SHT Day 7 (9/25)

I took a Benedryl last night to help me sleep so I wouldn't stay awake scratching my mosquito bites, which have dramatically increased today. The Benedryl did help me sleep. I slept a solid 8 hours, waking up to drool covering the clothing bag I use for a pillow, my arm, and part of the mat below me. No wonder I woke up so thirsty.

It has been another beautiful day in Minnesota. Today started out sunny, then a thick layer of fog rolled in from the east and hung out for the rest of the day.

The trail eventually brought me to Gooseberry State Park, where they have nice paths mown into the brush.

The state park is centered around the falls. Being autumn, the falls are at their lowest and aren't much to look at. This doesn't stop tourists though and I passed quite a few people just walking around in the fog admiring the trickle of water running along the slick rocks.

My guidebook said that the visitor's center had snacks, and who am I to pass up snacks, so I took a short spur trail to see what kind of goodies they had. They had three vending machines and a display of local chocolates. It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but it certainly beat the tortilla with peanut butter I would have eaten otherwise. 

It's funny how it only takes a little deprivation to make us appreciate the things we would otherwise take for granted. I don't like coke or most sodas, but this coke I had was heaven! I felt like I hadn't had this kind of food for months, even though I had a root beer and onion rings only yesterday. I stayed in the visitor's center for an hour, gorging myself on vending machine food, charging my phone, and watching retired couple after retired couple shuffle through the lobby.

I was too busy eating to take any pictures, but on my way out I managed this bathroom selfie. Look how handsome and rugged I look!

Also, I reluctantly forwarded the web address to my blog the folks I work with. I'm not sure why I was hesitant to do so before I left.

Whatever the reason, I decided to share my blog with work folk and I'm glad I did. I immediately got emails of support and encouragement and I didn't realize how much I needed that, having been alone the past few days. It's strangely powerful to have people you only know at work say that I've inspired them or that they know I can do it. It really motivated me to get out of the visitor's center and back onto the trail.

This section is also the closest I'll be to Lake Superior and this is the view I had while getting closer to the shore.

The fog made it a beautiful and sort of bleak view of the lake.

After getting back onto the trail and into the woods, I found this awesome hat. It's camouflage and says Bass Pro Shop on the front. By the writing under the bill I could see that it once belonged to I. Sawyer, but I couldn't just leave it there. It was too Minnesota-y and I had to have it. Doesn't it look great on me? Thanks I. Sawyer!

I walked into camp at about 6:15 and found a middle aged woman standing in a clearing. She seemed surprised to see a rough looking (thanks to my rad new hat) young man, but I was eager to be at a camp with another human being and a hilarious comedy of errors ensued. I didn't realize that she was actually half naked, with no pants or underwear on, so I said hello. She thought I was intentionally lingering and staring at her nakedness, so she asked me to turn around. I still didn't realize that she was half naked and I thought she was saying that she didn't want me to camp here, so I apologized and turned around to leave. A moment later she told me to come back and we figured out the misunderstanding.

She ended up being a nice lady and we talked for a while. She's a thru-hiker and has hiked the SHT, the CT (Colorado Trail), and the LT (Long Trail in Vermont). Her trail name is Eagle Eye. 

Thru-hikers have an interesting sort of culture and trail names seem to be a big part of it. Usually your trail name is given to you by other thru hikers and people prefer that you identify yourself as your trail name instead of your real name. She told me about her friends Samwise and Max and she wanted to know my trail name. I don't have one yet and I couldn't help but hope that when I do it's something more original than Max. Maybe something powerful like Phoenix or Hurricane, or something cute like Maple or Redwood. Hmm.

Well, I'm off to bed early so I can get up and hike 12 miles into Silver Bay tomorrow to resupply at a grocery store and eat PIZZA. I can't wait for pizza. I'm a pizza fanatic. 

Goodnight! 

Rob

SHT Day 6 (9/24)

This morning started out pretty foggy, both outside and inside of my head. More vivid dreams (maybe I'll lay off the vitamins and see if that helps), but this time I remember very few details.

The mornings seem to be the hardest. It's tough to get out of my warm sleeping bag and it takes my legs an hour or so to adjust to the trail. My feet have been feeling much better, so that helps.

Most if the forests I have been walking through are mixed forest of aspen, maple, birch, red pine, and a few others. My favorite are the mature maple forests. They're tall, but not too dense and I love the glow it creates when the sun is shining.

After about eight miles I stumbled upon this restaurant. A RESTAURANT. A restaurant that probably has food and beer and a bathroom where I can wash my face!

And they did! I had two beers (I almost forgot about Leinenkugels as we don't have much if that in the PNW), a root beer, a giant BBQ bacon burger with onion rings and an extra side of onion rings. I haven't been eating enough in the trail since I'm already sick of what I brought and too tired to cook most nights, so this was perfect. Yum. My mouth is watering just remembering it.

Being a lightweight with two beers in me before noon, I found the next section if the trail very entertaining. Here I am dancing to a Robyn song in the middle of an empty road.

The buzz didn't last long, so I had to go back to my solitude and the beautiful fall colors of a young aspen forest I crossed.

With only 7 more miles in my 19 mile day, I came across this sign at the beginning of the next section. I realized that this is the part the other thru-hiker had warned me about yesterday. I was just about to go for it when a couple exited the trail and told me that they tried to cross the fallen bridge and failed. There was no way through and I would have to take the 6.5 mile detour on county roads.

Walking on the road is awful when your body is used to a trail. It's hell on your feet and there is little to no shade, so I thought I'd hitch instead.

Unfortunately, I guess I don't look like the kind if guy you would pull over to pick up, even in Minnesota. I walked the 6.5 miles on the road and it was much, much more difficult than I had expected. Look what it did to my poor foot. Ouch!

After finally getting to the trailhead for the next section, I was rewarded with this incredible view of Lake Superior. I'm not sure if you can see it, but I could even see the mountains if whatever Midwestern state is on the other side of Lake Superior. Wisconsin? I should look at a map when I can.

Arrived at camp. Alone again, darn!

Oh well, it's only 7pm, but I'm so tired I might just try and go to bed now. Maybe this will help me get out of bed before 8:30?

Goodnight world!

Rob

SHT Day 5 (9/23)

I slept in a bit later than expected this morning after waking up from vivid dreams all last night. Why have my dreams been so intense? The vitamins I'm taking perhaps?

One of the dreams I had was that I was in 98 degrees, the boy band from the early/mid 2000s. Another was that I was part of some old timey sword battle and another was about my ex boyfriend. That was only a few of all of the different dreams I can remember snippets from. 

After getting up and packing up camp, I started on the 6 miles I had until the next section. The SHT is split up into something like 52 sections (I made that number up, but I think it's close) each between about 2 to 12 miles. These sections always start and end at a parking area, although sometimes you have to take a spur trail to get to the beginning of a section.

If I would have taken the spur trail to the beginning of this section, I would have seen a sign saying that it is actually closed. There is a logging operation going on to remove some of the dead and dying trees (caused by draught, some sort of evil beetle, and a caterpillar of death). Not having been to the trailhead or seen the sign, I was surprised when the trail disappeared into a sort of tree-massacre scene.

This is all well and good, I just wanted to find the trail and keep moving since I got a late start and had to hit 20 miles today. The problem was that without trees there were no blue trail markers to follow. I started walking along the perimeter of the first clearing, or stumbling is more like it since the tree casualties were stacked inches off the ground creating an obstacle course of logs and branches. I finally spotted a blue strip on a tree, but still couldn't find the trail. After walking in circles for over an hour (that last picture doesn't accurately communicate how huge this clearing was) I finally found the trail by using my iPhone and Google Maps.

After making it through, I came to another, even bigger clearing.

These clearings had wiped out about 3 miles of the trail. When I finally came across two workers, surprised that I didn't see the "section closed" sign, they told me that I shouldn't be following the blue trail markers, I should be following the pink and orange tape around some of the trees. Aha!

This tip helped me move a little faster, but this 4 mile section that should have taken 1.5 hours ended up taking me 4 hours. Also, as I had to physically move some small trees out of the way and climb over and under other trees, I was filthy. Between the sun, my sweat, the trees, and the dirt kicked up by the logging equipment, I was caked in dirt and felt like I was probably crawling in bugs. I found two spiders and a GIANT beetle on me during the next hour.

At last things calmed down and I resumed this beautiful section of the trail.

I ran into another thru-hiker at lunch time who was hiking north to south and getting close to the end of his trip. I warned him about the war zone I had passed through and he cautioned me about another closed section to the north. By the time I got to camp and went to look up the section he was referring to, I had completely forgotten the name. All of these names sound too similar to me: White Dear River, Hunter's Hill, Hawk Ridge, Wolf Rock. Don't they have Native American names to use like most other places? Puyallup, Tillicum (my personal favorite), Yucaipa, these are good names. Oh well, I guess I'll just figure it out when I get there!

I finally made it to camp at 6:30pm, only 40 minutes before sunset. I'm always cutting it close, maybe I should get up earlier?

I saw this very friendly rabbit in my camp as I was cooking my dinner of ramen and bacon. Thank god for the man who invented shelf stable bacon. 

Today is the first day I've felt really lonely out here. It would be nice to have someone around to laugh with, to eat with, and especially to check me for ticks and massive beetles. At this point, yes it's still early in the trip, but I'm not sure I would ever plan to spend more than 3 or 4 days alone in the woods again. Must... Have... Human... Contact...

I spent some time after dinner repairing some rips in my tent...

Ok, that's enough for tonight. I'm dirty, tired, and I have to hike another 20 miles tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Rob

SHT Day 4 (9/22)

Happy autumnal equinox!

This morning I woke up during a dream about dying from smoking related lung disease, probably caused by a mix of my job and the chain smoking lesbian hikers who shared my campsite last night. Anyway, I thought it was funny once I woke up and realized that I wasn't slowly suffocating.

Today was a perfect day of hiking. I'm starting to find my groove: the right intervals of walking and resting, the right pace, the right time to take ibuprofen, and the right time to lay down for a mid-afternoon nap in the sun. I've hiked 65 miles so far (obviously not including the 6 tequila miles) and it's getting easier every day as my body adjusts.

After a few of my walking intervals, 50 minutes of hiking and 10 minutes of rest, I stopped for an extended lunch break. I chose an old bridge over a creek that is used for snowmobiling in the winter. This also gave me a chance to lay out my tent and let it dry.

As I was hiking to and through Duluth, I was surprised to see virtually no evidence of autumn. Now that I'm north of the city I more and more fall color at every turn.

With 16 miles down and only two more to go (it's a short day) I stopped to fill up my water containers at Suckers River. Up to this point, I haven't had to use water from any natural sources. I've filled up at state parks, a restaurant, and a drinking fountain, so I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of purifying my water.

Everyone I've spoken to on the trail has been using a filter to purify their water. I didn't even think about bringing a filter because I'm used to getting my water from streams in the Cascades, where liquid purification like the Aquamira that I use is sufficient. All of the streams in this part of Minnesota are dry and I had no choice but to get water from this barely moving river, if you can really call it a river.

The water was yellowish, but tasted surprisingly good after sitting for the required 15 minutes.

A funny thing happened while I was laying down on the bridge, feet on the air, waiting for my water to purify. I heard some noise on the trail behind me and from my upside down view I saw two angels running toward me. OK, they weren't angels, but they were super mega hot trail runners. Like ultra mega super hot. They seemed to be in their late 20s, I suspect a gay couple, and they were running with their equally beautiful young dog which was some sort of Siberian breed.

The ultra mega super extra hot one with the perfectly shaped beard and two ear piercings high on his ear stopped running once he reached me on the bridge. He smiled and I quickly sat up to say hello from a non-upside down position. 

He asked me in the deepest Minnesota/Wisconsin/Canadian accent you can imagine (who can tell the difference?), "so whatcha' doin out heeere? Ya campin'?"

I told him that I was slowly making my way towards Canada.

He replied, "holy cow! Well thatsa big un!"

We talked for a moment more, but I couldn't really pay attention to what he was saying. Do people out here really not use profanity? Who says holy cow? I mean, he was even more physically attractive up close and right side up, but I found the accent and the "Minnesota nice" speak to be distracting and I tried to conceal my amusement.

Once the two beautiful Minnesota men and their beautiful dog ran off, I started the final two miles of my day.

I knew I would see a large beaver pond right before my campsite and I came across it in less time than I was expecting.

Beautiful, eh?

Since I got to camp about a hour and a half before dark, I decided to try starting a fire. I don't recall ever successfully starting a fire and I usually leave it to someone like my friend Heidi, Matthew, or the chain smoking lesbian hikers from last night. Some people seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to building a fire. I am not one if those people.

I was able to successfully start the fire, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. I couldn't get any large pieces of wood to catch and I was lightheaded from blowing on the embers. I decided it wasn't worth it and I would rather bask in the day's dwindling sunshine. I did get this great picture though...

One last picture of my campsite, all to myself.

Goodnight!

Rob

SHT Day 3

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!

Rob

SHT Day 2

Note: Pictures are going to be a bit sparce during this trip since I can only post those taken on my cell. I'll post some from my camera when I get back to Seattle.

Starting my 22 mile hike today was rough. 

I said goodbye this morning to the nice woman who shared and payed for my camping spot and I immediately got lost. Even though I had walked my exact route in reverse last night, I managed to go off on a side trail for 2 miles. I'm a sucker for "shortcuts." 

Once I found the correct trail I had a 7 mile walk along the St. Louis River. I was glad I had packed a few extra liters of water this morning because the St. Louis River is disgusting. It's the color of a UPS truck and it smells like moldy socks; I know the smell of moldy socks well after my last major hiking trip in the cascades.

After hiking 9 miles, I started getting a burning sensation in the Achilles of my left foot. The burning became a sharp pain that was focused at the very base of the tendon. I've felt this pain before. In fact, it got pretty bad on my last hike and I have been going to physical therapy for weeks to try and help it heal before this trip. Something about an insanely tight calf preventing dorsiflexation and causing small tears in the tendon.

After limping another mile or so, I decided that I had to stop, eat, take some ibuprofen and elevate my foot. I found a bench to lay on and used my sleeping pad to prop up my foot. 

At this point I was getting pretty upset. I was disappointed that my foot still hurt despite the physical therapy and 3-times-a-day stretching. I was frustrated that my pack was so heavy and I had underestimated the amount of steep ascents created by the many rivers in the area. I was also worried that if I could barely make it 10 miles on the first day, how could I expect myself to hike 20+ miles a day for the next 15?

I stumbled and limped for a few more miles before I really felt like I could just give up, hitch a ride back to the airport, and try to move my flight up. My foot was in so much pain and I didn't see any other way out of it. Regardless of this newfound determination to quit, I was still in the middle of a trail and had to hike at least 3 more miles to make it to a main road. To get through those three miles, I decided to try walking meditation.

I've been meditating for almost a year and it has given me many tremendous gifts. Why not try it now? I breathed consciously while I walked and tried to take a step back from my thoughts.

For those of you who aren't familiar with vipassana or mindfulness meditation, the goal isn't to quiet the mind or stop thought altogether (that's impossible), the goal is simply to see thought for what it is.

While we Americans consider ourselves to have 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell), many Buddhists believe that we actually have a sixth sense, thought. While this might seem like a minor shift, it's actually incredibly powerful. They see thought as another sense door and we often see thought as part of our identity. 

In mindfulness meditation, we try to relax and pay attention to our thoughts, keeping in mind that our thoughts, like other senses, are often out of our control. My current dharma teacher, Rodney, describes the practice as allowing us to, "disassociate ourselves from our thoughts, allowing our thoughts to inform us, but not control or define us."

It didn't take long for me to realize that the stories I was telling myself (I'm uncomfortable, I don't want to do this, I can't do this) was causing the majority of the pain I was experiencing. Sure, my foot hurt, but that was something that I could handle with attention, stretching, and ibuprofen. It was the narrative I was creating about why it hurt, how long the pain would last, and what the pain meant for my trip that was causing me to suffer.

As I walked, I remembered that a favorite dharma teacher once advised,"ask yourself what it really feels like to believe this narrative, then to ask yourself what it would feel like to let go of it." It reminded me of this quote from Rumi...

I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane

to sneak into my own house and steal money,

to climb over the fence and take my own vegetables.

But no more. I've gotten free of that ignorant fist

that was pinching and twisting my secret self.

The universe and the light of the stars come through me.

I am the crescent moon put up

over the gate to the festival.

It might sound crazy to those of you who don't enjoy this zen stuff (as my friend Janet called it), but just taking a step back and realizing the suffering that was being caused by my self-limiting narrative really changed something for me. In fact, I passed the bench in the picture below and I started to cry.

I'm not sure why it happened. For god's sake it's the most cliché Irish saying that exists, but it reminded me that Rumi isn't talking about a simple hike in that poem. He's talking about all of life. He's talking about believing thoughts that, as Tsoknyi Rinpoche calls them, are "real, but not true." This bench and that quote just took me from 0 to metta and it led to a great and necessary moment.

Anyway, the ibuprofen (and the joy) kicked in and I felt like I could run the next few miles. I was so joyous, in fact, that I wasn't paying attention to the trail markers and got lost again. DAMNIT.

It took me an hour to get back to the trail this time and I was overjoyed to find this beautiful blue trail marker.

In a few more miles I got my first glimpse of Duluth and Lake Superior.

The last few miles took me through a ski resort, through many more gorgeous views of Duluth, under a highway, and right to the edge of the city. My dad was sweet enough to help me get a motel room (he didn't like the sound of me illegally camping under a freeway) and here I am!

Now all of my stuff is out to dry, my phone is charging, and I can be clean and rested for an even longer day of hiking tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Rob

SHT Day 1

After landing in Minneapolis at 2:15 this afternoon, I narrowly missed the shuttle to my starting point at 2:30. Instead I had to wait for the 4:30 shuttle. While waiting, no less than four people asked my about my backpack. Where am I going? Am I going alone? Why am I going alone? Am I nervous? 

Besides finding out how friendly people are in Minnesota, I also realized that all of these people though I was crazy. Most didn't understand why a person would want to walk 300 miles, alone, sleeping in a tent every night. Am I crazy? I love the solitude, the physical exertion and the slight discomfort of it all. I love seeing the stars at night and not thinking about anything except that I enjoy looking at the stars.

I think the people who looked at me like I'm crazy- a computer programmer from Tulsa, a salesman and father from Duluth, a pair of 20-something college students from St Paul- I think they're the crazy ones. 

Anyway, because I caught the later shuttle, I had to walk to the beginning of the SHT (Jay Cooke State Park) in the dark. Doh!

Minnesota is apparently overflowing with deer and I jumped every time a deer crossed my path. In 6 miles I saw 8 deer, 3 rabbits, and a frog. Not a bad way to start my trip! Once at the state park, a nice Minnesotan even volunteered to pay for my $22 camp site.

Tomorrow the real hiking begins!

Goodnight!

Rob

Preparing for the Superior Hiking Trail

A week from today I will be landing in Minneapolis, MN and starting my 300 mile journey from Duluth to the Canadian Border. Per my dad's request, here is some general info about my trek.

Here is a more specific map...

Here is a rough itinerary..
- Flight to Minneapolis: Land at 2:16pm CST
- Bus from the airport to Scanlon Park and Ride
- 5.5 mile walk to Jay Cooke State Park where the trail begins.
- Arrive in Silver Bay on 9/26 for resupply (will check in on blog)
- Arrive in Lutsen on 9/30 to resupply (will check in on blog)
- Superior Shuttle picking me up from the end of trail on 10/5 at 12:30pm, drop off at Gooseberry State Park
- Hitchhike from Gooseberry State Park to Duluth
- Motel 6 booked in Duluth on 10/5/13
- Flight to Seattle: Lands at 1:51pm PST

You can find a more specific itinerary here... SHT Schedule

I'm feeling good, finishing my packing and getting pumped! Wooo!