SHT: Day 15
Superior Hiking Trail: Day 12
8/30/2023
Section 13 Camp - Blesen Creek Camp
SHT miles: 13.6 mi
Bonus miles: 1.0 mi
Total miles hiked: 14.6 mi
Elevation gained: 1,467 ft
Animals seen: moose poop
Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com
This was a rough morning for Jake. After our normal two snoozes, he was still not moving so I switched morning roles with him and got up to start brek and made a double coffee for him. We had logistics to figure out while we had scant reception. We needed to check in with Deb who was meeting us in Grand Marais in a week’s time. We needed to figure out where and when to meet Tim and Gabe since they were planning on joining us on trail for the long weekend. Then there was our Tofte resupply that was a five mile roundtrip road walk in the middle of a weird stretch of awkwardly spaced campsites (again). It was a lot, especially since up to this point we had been only focusing on the immediate resupply.
Speaking of, we had a resupply to pick up today. Yipee! So off we went. We needed to descend off Section 13 and it was a long, steep descent. Once we made it down, it was pretty flat and very cruisey. We passed over Sawmill Creek where beavers built a long dam creating a weird, cool, backcountry infinity pool effect with the two water levels. All you needed was a martini and you’d be set for backcountry instagrammin’.
The trail continued through heavily forested areas. There was a very comfortable resting chair that stated this section was maintained by someone named Joe. Other sections take note, this was primo trail here.
Resting chair
I was having a blast on this section of trail. The ambiance, the smoothness and the conversation was perfect. We passed by the next campsite were an older gentleman was whittling something. We thought maybe this was the trail maintainer Joe, he appeared to either not hear us or chose to ignore us calling out salutations so we continued on.
The trail had a brand new boardwalk over a bog named after Minnesota’s state flower, the Lady Slipper. I saw nothing that resembled women’s footwear but it was still very pleasant.
Before we knew it we arrived at the spur into Finland. The town, not the country. Jake had morphed into a trail purist and wanted to do the road walk into town instead. He reasoned that the road walk would be quicker (they usually are) and it would land us further up trail. The logic seemed sound to me so we continued on trail instead of taking the spur. However, we quickly learned the trail suddenly veered away from town and we found ourselves getting further away instead of running parallel. Oops.
The road wasn’t too much further so we didn’t add too much distance. Jake was right too that we could fly on the road versus the trail. We found the community center and our resupply box, so we quickly settled on a picnic table to enjoy a long break.
We ate, unpacked the resupply box and repacked our packs, ate some more to get rid of weight, charged our electronics, and ate some more. I had errored on the side of caution when packing our resupplies and we found ourselves with extra food and therefore extra weight. My vote was to toss what we wouldn’t eat. Jake’s vote was to keep and eat. We compromised. Since he wanted to keep it and eat it, he would carry it.
We hiked pretty fast this morning so we looked at the map to figure out where we wanted to camp tonight and decided that we needed to at least get to Lake Sonjou. If we got there early enough and were feeling good, we could push to the next campsite, then rinse and repeat. The further we could get, the better set up we would be when we met up with Tim and Gabe.
With that plan in mind we set off back down the road. The weather and trail were pleasant. Jake and I were feeling positive and optimistic, and dare I say enjoying ourselves. Type one fun isn’t always present on a long-distance trail, so you need to enjoy it when it’s there. We quickly found ourselves passing Egge Lake.
After Egge Lake, we started seeing evidence of moose, specifically moose poop. While I love seeing wildlife on trail, some wildlife I am happy to not see face to face. Bears are unideal. Mountain lions even less so. I held no expectations of meeting wolves, they have no desire to be around people and too intelligent to be surprised. Moose were the animal I had the least desire to meet in person. From a distance, maybe, but definitely not up close.
We continued on with a cautious eye and ear out for signs of these behemoths. The trail started to gain elevation and the feet and legs were beginning to tire. It was a slog to Lake Sonjou. We elected to skip breaking at the first campsite and slogged our way to the second for a break. We debated quitting for the day even though it was very early. There was some whittled characters hanging out at the site providing their input too.
They had strong opinions on the matter
After eating and changing socks, we pushed on. It was a good call, we were both feeling better after the break and the trail returned to being sorta cruisey. It wasn’t gaining elevation but some crazy tree roots took over the trail. I don’t have any clue what type of trees these were other than super clingy, root-hugging trees. One was channeling a certain bootylicious tree from the HST.
Bootylicious tree 2.0
We made it to Blesen Creek Camp around 6pm. It was very pretty, but very small and one tent was already set up in the tent pad close to the fire ring. We tried to find the other elusive tent pad but couldn’t. The hiker already set up at camp was a guy named Steve who graciously offered to share the tent pad with us. Our options were to camp on top of each other or push on an additional two miles to the next site in dwindling daylight.
Oh, indecision, I despise you. After a solid ten minutes of debating, I made the executive decision, we were staying. Jake talked with Steve while making dinner and filtering water, I set up the tent and sleep systems. Steve was a chatty guy and told us how he inadvertently hiked 20+ miles yesterday when he followed a moose path instead of the trail. Yikes!
We ate two meals in an attempt to lighten food weight and we were very full after. We chatted with Steve until dark. With it being such a tight squeeze at camp, we elected to not set our alarm. We medicated with some more nsaids for tired, sore muscles and popped in ear plugs at Steve’s recommendation (apparently he snores, his words).
Blesen Creek welcoming committee
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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…