SHT: Day 16
Superior Hiking Trail: Day 16
8/31/2023
Blesen Creek Camp - Dyer Creek Camp
Miles hiked: 16.9 mi
No spur/bonus miles
Elevation gained: 2,083 ft
Animals seen: big ass MN nope rope, wolf poop
Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com
Despite not having an alarm we were up at 6:30pm with our neighbor Steve. We chatted over coffee and breakfast (blueberry vanilla almond oatmeal and banana peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal). We gifted Steve some of our instant coffee since he was stuck with tea (lives in a small town and grocery options were limited) and he gave us some super adorable fire starters. They were topped with a tiny pinecone. I'm serious, they were adorable.
Blesen Creek
We were on trail at our usual 8:30am time and enjoyed the sorta-cruisey, super root-filled trail. We made excellent time to the next trailhead at George Crosby Manitou State Park. Say that five times fast. In the parking lot of the trailhead we ran into Possible Trail Maintainer Joe who we saw whittling at a campsite yesterday. Spoiler, he isn’t the Joe who maintains that section of trial. He hadn’t responded to our greetings yesterday because he very, very hard of hearing. We had to shout when we were standing next to him. He was a very nice “old guy waiting to die” (his exact words) who hikes every day to prevent boredom.
GCM State Park is a rollercoaster of the worst sorts. The Manitou River runs through the middle of it and it is in a huge ravine. Up and down, steep ups and downs. To get to the bridge that crosses the river, this one was still intact(!), we had to descend a pretty technical rock wall. On the other side of the bridge was another technical rock wall. Somehow, someone expects backpackers with fully loaded packs to get up and down those. We had a trail doggo to boot who needed to be lifted up and lowered down those rock walls. It was draining.
When we made it to the ridgeline after the river we were dusted. The trail bounced up and down the ridgeline, but I was beat, physically and mentally. Jake and I were in desperate need of a break so we took a short rest to catch our breath and shovel some calories down our gullets. The mental respite of the break didn’t last very long. The nerve pain and spasm I had last week returned with a vengeance. Our goal was to have a lunch break at Caribou Falls, three miles further. Those three miles were the hardest on trail to date for myself.
The pain from the nerve spasms, coupled with the exhaustion from the technicality of the trail around Manitou River was more than I could handle, mentally. Remember how all trails have ragey tears. Enter, stage right.
Tears rolled down my face, mixing with snot from allergies, limping along trail. I was a sight, I’m sure. To make the situation even worse, the trail became overgrown so now I had branches slapping me in my tear and snot-filled face. After one particularly horrible branch to the face, I slammed my trekking poles into the mud and screamed, “This trail f_cking sucks!” Only to come face to face with two dayhikers rounding the corner. I tried to save face by smiling and mumbling hi as I rushed past them. That was embarrassing.
I shortly caught up to Jake who had been waiting a short distance ahead. He saw me and asked if I was ok. I am nothing if not honest and said I wasn’t. There wasn’t anything we could do except keep moving so we did just that.
When we finally made it to Caribou Falls, the clock said noon thirty. I couldn’t believe it. We had done roughly ten miles in four hours. Ten, horribly difficult miles with the last three in considerable pain and still had made good time. I downed nsaids, chugged electrolyte water and pleaded with all trail powers to let the nerve spasm subside.
While we ate lunch, I pondered continuing on trail. I knew at this point, there was a very real possibility of Jake stopping at the northern terminus of the SHT. With how painful the nerve spasm was, I wasn’t sure I could even finish the SHT, let alone complete the Border Route and Kekekabic with only Leinie for company. It was a tough situation to chew on.
When we packed up to continue, my leg was feeling better. We discussed the plan and decided to try to make Dyer Creek to camp, another 7 miles, pretty ambitious. Soon after setting off, I saw on the side of the trail the largest, longest Minnesota nope rope to date. This thing was huge.
The trail was cruisey and we set a good pace. Before we knew it, we were passing Sugarloaf Camp and had only a couple more miles to go. Those last miles were tough, not as tough as this morning though. The trail became pretty rugged and we had some prolonged ascents and descents slowing our pace. It was a bit concerning seeing a not infrequent amount of wolf poop along trail and I made a mental note to keep Leinie close at camp.
When we arrived at Dyer Creek Camp there were two other people already there and set up. We found a tent pad along the creek and started on camp chores. Doing our longest day yet left us exhausted. The legs were done. Once we sat, it was very difficult to stand again. There was a bear hang rope on a tree in our area who belonged to our neighbor, a older lady hammock camping. Jake wandered over and offered to hang her bag with ours a further distance from camp.
The creek created excellent background noise, but the muscles requested nsaids. Tylenol PM coupled with white noise? I didn’t last long once I crawled into 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…