Superior Hiking Trail

The 4^th week of August ended up being the week we checked out the Superior Hiking Trail, located in Northern Minnesota. We attempted to go earlier in August, but due to the State of Minnesota’s new campground reservation policy, we could not plan a semi-spur of the moment trip. Apparently, all sites can now be reserved a year in advance, and if you don’t know quite when you can go, and don’t reserve at least 9 months to a year in advance, you are going to have a hard time getting a site to camp at. More on that in a later posting.

We headed up north to our camping destination, Temperance River State Park. We had never been to this park and did not know what to expect. We arrived in the afternoon and checked in at the park office. We were told that our site was located in the lower campground, not the campground where we checked in at. This turned out to be both good and bad, more on that in a later posting as well.

The first trail we attempted was the Temperance River Trail. We began this trail on Tuesday afternoon and hiked about 5 miles that day. The trail followed the Temperance River, basically from the end of the river (which ends in Lake Superior), following the river westward. The trail was relatively flat, there were a few areas where we had to go up some rock type steps, but it basically ran up one side of the river to a bridge. You could then cross the bridge and walk back down to Lake Superior. When the trail entered the state park, it was basically a series of stairs you followed down to Lake Superior. Once you reached the lake, you could climb out on the rocks and rest, which is exactly what we did. My son and I sat out on the rocks for an hour or so, just watching the waves come in and crash to the shore. It was a beautiful day and was nice just to sit and enjoy the view. This was a nice trail because once you got past the first mile or so, there was no one else on the trail.

On Wednesday, we decided to tackle the Carlton Peak Trail. This trail left from Highway 61 at a parking area for Temperance River State Park. The trail follows the Temperance River for a few miles and then turns inland. The trail was marked quite well and easy to follow. We hiked through forest and a few marshy areas. In one such area, I must have scared up some ground bees, because shortly thereafter my son started screaming at me to run. By the time we had slowed down, he had acquired 3 nice bee stings. Lucky for him he is not allergic to bees and had a knife along and was able to get the stingers out of his leg.

The trail continued on until we reached a very rocky area, which was the assent to the top of Carlton Peak. This was the hardest part of the hike, and included a very quick ascent to the top of the peak. We were not sure if we were even on the trail as we basically climbed up a sheer wall of rock to reach the top. Once on the top, we took in the view and sat down to rest. According to the guidebooks about this particular trail, we were supposed to be able to have a great view of Lake Superior from the Peak. What we noticed instead was the view to the lake was blocked by trees, but the view of the forest behind us was pretty spectacular. After a short rest, we started back down the peak and headed back to the trail to return to the trail head. This trail was an out and back, so we saw pretty much the same scenery on the way back. We came across the bee area again and this time thought we had made it through unscathed. My son was commenting on how we had passed the bee area, and just then, “bam” another bee got him and he again yelled at me to run. We got past the bees with only one sting for him, zero for me.

Guess being the trail blazer has its benefits.

Hiking in the Woods

After recently watching the movie “A Walk in the Woods” starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, I got to thinking about summer hiking. If you have not seen this movie, it is about two old guys that decide to hike the length of the Appalachian trail. The movie goes on to show all the problems they had on their hike and how their friendship redeveloped while spending months together in the woods.

Well, I am not looking to go on that long of a hike due to various time constraints, a nice long hike in the woods is something I really enjoy. Due to the fact that my son has the summer off of school and I am sitting on a serious pile of vacation time, we decided that this summer, the two of us plan to do some hiking along the Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota. Now we have done some serious hiking in the past, 62 miles in Glacier National Park, 70+ in the Tetons and Yellowstone and also tromping through various local and state parks in Minnesota. However, neither of us have been hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail.

I have been doing a little research on how to best approach the trail. We looked at hiking from lodge to lodge, staying in a hotel or camping. Being that I am very frugal, in the end, camping  won out. The thought of staying in a hotel with a nice soft bed is enticing, but then we would have to spend time getting to and from the trail. If we camp, the trail is at our doorstep. So my son, being the Eagle Scout he is, will be in charge of setting up our camp. Me, being the mother than plans everything, will be planning our meals and the route we will be taking on the trail.

Rather than camping in sites along the trail, I have decided that we will camp at various state parks and use the park as our home base for a day or two. This also gives me the opportunity to take a nice long hot shower since I am giving up the comfort of a bed! The trail is 300 miles long and we plan on focusing on stretches of the trail that are 8-12 miles in length each day. The first park we plan on staying at is Temperance River State Park. From here we should be able to hike to Britton Peak and on other trails throughout the park.

The next park on the list is a bit further north, Cascade River State Park. From this park, we can continue hiking along the edge of Lake Superior or head inland and hike up the Cascade River. There are maps available of both the state park trails and the Superior Hiking Trail, which we will need to study a bit more before deciding which other trails to conquer.

This should be a great get away for the two of us. We are planning on heading north sometime in August, and hike Sunday through Thursday and come back home before the campgrounds fill up for the weekend.

Stay tuned in August for a report on the trip.

 

Whitewater State Park Hiking

We spent a few days last week camping in southeastern Minnesota, at my favorite park, Whitewater State Park. This park has exceptional hiking trails, birding, butterflies and wildflowers. While the boys did a bit of fly fishing, I took off on a hike to see what I could find to photograph. My first trip up the famous Chimney Rock Trail was in the early evening. My main goal was to get to the top because I needed cell phone reception to place a phone call. It is virtually impossible to make a cell phone call from the valley of the park, which is awesome because you can’t be disturbed by anyone at all while you are at the park. However, I did need to make a call, so my hike began.

I went up what I consider the front side of the trail, which requires you to first travel a set of rock type stairs that were built by the Civil Conservation Corp way back when. Once you reach the top of the rock steps, the real hike begins. At that point, you are on a rocky trail all the way to the summit. There are some areas where you need to do a bit of “pulling” or as we like to call it – monkey climbing up and over the large rocks on the trail. As I was nearing the famous Chimney Rock, I stopped to take a picture of a little chipmunk. He posed for me on the side of the famous Chimney Rock. I got several very good shots of the little guy. Then I hiked on to Chimney Rock itself. While not yet at the summit, the rock sits high above the river, looking a little like a chimney stack. In the middle of the rock is a giant hole, which sometimes you can take a great picture thru.

I then hiked onto the summit of the trail. The view from here is spectacular. You can take a look at a rather large chunk of the Whitewater Valley and the Whitewater River running through the valley. I spent several minutes at the top to take in the view, catch my breath and get that pesky phone call out-of-the-way.

I then began the descent down the backside of the trail. This trail is pretty rocky at first, and you have to watch it so you don’t trip on any of the rocks littering the trail. Then you come to a set of wooden steps. I don’t know when these were put in, but they have been in place for as long as I have been visiting the park. The steps, about 200 of them, take you back down to the valley floor. Along the trail, I found many beautiful flowers and a few bugs and butterflies to take pictures of. I am not sure what most of the plants are that I photographed, but I will soon take the time to figure out what they are and why the attracted so many butterflies and bugs.

If you ever have the time to stop at this park, make sure to take in one of the many trails available for hiking. While many of the trails will leave you winded by the time you reach the rocky summit, they are worth the time, oxygen and sweat!