Minnesota Hiking Club #12 - Sibley State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#12 - Sibley State Park

Date Hiked: January 12th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Monson Lake State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.08

Just because I beat my demons' asses on January 4th didn't mean they were gone, but it did mean I had an advantage on them this time around. 

Sibley State Park's Hiking Club trail would've been a journey all on its own, but instead I spent half of it wrestling with trauma and coming out in an unexpected victory that I hadn't counted on  that morning. 

Traversing the prairie into the mystical woods of Sibley State Park, I set out in the snow and immersed myself in the silence of the woods, fresh fallen snow crunching under my every step. The rapid decrease in temperature hadn't happened yet and the trees protected me from the icy winds. The hills were rough and plentiful, my spikes gripping into the grade with all the hope in the world relying on them to hold so I didn't have an unexpected sledding journey. I never wanted a Rosebud, but more importantly, I never wanted to be Rosebud either. 

Along the way, something was said over my phone that could've resulted in a disaster from an emotional standpoint. And, at first, I let it start to fester. My brain wanted me to put it down and ignore the fire that stirred because of a misunderstood exchange. Something that bothered me took a spark and fanned it with flames that the Me of even several months prior would've dwelled on, allowed myself to be consumed by, and kept it in silence rather than assertively and calmly treating the situation with the care and deference it deserved while simultaneously hiking a small prairie mountain in a cold where my fingers shouldn't have been exposed to type the words. I hadn't woke up feeling dangerous, necessarily, but by the end of the trail, what could've been a distance-exacerbated, text-based conflict rather reached a copacetic conclusion that made me feel like we'd both grown with each other and worked something out rather than fall back on old habits and allow the spectres of our past to retain dominion over our behavior. 

Even if I hadn't gone through that during the hike, this would've still been ranked incredibly high on the list. This Hiking Club trail is freaking awesome, and I never would've expected it in this area of the state. I have no idea what it's like without the snow, cold, and solitude: the only other person I saw the entire time was someone working there to clear the parking lot. It was barely over 0, it's a longer trail, it has nearly 400 feet of elevation gain, and the snow made traversing that grade harder. 

I began this writing series to talk about Hiking Club trails, but I conquered more than the completion of a Hiking Club at an unusual pace and setting. I went out for passwords and stamps, but I really found the real E.A. Moon lurking in those snow drifts. 

I started wearing pants again, and I think I like the way they fit. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #13 - Temperance River State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#13 - Temperance River State Park

Date Hiked: January 4th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Tettegouche State Park, Cascade River State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.08

Hey, let's pick up right where we left off, except this is where shit gets real. 

I put on my ice spikes for the first time, figuring it out from the vague and confusing instruction graphic. I'd never used them before and I picked a hell of a day and park to hope like hell that they worked. After doing the world's coldest Slip 'N' Slide over Tettegouche State Park's Hiking Club trail, Temperance River State Park loomed ominously right off the 61, and it was clear from the parking lot that I either had to decide if I wanted to play golf or fuck around. 

This trail is a shade over two miles, but don't let that deceive you into thinking this is a quick trek, even without a polar vortex and enough ice to make you think the glaciers haven't actually retreated. There's over 200 feet of elevation gain, but there's a difference between going uphill and climbing steps carved out of smooth volcanic rock ancient river bed, next to an active river with a waterfall that's carved out of  the stone over a hundred feet straight down. One slip and you're suddenly part of the scenery. "There's the frozen waterfall, here's where a waterfall once was, there's an awkward hiker frozen in place who fucked around and found out during a polar vortex on a trail with dangerously smooth volcanic rock, steep elevation, and was 100 percent covered in ice." I once again reiterate that I'm not saying this was a good or wise decision, but I woke up feeling dangerous. I probably made it even more dangerous because I didn't tell my people what I was doing, but that was part of the process. They were all doing things with their people, and I had a feeling they'd try to talk me out of it, whether for the temperature, ice, or any other factor that went into it, and I didn't want them to have the chance. I didn't want to be talked out of it, and I didn't want them worrying about me, or thinking about me at all while I was doing this. This was my confrontation with the demons inside my head, and I gave them a double bird and told them where they could go and what they could do. 

This Hiking Club trail is goddamn majestic. Its two-plus miles feel like an ice-induced transformation, starting and finishing next to a frozen waterfall deep within jagged rock, going back and sampling a bit of that sweet Superior Hiking Trail goodness, and then descending steps nearly straight down, covered in several inches of ice, just waiting for the opportunity to teach you the error of your ways. 

I told my people what I did only after this day's hikes were done. I still had one to go, and it would be the hardest one of the three. I woke up feeling dangerous, and my demons got their asses kicked. 

My challenge: I won. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #14 - Tettegouche State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#14 - Tettegouche State Park

Date Hiked: January 4th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Temperance River State Park, Cascade River State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.08

It's finally here: The oft-aforementioned, life-changing, epiphanic trilogy of January 4th hikes that I haven't stopped yammering about since commencing this ranked list of the Minnesota Hiking Club's trails, and the "lowest" one is ranked 14/67. Buckle up, bitches! We're in for a wild ride on these three! 

This is the day that the Hiking Club went from an excuse to get outside and do a thing to a moment in which I had the choice of folding up, letting my demons and trauma get the better of me, and fading into the mist like a fog on the big lake upon the morning sun... or... to quote Baker Mayfield, "I woke up feeling dangerous." 

Dangerous this was, make no mistake about that whatsoever. I was not in my right mind. The New Year's Day trilogy of hikes detailed this, but January 4th is where it went from a distraction to a mission, and I cannot reiterate enough that I'm not saying this was entirely a good thing, nor would I say I recommend it, at least in this fashion. 

To further elaborate, it wasn't just cold, it was cold for Northern Minnesota. It was -17 without the wind chill, and that was just at the start. This was the first hike of the three that day, and it was partially because by the time I'd gotten up there, if I tried to go the whole way to Grand Portage, I may not have had the time to do anything else. I was hurting, my brain was making the worst of everything, my separation anxiety was at its height, and instead of spiraling into a dangerous puddle of instability, I ventured out into dangerous levels of cold, ice thick enough to do damage to any creature, and the joys/dangers of solitude in a place that is normally overrun with people when frostbite isn't a major concern.

Tettegouche State Park's Hiking Club trail is comparable to Gooseberry Falls State Park's, and not just because of its free parking and rest stop nature. It's on dangerous, jagged cliffs, and the short distance is deceiving, even if you're not treading over thick layers of ice on volcanic rock on steep elevation gains in temperatures that would make someone from the dark side of Saturn ask what the hell you were doing there. 

I did this trail without my ice spikes. When the trail started off being paved, I didn't think it'd be necessary. Within the short distance of this trek to Shovel Point, you go up, down, back up, back down, along the side, step on up, head back again, "oh shit, if I slip on that ice I'm unintentionally shipwreck diving on the coldest day of the year," I can't feel my face, "I've gotta climb all those stairs," holy shit, "what decisions in my life brought me to this point in time?" and then you have to go back. 

I made a bad decision, and it changed my life.