SHT: Day 3
Superior Hiking Trail: Day 3
8/18/2023
Spirit Mountain Chalet Trailhead - Canal Park
Miles hiked: 14.3 mi
No spur/bonus miles
Elevation gained: 2,018 ft
Animals seen: mountain bikers, MN nope ropes, suicide gnats
Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com
After yesterday, we decided to not set an alarm and we were awake by 7am. Once again, it was a slow morning over espresso, brekkie (raspberry vanilla almond oatmeal) and chatting. We were dropped off at the chalet around 9:30am and looking at the gpx map and trailguide suggested a day of PUD’s (pointless ups and downs).
The map and guidebook weren’t wrong, we had plenty of PUD’s. Spirit Mountain was pleasant despite the ascent and we passed trail volunteers doing some trail maintenance. The descent wasn’t especially harrowing and passed a brand spanking new bridge on the road we crossed at the bottom. Jake and Leinie walked out on it and took a picture.
Nice, brand new bridge
The trail then meandered, crossed the creek and meandered right on back to the otherside of that exact bridge. Come again?! Now I am all for a meandering trail that has some point to its direction and makes some logical sense. A pointless half mile u-turn when a perfectly good bridge exists, that just bugs me.
The day slowly morphed into a slogged struggle bus. Looking back, it’s likely due to the it being the third day of continued higher than normal hiking mileage for the three of us. Even Leinie was struggling, mentally not physically. He wanted to rest every half mile it seemed and to be completely honest, I kinda wanted to as well. But miles don’t hike themselves, but our pace was noticeably slower today.
The trail wandered through some neighborhoods and would occasionally join or cross the Duluth Traverse Trail (bike trail). Entering Brewer Park I slipped on ball bearings, actually taconite pellets, but basically the same thing, but caught myself. The vistas in Brewer were rather excellent with Duluth and our goal for the day in the distance.
Our goal for the day is that tiny, far off waterfront
We descended one of the many PUD’s of the day and crossed under a highway via a tunnel and met up with Tim and Toby. As with the theme of the day, as soon as the tunnel ending we had another ascent, this one was rather persistent in duration. The suicide gnats returned in force and one channeled a covid test and flew so far up my nose it tickled my brain. 10 out of 10 would not recommend.
We also ran into the first two Minnesota nope ropes of the trail. Since Jake was leading I had some warning with his surprised yells. Leinie decided they were interesting and attempted to chase after one of them. Hmm. We will need to address that if we move back to rattlesnake territory.
Nope rope having none of Leinie’s shenanigans
We were quickly running out of water and while we passed several creeks, town water can be hard to trust. Our filters are rated for backcountry water but not for human-borne viruses/pollution. We caved and filtered water at Miller Creek, just before entering Enger Park.
Enger Park was lovely. The trail was in excellent condition and the ups and downs were mild compared to earlier in the day. There was a water fountain to replaced the questionable creek water, flush toilets and a zen garden.
Enger Park was the end of nature trails for some miles. We soon entered neighborhoods and began the long descent down the hill to Canal Park. Bouncing in and out of road walking and backyards and for a stretch we even followed the trail through a homeless encampment. The broken glass and trash hid the trail but a nice lady…we’ll go with resting in a lawn chair, helped point us in the direction of the trail. Boring, the trail is not.
We crossed the frontage road and then crossed the freeway on a pedestrian bridge. The bridge plopped us down along the railroad tracks which we followed toward Canal Park. A security parking guy chatted us up for bit, he has hiked the trail in sections multiple times. He gave us good trail beta (info on the trail ahead) for the next section of trail, north of Duluth.
Tim stopped to wait for Gabe at a parking lot while Jake, Leinie and I continued on. We reached the lakefront and soon made it to the lift bridge of Canal Park.
We met Tim, Gabe and Toby at Grandma’s (Duluth eating institution) and waited while a table on the dog friendly patio to clear up. Hanger was settling in and we sent Tim and Jake to scope the situation. A group seemed to have finished some time ago but were enjoying post dinner chatting, when they finally vacated the table we dashed to the table and were ready with our order as soon as the waitress showed up.
Dinner was delicious and quickly devoured (dill cheese curds and chicken tetrazzini). We made a pitstop at Walgreens to pick up icy hot for Jake’s knee that is bothering him more and made it back to Tim and Gabe’s with it fast approaching hiker midnight (9pm). The guys wanted a fire and went outside to make and enjoy one. I noticed a suspicious rash around my ankles and applied hydrocortisone cream. We sent up silently pleas for Jake’s knee and my ankle rash, no one wants an early bail out due to injury.
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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…