SHT: Day 12
Superior Hiking Trail: Day 12
8/27/2023
Chapins Ridge Camp - North Beaver River Camp
SHT miles: 13.4 mi
Bonus miles: 4.3 mi
Total miles hiked: 11.7 mi
Elevation gained: 1,342 ft
Animals seen: crap ton of flies
Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com
It was a brisk 50 degrees when we unplugged the sleeping pads this morning. Break down went surprisingly smooth, but cooler weather makes one want to keep moving in order to keep warm. Our neighbor who was meeting his son left early while we were finishing breakfast. Our hammock camping neighbor wandered over and we got to chatting.
He hiked the AT a few years ago and his trail name was Scout. He had been planning to hike the PCT in 2020 but then everything shut down. Very cool guy. He is planning on hiking to Bear Lake Camp today, 17 miles away. We had a resupply to pick up in Beaver Bay and had a relatively easy day planned as mileage goes. We all headed out from camp about the same time but Leinie is not if not regular and we stopped shortly after starting for his am trail bm.
The trail had some nice overlooks and we passed one that Adam, Jake and I took a picture at on our very first trip.
Baby backpackers on their first backpacking trip
Bit overgrown now
We bounced up and down along the ridge and passed the spur to Cove Point Lodge where our resupply was. That was intentional. We had discussed the option of taking the spur, but Jake made a good point that the spur would require hiking all the way down the ridge only to have to hike all the way back up again just to descend to the trailhead. We also wanted to do laundry and possibly hit up the Green Door (municipal liquor store and bar).
We continued on and hit the boardwalk. One would think walking on 1x6 boards would be easier. Somehow, it’s not, don’t ask me why, it just isn’t. We survived the boardwalks and made it to the trailhead around noon. Not bad for 7.5 miles.
We had took the “short” atv trail into town. We kept seeing signs for a cafe and we were ravenous. We arrived in Beaver Bay and the cafe was closed! Noooo!
We continued on to the laundromat to get some clean clothes. After changing into our camp clothes (woolies) and loaded the machine I realized the detergent machine was out of detergent. A quick run to the gas station was unsuccessful since they only carried a 20 load bottle and I wasn’t carrying that on trail. So I decided to be experimental and use our trail Dr Bronner’s soap. It couldn’t make the clothes dirtier, right?
Jake stayed with the laundry and Leinie while I did the mile road walk to Cove Point Lodge for our resupply. It was an easy walk and arrived at the very fancy resort feeling very much the hiker trash I had become. The front desk guy was very confused when I requested my box. I swallowed my panic and tried to describe what it looked like. He checked the office and found it stating, “There’s a bunch of boxes like this back there.” He must be new?
The walk back to the laundromat was not quite as easy with a large box to carry, but I made it, if a bit sweaty. Jake and Leinie had sprawled on the outside chairs and I quickly joined them to unload our resupply.
Hiker trash in their natural habitat
After laundry, we debated whether to hustle to make miles to join Scout at Bear Lake or stay and enjoy some beverages. Any guesses on what won? We decided on miles.
Hah! Made you look! We decided on beverages. We headed over to the Green Door and enjoyed $3 Hammies. While enjoying our Hammies, Jake and I noticed we had been attracting an abnormal amount of flies over the last few days. I didn’t think we smelled that bad? Or maybe we just resemble rotting flesh? What was originally going to be one, maybe two turned into a half dozen as we got chatting with locals. Oops.
We road walked back to the trailhead and then less than a mile to the first campsite. I may or may not have been rather inebriated from the beers because holy crap was that hike hard. It felt like hiking through that crazy swirling tunnel in fun houses where it seems to swirl and sway from side to side. Trail! Sit still!
We made it to North Beaver River Camp and set up camp and got dinner cooking. We had the place to ourselves as we settled in. While attempting to hang the bear bag I wasn’t paying much attention to the rope and gave myself a nice rope burn. Being mild to moderately buzzed help dull the burning sensation but I still had Jake take over. Food helped to sober myself up but I was drowsy and passed out as soon as I hit my sleeping bag.
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Our band of heroes is drying out from the sogginess that was the SHT. They ponder their experience on trail, the people the met, what their hiking future looks like…