It's interesting how days spent hiking can feel both long and short at the same time. I can barely believe that today is already over, yet I thank god that it is because once again my feet took a beating.
The trail was beautiful this morning. I spent quite a lot of time on these wooden walkways. As summer is coming to an end the ground is dry enough to walk on, but the walkways add variety to the trail.
The trail stayed high above Duluth for he first 10 miles and I had a nice stretch on a big rock overlooking the city.
My feet were KILLING me and I started to wonder why this hike was so difficult on my feet. I can finish 30-mile urban hikes in the city without excessive discomfort. I hiked 75 miles through the Cascades with wet shoes and didn't even have this much pain. What's so different about this trip?
After 12 miles through the woods above Duluth, the trail goes into the city and through the Lakewalk. The Lakewalk winds along the shoreline of Lake Superior, looking across the water to Wisconsin. A nice man told me that they called that part of Wisconsin "Soup Town" because, unlike in Duluth, they sell beer on Sundays.
In a state whose uses the phrase "Minnesota nice" in every conversation with an outsider, seriously it's equivalent to how often Seattlites talk about the Seattle freeze, I was entertained by the blatant intolerance I saw in this window. This is what I, with my expensive liberal education, would call the illusion of the unreal other.
After walking on the Lakewalk for a mile or so, I didn't think I could walk any further. My feet were dying, it was 2pm, and I still had 12 miles to my campsite for the night.
What did I do in this time of pain and urgency? I stopped at a Mexican restaurant, kicked up my feet, and had a few (giant) margaritas.
I decided to skip the next six miles of the trail so that I could have an extra margarita and fried ice cream. I knew that I could take a bus to the next trailhead and really, I'm not trying to prove anything. Shouldn't I be enjoying myself?
While I quickly realized the mistake of ordering Mexican food in Minnesota, the margaritas were absolutely worth every mile of lost trail. It was also interesting to ride the bus in Duluth.
Fact: It's illegal to use profanity on a bus in Duluth. If you do, they will nicely ask you to leave the bus.
Fact #2: Minnesotans hate to walk. In the 8 miles of my bus ride there were 64 stops. We didn't stop at every one, but you could get off at any of them.
I made it to the next trailhead and set off down a dual use trail and snowmobile road. After an hour of sitting down at the restaurant, no less than 4 shots of tequila, and 30 minutes on the bus I was really bummed to find that my feet felt even worse than before. It just didn't make sense. Was it the shoes? The shoes are super popular long distance hiking shoes. Then it hit me... the inserts! I had purchased expensive inserts to help with comfort and I remembered thinking that the inserts felt big when I first put them in my new shoes. Maybe the inserts were making the pain worse?
I stopped at the next place I could and took off my shoes. Looking inside toward the toe, I could see that the inserts were too long for the shoe. I could also see that the heel bed was too big and was pushing my feet in an awkward position. I took out my knife, cut off part of the toe and part of the heal and put the inserts back into the shoes. I then put on a new, thicker, pair of socks and stood up.
Voilà! My feet immediately felt 300% better. Sure, they still felt a little beat up, but in a much more manageable way. I can't wait to see how they feel tomorrow!
I made it the last 6 miles to camp just before sundown. My feet already felt like they were getting better.
Arriving at camp I met Sunny and Shannon, two sweet lesbians who moved from New Mexico to Minneapolis two years ago and are spending a week hiking south towards Duluth. We had a fire (why are lesbians always so good at starting fires?), laughed about love and life, and Shannon shared the stories of her many bear encounters.
Now it's night time and I'm exhausted.
Night!
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