SHT: Day 21
Superior Hiking Trail: Day 21
9/5/2023
Cascade River Wayside - Pincushion Trailhead
SHT miles: 16.7 mi
Spur miles: 0.5 mi
Total miles hiked: 17.2 mi
Elevation gained: 2,316 ft
Animals seen: gnats, cabin cat
Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com
Despite the comfortable bed, we were still up at 6:30am. Deb made us eggs, bacon and toast for brek. It was amazing! Jake, Leinie and I had miles to make before we could officially enjoy Grand Marais, but we could slack pack the miles today.
Deb dropped us back off at Cascade River Wayside with our noticeably lighter packs and we hiked the half mile back to the official trail and once again we trekked down the 96 steps. It was very warm and very humid, I soon found myself sweating. After dawning freshly laundered hiking clothes this morning, I could noticeably smell the residual laundry detergent. (It’s a thing when you’re on trail so long, you notice how clean day hikers smell). That laundry detergent scent quickly mixed with sweat and it attracted a horrendous amount of gnats.
Despite the sweat and the suicide gnats, we were making a decent pace. We made it to the road and bridge crossing the Cascade River and the trail became a bit less rugged and we were able to pick up the pace a bit more. Our goal was Sumpton Creek for our lunch and water filter break, a bit past the halfway point for the day. Without our normal allotment of snacks for the day, the hiking seemed tougher but I hadn’t wanted to dip into our resupply for the last section of the SHT.
The creek was just past the Bally Road trailhead which proved to be rather elusive as the trail did a winding meander through wildflowers and pine trees.
Winding our way
We finally made it to Sumpton Creek and dived into our lunch (Superfood Slam Probar) which suspiciously resembled smashed bear scat. That didn’t deter us and we inhaled it. We checked the weather, there was a storm on the forecast. The app said it was pushed from late afternoon to early evening, but knowing our luck we decided to not stay long.
Delicious
The trail continued on the rugged-cruisey side for a bit until it joined up with a snowmobile trail. The trail was thankfully not overgrown and we were able to pick up the pace. We passed more sobo thru hikers and stopped to chat with Nancy from Washington for a bit. She heard rumors that the storm would only be a light rain later that night.
We crossed the main highway at the same time Deb was, what are the odds? She pulled over so we could toss our packs in the truck and finish the last mile with just trekking poles. We were flying without any weight on our backs and made it to Pincushion Trailhead by 5:30pm. This was the trailhead Adam, Jake and I started from on our very first backpacking trip ever. Memories!
Baby backpackers at Pincushion
Fast forward to today!
We couldn’t have timed it better as the clouds rolled in as we climbed in the truck and no sooner had we entered the cabin than the rain started. Jake stayed outside to enjoy the rain and pet a local cat at the beginning, but he didn’t last long. It stormed. Like horizontal rain, thunder coming at the same time as lightning, cabin shaking stormed. I was very, very happy to not be in a tent, zero day or otherwise.
Deb made stuffing and pork chops for dinner and I enjoyed a few beers to get an early start on our zero day tomorrow.
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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…