SHT: Day 13

Superior Hiking Trail: Day 13

8/28/2023

North Beaver River Camp - East Palisade Camp

Miles hiked: 8.9 mi

No bonus/spur miles

Elevation gained: 1,614 ft

Animals seen: loon, big ass MN nope rope

Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com

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I ignored the alarm and slept until 7:30am. I woke up feeling like keeper of the crypt from being so dehydrated and chugged a full liter of water. Brek of banana walnut oatmeal helped to make me feel a bit more normal but I couldn’t shake the feeling of being dehydrated. Needless to say, it was a slow morning. We weren’t hiking until close to 9:30am.

Beaver River

Looking at the map we had another awkward spacing of campsites leaving us with a 9 mile day or a 17 mile day. Five points to Ravenclaw if you guess which we would end up doing. We also had the crazy popular, but insanely strenuous Bean and Bear Lakes section ahead of us.

It was a struggle for me, the whole day. It felt like one of those old school go carts. You know the ones, everyone else is cruising past, and you have that gas pedal on the floor but somehow you ended up with the dud that only putters along. That’s how I felt, the whole day.

We had a climb right before the next trailhead where we stopped to chat with a guy from Ventura, CA for a bit. He was out for a few days while “in town” (read: in the state) for a Pearl Jam concert in Minneapolis.

We passed the Silver Bay trailhead (section three complete!) and started the notorious Bean/Bear Lakes portion. OMG, what a slog. Some people looove this section, one could also question whether those people are sane. Jake thinks I was just being negative. In those questionably sane peoples’ defense, the overlooks are spectacular. 

We elected to take a break at Bear Lake. We didn’t realize that entailed a very steep descent to the lake. It was an amazing place to stop though. There was a loon on the lake, which indicates at least small fish so while Jake took a swimming break, I attempting to throw out a line. The wind was not in my favor, it was blowing hard into shore and my line continued to blow back at me instead of staying out in the water. Oh well.

Jake enjoying Bear Lake

Leinie enjoyed chasing and hunting things. He never catches anything and Jake and I wonder if he would even know what to do if he did catch something. At one point he jumped over a bush at something on the ground. To my absolute horror it was the largest MN nope rope I had ever seen. Honestly, it must’ve pushed four feet long. To add to my horror it was rapidly climbing (can you call it climbing??) over rocks and branches, up the side of the steep rock wall. It was straight out of a nightmare.

While we were parked, we met Ellie! The other NOBO thru we had been chasing. We chatted with her for awhile. She got stuck in Silver Bay where her resupply was. It was at the post office but she arrived on Sunday when they weren’t open so she spent the day and night in town. She is moving to Arizona and was hiking the SHT as a last hooray to the midwest.

We took a looong break and briefly took awhile to consider staying the night at Bear Lake. Jake wanted the ambiance the lake provided, but I was very concerned about mileage. We were already a full day behind our projected schedule. While it was a somewhat flexible schedule, staying at Bear Lake would further delay us. With a permit for the boundary waters, there was a fine window of wiggle room and we were approaching the end of it.

We ended up pushing on. A big, steep climb to the last overlook on the Bean/Bear Lakes portion which is also the most photographed area of the whole trail. (I believe, don’t quote me on it). We stopped for pictures and to log ourselves in the trail register, naturally.

Token Bear & Bean Lakes pic

The last two miles were easier relative to what we had done today, but we were exhausted. We arrived at East Palisade Camp and found Ellie settled in and reading. We waved hi and started on camp chores. We had just finished setting up the tent when it started raining, again. Yes, again. We climbed in and made dinner in the tent.

The rain didn’t last too long and we were able to emerge to hang the bear bag, stow the keg and use the latrine before we tucked into our sleeping bags.

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