Last time: A very short hike -- Links to all of my adventures.
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| Razorback along the Lake Superior trail |
Tuesday May 27, 2025: I slept in late -- 10 am -- and repeated yesterday's strange trend of waking up every few hours while having vivid dreams in between. As woke up, I heard -- in real life -- the haunting call of a loon out on the lake, followed by the spooky rattle of a sandhill crane.
Breakfast, as always, was tea and oatmeal with freeze-dried raspberries doing their best to fancy it up. Sarah made a quick run out to the river mouth to get more water, which we filtered and boiled for even more tea to help warm us up. We spent the rest of the lazy morning sipping tea and reading.
This was our zero day. After one genuine backpacking day (6 miles) and a day so short it was almost silly (just over 1 mile), it was time for us to rest. Sarah's plan was to sit on the beach and read. My plan was to, well, not rest. Instead, I planned to do a day hike on the Lake Superior trail east of the Big Carp river. I hadn't been on this part of the trail since 2014. I didn't want to repeat the mud-bogging required at the far east end, but I did want to see one of the nicer nearby sections of the trail.
Sarah graciously lent me her phone to use as a camera (mine was still stuck in a restart loop, and would be for the entire rest of the trip), which is why you have photos at all in this post.
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| Picturesque ravine |
After crossing the Big Carp river, I followed the trail up to the high bluffs that rise above both the river and Lake Superior. The Lake Superior trail runs along the top of this bluff for half of a mile. The bluff's top is cut through by many picturesque ravines, some of which the trail crosses on ancient bridges, for others it dives right down to the bottom and back up again. The bluff is covered in a mix of Hemlocks and deciduous trees, and many wildflowers were blooming as well. Blue bead lilies were in full bloom, while trout lilies were fading out.
As I enjoyed the wildflowers, I heard a strange sound in the distance. Soon, a helicopter (?!) flew past, seemingly following the shoreline. I never did learn what it was doing.
After half of a mile on the bluff, the trail plunged down into yet another ravine, this time following it all the way out to the shoreline. At the bottom was a campsite, LS-10, unoccupied and looking like a perfect spot for me to stop for lunch. I sat down on some driftwood (most of the Lake Superior campsites have impressive driftwood structures built to protect from strong and cold lake breezes), pulled out a rice cake sandwich, and enjoyed the view. While cabins are great, I really do need to camp at some more of these sites. They have spectacular views of Lake Superior and unrivaled solitude.
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| Driftwood wall at LS-10 |
After lunch, I was still feeling great, so I packed up and headed east again. The Lake Superior trail in this area has nothing if not variety. The bluffs, old growth, and ravines were replaced by a long stretch of rocky cobble. The trail ran directly over the cobble, which formed a narrow berm between the bedrock of the lakeshore and the dense swamp on its inland side. Hundreds of Columbines populated the edge of the trail, flowers just about ready to open.
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| Cobble trail |
After the cobble stretch, the trail took me into another ravine, switchbacked up a hillside, and back up to the bluff again. This part of the bluff was entirely deciduous, with many trees just barely leafed out in the harsh lakeshore climate. The bluff soon narrowed to a razorback ridge, with the lake on one side and a small pond and stream on the other. I came down off the razorback to another campsite, LS-11, which I decided would be my endpoint for the day.
The stream that had formed one side of the razorback ridge drained into the lake right next to the campsite, forming a small waterfall that cascaded down the lakeshore bedrock. It really was a small waterfall, gentle enough to turn a big swath of bedrock into a mossy bed. I spent a lot of time enjoying the mossy waterfall, the lakeshore, and the solitude of the campsite. I really have to stay at some of these.
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| Tiny waterfall and bedrock at LS-11 |
After a nice long gorp break, I packed up and headed back the way I'd come from. Near the end of the 2-mile return trip, I met the first (and only) other hikers that I saw all day. They were an enthusiastic triple of college-aged men who were entirely too deferential to this 40-something backpacker. "No, you can go first." "Yes, lovely day, isn't it." "Have a good day, sir!" (I later noticed, by way of a selfie, that the scraggly goatee I'd been growing all week was coming in remarkably gray).
I made it back to our cabin with lots of the afternoon to spare, feeling great and ready for some solid relaxation. The dayhike had been beautiful and reminded me that the Lake Superior trail isn't entirely terrible. Many individual segments are quite nice, even if others (ahem, the far east and west ends) are usually miserable.
Sarah had spent some time searching for fallen tree branches, of which she'd found a lot. When I returned, we processed the firewood into a healthy stack of firewood. After that we were both ready to sit and read for a while, which we did on the beach. As soon as we'd started, the cool breeze shifted and raindrops started sprinkling down on us, but we put on coats and warm hats and gutted it out.
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| False Rue Anemone blooming along the Lake Superior trail |
When the sprinkles stopped, Sarah set up our solar shower bag. This is essentially a black watertight bag with a nozzle on one end. We had filled it up with water yesterday and hoped that the pale sun would warm it up. It was slightly warmer than air temperature (a mere 50 degrees), but that was enough to let Sarah wash her face, and both of us to clean our hands thoroughly for the first time in days. Sarah grudgingly admitted that the shower might have been a worthwhile exchange for her beloved camp chair.
By that time we were ready for dinner, which was Mountain House Fettucine with Chicken. It was perfectly good. We ate another 7 cookie bites apiece for dessert.
Evening was a repeat of yesterday: I started a fire in the woodstove, tended it, we played some solitaire, then we read. The fire was almost too warm in this small and easily-heated cabin, but it was extremely cozy.
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| The Lake Superior trail plunges into one last ravine |
Sunset was again just OK. I again went out to the beach to see if it somehow looked better from there. It again did not look better, but it was colder out there.
After dark, there was nothing to do but cozy up under my quilt and read. I slept with a ton of dreams, some inspired by the scratching of a mouse trying to get in under the door.
Miles hiked: 4.0 (dayhike)
Total miles: 11.1
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| Day 3: Dayhike in yellow |
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