SHT: Day 7

Superior Hiking Trail: Day 7

8/22/2023

Big Bend Camp - Stewart River Camp

SHT miles: 12.5 mi

No bonus/spur miles

Elevation gained: 991 ft

Animals seen: sooo many toads (frogs?)

Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com

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We ignored the alarm since it sounded very wet outside and finally crawled out into the soggy mess of camp around 8:30am. It was muddy, saturated, and cold. To make matters even better it was still misting out so any hope of drying out gear before packing it up was trashed. We rushed through oatmeal (banana peanut butter chocolate chip and raspberry vanilla almond) and chugged our coffee in an attempt to warm up.

There’s a soggy trail doggo in there somewhere

After stuffing our wet gear in the outer stretch pockets of our packs we hit the trail. It was rather fun hiking through the mist, the spirits were higher than one would expect from Jake and me after the night we had. I had left my normal waterproofs behind in Ham Lake to try out a cheapo poncho to save weight and space. It worked for maybe 10 minutes, maybe. The overgrown brushes felt like walking through a human car wash. I was thoroughly soaked with the exception of my stomach, sorta. My boots which were rocking some holes in the sides of the toe boxes were soaked through after an hour which led to soaking wet socks which led to soaking wet feet.

We took a lunch break around noon thirty and 6.5 miles at a campsite. We were quickly learning that taking breaks at campsites offered the dual benefit of benches and latrines. I removed the soaking boots and socks and attempted to dry the feet. The sky was still overcast and it was still misting so any hope to dry our gear mid-day was still shot to hell. With no hope to dry gear and the cooler temps making it chilly, once we stopped hiking the break was short lived. I put on dry socks and we were back to the sufferfest.

My dry socks had no chance. They lasted a quarter mile before they were also thoroughly soaked and my sorta dry feet were soaked again. The amusement we had early had completely evaporated. It sucks to be soaking wet on trail. It sucks to hike with wet feet. Throw in rapid elevation changes, gloomy weather and some dumb, jagged river rocks at random interval to navigate around like a twisted floor-is-lava meets twister game from hell. Yep, we were fast approaching our wit’s end.

My soaked feet were taking a beating in their wrinkled, soft state. Calluses which are a benefit while long distance hiking are useless when wet. The feet had reached their end and I was moving slower and slower. There was a quick but steep descent to our goal for the night and naturally I slipped on the mud and landed right on my ass. Nothing hurt besides my pride, but my pants were now muddy on top of being wet. 

We reached camp at Stewart River in very low spirits. Jake was able to start a fire with the saturated wood, because nordic bloodlines or something? I didn’t question the witchcraft, just enjoyed the benefits. We dried our gear and clothes over a couple hours while the wind and trees tried their hardest to re-dampen everything. Removing my soaking socks removed a layer of skin from my feet, very sexy. Follow me for more ways to attract a mate.

Witchcraft fire to dry gear

Tired, soggy trail doggo

Dinner matched our mood as we ate the delicious teriyaki noodles in the dark. We didn’t even have the energy or motivation to eat dessert. We just wanted to be warm and dry. With wavering cell service we looked at options in Two Harbors. We needed to make it to town tomorrow to get our resupply and originally had planned on returning right to trail. Today changed that, we wanted to be dry and our gear to dry out. A zero (day of zero miles) was seriously considered, but at over $200/night for hotel rooms I don’t think we can justify it. We will see.

Before turning in Jake and I looked at each other and asked, “Why is this so hard?!”

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