I woke up and looked up. I saw the shadow of two worms that had crawled up the outside of the tent. It had rained during the night, and worms come out of the ground sometimes when it rains. I slapped the side of the tent and the worms were gone. I got up and went out for an early morning photo safari on top of Lookout Mountain. And I took some fantastic shots, especially the ones of the fog coming off the Cascade River down below Lookout Mountain. I went back to the shelter and started packing up.
Eric got up and started a fire. They have a nice metal fire ring around the fire. But I kept on thinking that the nearest water source is over a mile away, so I hope the fire up here never gets out of control. That would be bad. I walked through a burn zone enough on this trip.
I finished packing up my stuff and ate a power bar. I had to borrow some water from Eric to wash the Power bar down. I put Eric’s phone number in my phone and called him to see if it worked. It did. Then I said goodbye to Eric and Matt. Matt was just coming out of their tent. He was kind of lagging and slow to get going this morning. You know how college kids are. Then I headed on my way.
The hiking was easy at this point because it was all a steady downhill hike. It was not very steep going down, just a gradual descent. I decided I would try to hike as fast and as efficiently as I could. It seemed like I made it down to the Indian Camp Creek in no time. My main concern was getting water, so I skipped looking at the Indian Camp Creek Multigroup campsite and went down to where there is a footbridge crossing the creek. I set my stuff down, got some water in my nalgene bottle and put the aqua pills in it. Indian Camp Creek is like a smaller version of the Cascade river with little rapids and waterfalls,
The bad thing about using the Aqua pills is that there is no immediate pay off. You have to wait a half an hour for the pills to work. When you use a water filter, you can drink the water right away, but I didn’t want to carry a water filter. I usually leave about a cup of water in the bottle until I get to a water source. Then I drink my last cup of water, and fill up my bottle. But at this point I didn’t have the luxury of saving some water because I used it all on Lookout Mountain.
After I got the water bottle settled, I took a little hike around the Multigroup Campsite. It has about 3 fire areas with benches. The tent sites were grassy and flat. Eric had tried to get us to come down here last night to camp. He said it was a nice campsite and he was right. I didn’t stick around very long. I went back to the footbridge and put my gear on.
After the bridge, the Superior Hiking Trail goes up a hill. It is difficult for a little ways, but not nearly as difficult as the bluff I walked up in Cascade State Park. Then the trail gets easier because you are on top of this hill for a long time. And the views are beautiful. There are ledges with rock out cropping that you can walk on. But the views are pretty much the same as Lookout Mountain. This keeps going for a long time. In fact I was starting to get tired of all the wonderful views, because they all were pretty much the same.
Then the trail gradually descended to Spruce Creek. Almost the entire length of the 3.3 miles between Indian Camp Creek and Spruce Creek had beautiful views. Spruce Creek was another smaller version of the Cascade River with lots of little rapids and waterfalls. It also had a nice little footbridge crossing it. Before you get to the footbridge, on the left side of the trail, is the Spruce Creek Multigroup Campsite. It is located among some tall pine trees right next to the creek. I suppose the pine trees are Spruce trees, hence the name Spruce Creek. This is a really bumpy campsite with all the tree roots and rocks. It didn’t look like I would get a good night’s sleep at that site. But it’s right next to this beautiful little creek, so it has some nice qualities. It has two fire areas with benches around them. I would much rather camp at the Indian Camp Creek Campsite than at Spruce Creek. It had nice flat grassy tent pads, plus it had a nice little creek there too. Maybe that’s why the Indians camped there.
After Spruce Creek the trail goes up a hill gradually again, and there are more beautiful views of the Sawtooth Mountains. It was much like I had seen all day since Lookout Mountain. I do think this would be a spectacular hike during the fall when the leaves are colorful. After hiking with the beautiful views for a while, the trail descended to a marshy area. Soon I came upon a canoe sitting next to a beaver pond. There is a long series of boardwalks crossing the beaver dam. It is a good-sized beaver pond. After getting almost across the boardwalk, you see a campsite to your left. I went in and set my stuff down at the benches around the campfire. It was 11:30 and I was taking my lunch break here. I was at the Jonvick Creek Campsite, and the beaver pond was part of Jonvick Creek. I set the beacon out
I needed a rest. I had been pushing it because I wanted to make it to the Lutsen Gondola by 5 pm when they closed. I thought I would be able to make it by then. But still, I was very worn down due to all the days on the trail. I was very ready to go home. I was hoping someone would call me about my Craigslist Ad. I called my credit union while I was having lunch. They said that I had overspent my limit, that’s why I couldn’t buy anything at the Lake Superior Trading Post or book a room at the Cascade Lodge. She said the payment I put on the card on Sunday had been processed and now I had some money on the card. I told her to transfer another three hundred dollars onto the card so I could be sure I made it home. All the extra money I spent must of put me over the limit. There were a few expenses I wasn’t expecting, like $50 for long underwear at the Red Rocks store and the $80 I spent at the Clearwater Lodge to get into town. That all added up. But now I was sure I had enough money on the card to get home.
I was checking out the Superior Hiking Trail Guidebook and I noticed that the mileage to Lutsen Mountain was screwed up. If you went by the mileage from campsite to campsite, it was shorter. Then I figured out that there was a .8 mile spur trail to the Cariboo Trail Parking Lot. The mileage in the section from Cascade State Park to the Cariboo Trail had included that .8 mile spur trail. The Section in the book from the Cariboo Trail to Lutsen Mountain had also included the .8 mile spur trail. So I figured my hike to Lutsen Mountain was at least an .8 mile shorter than advertised.
I continued on and the trail gradually went up a hill. Soon I saw some good views again, but these were different. There was a lake down below in the valley. It was Cariboo Lake, and it looked very scenic. There was a sign on the trail saying “private property, please stay on the trail.” I looked at the Guidebook and it said the property belonged to the Cathedral of the Pines Camp. As I walked I could see the camp buildings down next to Cariboo Lake. Then I came across a spot that that was a Campfire Bowl for the Camp. It had over a dozen benches and there was an excellent view of the lake below.
Then the Trail went down a hill fairly steeply. They had log steps for erosion control. It seemed like a fairly long descent. While I was going down I met Randy and Amber. They were backpacking and looked to be experienced. I told them that I had been out backpacking for 10 days and I wanted to end my hike today after I took a ride on the Lutsen Gondola. They said they had walked by the Gondola and that it didn’t seem to be operating today. That was something I wasn’t expecting. I was going to take their photo but my battery was empty. They wanted to move on so I just gave them my card.
Soon after Randy and Amber left, I made it to the bottom of the hill and met up with Jeff. He was out day hiking. I still didn’t have my batteries changed so I just gave him my card and he went on. I stopped there to change the batteries in case I met up with some more people. All of a sudden I was meeting people frequently. I hiked on and crossed County Road 39. I kept going because I knew the Cariboo Trail was just a short distance. After I passed a climbing structure for the Cathedral of the Pines Camp, I made it to the Cariboo Trail. It is a nice blacktopped road.
Again, at the Cariboo Trail, there was another nice sign with distances to future landmarks. It would be 1.1 miles to Lake Agnes and 6.5 miles to the Lutsen Parking Lot. But I wasn’t going to the Parking lot, which was down another spur trail, I was going to the Gondola. But I was worried because Randy and Amber had said they didn’t see the Gondola moving. So I set down my stuff and called Greg. I asked him to go on his computer and find the phone number to Lutsen Mountain. He said he was driving, but Terry was home and she could look it up if I called her.
So I called Terry. I asked her to look up the number for Lutsen Mountain on the internet. She said she would but it would take her a few minutes because she would have to go upstairs to the computer, so I said I’d call her back. I called her back and she gave me the number for Lutsen Mountain. I called over there and they said the Gondola only operates on the weekend during this time of year. I had previously called Lutsen Mountain on Saturday, and I didn’t ask them what days it was open, they just said it was open until 5 pm. I was a little dejected that I wouldn’t be able to ride the Lutsen Gondola to end my hike. It was around 1 pm when I got done with the phone calls. At that point, I said to heck with it, I’m going to road walk into Lutsen and maybe I can arrange a ride to Duluth. Maybe I could stay overnight in a cheap motel and someone would call me about my Craigslist Ad.
By this time I saw someone walking down the Cariboo Trail from the north. As he got closer to me I could see it was Jeff, who I had met at the bottom of the hill on the Cathedral of the Pines section of the trail. Jeff was going my way on the road, so I walked with him. Jeff is an EMT in Lutsen. He was out doing a loop hike that is his normal hike that he does. We had a nice conversation then he had to turn onto Highway 39 to complete his loop. I said goodbye and continued on. At least this time I got a photo of him. When I met him on the trail earlier, my batteries were dead.
I continued on walking down the Cariboo Trail. I looked in my Map pocket and found the sheet of paper for the D&J Shuttle. The Shuttle only ran on Monday and Friday, but maybe they would know of someone that does the trip in the middle of the week. So I called them and Dennis answered. I told him I was backpacking near Lutsen and I wanted to know if he knew of anyone that could give me a ride down to Duluth. He said he could come pick me up. I wasn’t expecting that. I asked him how much that would be. He must have been shuffling some papers around or looking at a map. Then he said it would be $90. I said I didn’t know for sure and that I would call him back.
I thought that $90 was a good price for going from Lutsen to Duluth. I looked on the sheet and it says that they charge $60 from Lutsen to Duluth on Mondays and Fridays when they have a regularly scheduled route. Compared to the $80 that the Clearwater Lodge had charged me just to get into Grand Marais, this was a good deal. But it said on the sheet that they operated on a cash only basis and I didn’t have $90 on me.
I figured if Dennis traveled through Lutsen on a regular basis, maybe he would know if there is a bank in Lutsen. So I called Dennis and asked him. He said he didn’t know if there was a bank in Lutsen, but if he came and picked me up, we could stop at a bank on the way to Duluth. That sounded good to me so I agreed to have him come pick me up. He said it would take him a while to get here, but he would call me when he got close. That sounded good to me.
I was relieved that my backpacking trip was coming to an end. I was weary from being on the trail so long. I continued walking on the Cariboo Trail down towards Lutsen. I decided I would call Eric to tell him I got a ride to Duluth. Frankly, I was surprised that Eric and Matt did not catch up to me. Maybe Cascade State Park kicked their butts, too. So I left a message on Eric’s phone.
Finally, I made it down to Highway 61. There is a Fire Station near the corner. When I got to the fire station, there was a man in a pickup truck about ready to pull out from the Fire Station. I flagged him down and asked him if there was a bank in Lutsen. He said that there wasn’t a bank, but there was an ATM at the Credit Union. It was located down Highway 61. I asked him if he could give me a ride down there, and he said yes. I wanted to get the money before Dennis arrived, so I was happy about getting the ride. The man in the pickup truck was named Frank, and he is the Fire Chief in Lutsen. I thanked him for the ride, and gave him one of my cards.
He dropped me off at the North Shore Credit Union which is in a strip mall. I went into the Credit Union and managed to get $150 off my credit card. I asked the teller where I could wait for my ride and she said there is a coffee shop right next door. So I went to the Moondance Coffeehouse. It is actually a combination coffeehouse and realty agency. The Lutsen Real Estate Group is located there.
When you go in the door you are in the coffeehouse part of the building. Then there is the Realty further to the left of the coffeehouse. There is an open air stairway going up to some loft offices that kind of separates the two businesses. I was hungry, so I ordered a turkey paninni sandwich. I called my sister and asked her to find out when the Skyline Shuttle leaves Duluth for the Twin Cities. She looked it up on the internet and said the last shuttle was at 5 pm. I thought if Dennis picked me up by around 3 pm, that maybe I would make it. Then I noticed that the coffeehouse had a computer for customers to use over by the stairway. I went on the computer and updated my Isawtman webpage. I ate my Paninni Sandwich while I was surfing the web. I lounged around the coffeehouse and noticed that the realty was selling “fractured ownership” of cabins at the Gunflint Lodge. I never had heard of fractured ownership.
I went back to my table and relaxed. One of the Real Estate people saw my gear and asked where I had been backpacking. I gave him a condensed version of my trip. I said that I had stayed overnight at the Gunflint Lodge and I was wondering what fractured ownership was. He said that you are buying the cabin for ten weeks a year. Then I said that it’s kind of like a time share. But he said that you actually get a deed for the property. I asked him how do they decide what 10 weeks a person gets the cabin. He said it was pre-determined, but if you want to trade weeks with another owner you can do so. That was interesting. I gave him on of my cards and he went back to work.
At about 2:45 I decided to call Dennis and tell him I was at the Moondance Coffeehouse. He said he was just coming out of Two Harbors and that it would still be about an hour before he got here. Another customer had delayed him. I thought that I would never make the 5 pm Skyline Shuttle and would have to get the one early in the morning. So I continued to wait around at the Coffeehouse. I went outside and took a photo of me in front of the Coffeehouse, and in front of the sign in front of the parking lot. This is where my backpacking trip officially ended.
The Coffeehouse has one guy running it. He takes your order, cooks the food and brings it out to you. I think the Pannini grill is timed so it won’t overcook your sandwich, so he doesn’t have to watch over it that much. We had a couple good conversations. I asked him if he had more than one job. The women clerks at the Lake Superior Trading Post had told me that everyone up here has more than one job to make ends meet. The guy at the Moondance Coffeehouse said that this was his only job, but at one time he worked at two different restaurants. He told me a humorous story about being the waiter for a couple in the morning at one restaurant and being their waiter again in the evening at a different restaurant.
It was 3:30 and the guy at the coffeehouse was beginning to clean up because it closed at 4 pm. I got a call from Dennis saying that he was 6 miles away and would be here shortly. So I took my gear outside and waited. After a few minutes, Dennis pulls up in a big 15 passenger van. I wasn’t expecting something quite that big for just me. Dennis went into the Coffeehouse to use the facilities then we left.
I could tell right away the Dennis was a real character. Evidently, this was the third Taxi Service that he had owned over the years. He had sold the other two. This shuttle service, the D & J Shuttle, specialized in long distance shuttles, where his previous Taxi Services had been for just the Duluth area. He said he takes a lot of workers from the Carribean up from the Duluth Airport to work at the resorts along the North Shore. He also takes Sailors who miss their freighters to Sault St Marie so they can get back on their Freighter.
At first I thought Dennis was part of the Superior Hiking Trail Shuttle Service. It’s a service on the weekend that takes hikers between trailheads. But Dennis’s shuttle is totally different. I told Dennis that I was planning on taking the Skyline Shuttle in the morning. And that I wanted to find a hotel near the Marriot, because that’s where the Skyline Shuttle stops. He said that there is a Best Western only 3 blocks away that is only $60 a night. I said that would be good. But Dennis also said I should check out the Greyhound bus, they might be a better deal. In fact Dennis had the Greyhound Station’s phone number programmed in his cell phone. But the Greyhound Station wasn’t open. Dennis said they may be only open to meet the buses, and so they may be closed until an 8 pm bus comes in.
I told Dennis that he needed to get information about his shuttle on the Internet. I had researched the internet before my trip and I didn’t see anything about his north shore shuttle service. He said that the service on Mondays and Fridays was brand new. I told him the only way I found out about it was that I asked the lady at the Cascade Lodge.
Having Dennis as your driver is like having your own tour guide. He would point out places along the way such as the Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls. He showed me the two tunnels the state had to build for Highway 61, because the old road was on a cliff and was dangerous. There was also a nice paved bicycle trail next to the highway. Dennis said they built it when they rebuilt the highway. I really want to go biking on that trail. He showed me some of the big houses on the shoreline of Duluth, and pointed out the ships in the harbor.
Dennis took me to the Best Western in downtown Duluth, and he showed me where the Marriot Hotel is so I could catch the Skyline Shuttle in the morning. And he told me to check out the Greyhound Bus Schedule because that might work better for me. He said the Greyhound Depot was located away from downtown and was a $10 cab ride. I gave Dennis $90 for the ride and a $10 tip.
The Best Western was an older hotel that looked like it was built before the Disabled Accessibility Laws had become popular. This Hotel was built going up a hill and had plenty of steps. I rented a room and took a shower. Then I went down to the Hotel’s Lobby and used the computer for the guests. I checked out the Greyhound Bus website and saw they had a bus at 8 am in the morning arriving at downtown Minneapolis at 10:45 am. I thought this would be much better than taking the Skyline Shuttle.
The problem with the Skyline Shuttle is that it stops in St Paul and then at the Airport. I would have to take the shuttle all the way to the airport, then take a Metro Train to get to downtown Minneapolis. I needed to be in downtown Minneapolis by 1:45 pm to catch the Megabus to Madison. The Greyhound would take me directly to downtown Minneapolis where it would only be a 10 block walk to get to the Megabus. So I purchased an online ticket for the Greyhound and called Dennis to pick me up in the morning.
It was around 7pm by then, and I decided to go out and explore Downtown Duluth. It was pretty dead. I took photos of the harbor and the famous lift bridge. Then I found an Irish bar that was open. It was not very busy either, but the bartender said that they are packed on the weekends when there is a comedy show in the banquet room. After a good meal, I went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I woke up and got my stuff together. I went down to the lobby and ate breakfast. Dennis picked me up at 7:15 am and took me to the bus station. Again, I told Dennis he needed to get his north shore shuttle service on the internet. (I recently called Dennis and he says that he goes up the north shore almost daily now, not just Mondays and Fridays, so call him at 218-940-8088 if you need a ride. Plus he can shuttle people in northern Wisconsin too.) I said goodbye to Dennis and he was on his way. The rest of the day went pretty much as planned. I rode the Greyhound to Minneapolis then the Megabus to Madison. My trip had ended.