Superior Hiking Trail and that I had hiked through Crosby Manitou State Park today and it really busted my balls. They really got a kick out of that. They said there was a whole bunch of people down at the Finland Recreation Center hiking the trail last Saturday. They had never see anything like it. I explained that the Superior Hiking Trail Association was having their annual conference at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Center, and that they have a hike every day. It must have been that’s what they were doing. I was having a conversation with a guy named Dave. He was originally from the Finland area but now he lives in California in the winter. And he has a Camping Trailer that he and his wife live in during the summer. It was one of the trailers I saw out by the river. I thought that was pretty interesting. I asked him how he gets his mail and he said that he has a mail forwarding service that sends it to him every couple weeks. We were striking up a pretty good conversation.
I went out to my van and got the Superior Hiking Trail Guidebook and brought it into the bar. I showed Dave the Guidebook and said I really could use some help the next day. I showed him the page with the map from Crosby Manitou State Park to Finland. Even though it’s only a 7 mile trip on Highway 7, it is a 12 mile trip on the Superior Hiking Trail. The trail goes 5 miles west to Sonju Lake then turns to the south and goes to the Finland Recreation Center. I asked him if I hiked to the bar the next day, if he would take me back to Crosby Manitou State Park for $15. He looked at the Map. He said he was doing some fishing in the morning, but he should be around in the afternoon, so that would be fine. Thanks I told him because I was really beat from backpacking today, and it would really be great to hike without much gear.
Some other people had come into the bar, and the place was starting to pick up. But all I was thinking about was going to sleep. So I said goodbye to Dave, and headed out to my van. I wondered for a minute where I should sleep for the night. I could go out to the Forest Service Campground, or I could go to the Trailhead at the Finland Recreation Center. But I decided to head out to Crosby Manitou State Park so I would be ready in the morning. I drove to the State Park and parked in the lot near the Registration Kiosk. I crawled in the back of the van to my sleeping area. I did my daily voice recording then I went to sleep.