St. Croix State Park
Date Hiked: October 3rd, 2025
Trail Hiked: St. Johns Road and Crooked Creek Trail
Distance Hiked: 11.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 361 ft.
Duration: 3:18:09
That's a goddamn bear.
It's hard to make anything else relevant about this hike. I had a near-miss with a giant black bear named Joshua, and that's probably the most paranoid I've ever been, and considering I once took a stroll on the Superior Hiking Trail after partaking in a seldom-used vice, that's saying something.
In continuing my quest to hike the longest trail in every Minnesota State Park, this was one where AllTrails likely didn't help things. The Hiking Club trail was there, and several others were mapped out, but this one technically came up as the longest, so that's the one I did. Unfortunately, after a bit on the prairie trail, it let out on a gravel road and stayed there for several miles. The entire time I was heading out to the Crooked Creek Trail, I got a very real glance at how huge and remote this state park is. The fall colors were lovely, but walking along a road dotted with giant piles of droppings (spoiler alert) wasn't exactly what I had in mind when seeking this challenge.
When the trail finally left the road and onto what I'm guessing is a snowmobile trail, it didn't get much better but at least it was an actual trail, albeit overgrown and relatively unremarkable. Right as I was about to hit the final loop though, I had an overwhelming instinct to bail and get the hell out of there. Whether this is connected to what transpired later or not, who knows, but I can't tell the story of this hike without that. The only place I'd seen people, other than one car passing by, was at the campground. It felt desolate as hell.
Several miles down the gravel road on the return trip, I saw the top of what I thought was a horse at first gently gliding across the road a few hundred feet in front of me. I thought it was a horse because of the massive size, but a few more steps revealed the biggest black bear I'd ever seen. I had nothing with which to defend myself, not even my trekking poles, as with the predicted elevation gain, I didn't think I'd be needing them. I started to walk backwards the other way, but the map showed there was no other way to get back to the visitor's center, so after giving it a few minutes, I proceeded.
Every bird, every rustle, every squirrel made me more terrified, and it must've shown. I say that because a few minutes later, a pickup truck with park rangers in it drove by me on the road. Cursing myself for not stopping them and asking for help, I glided across the gravel hoping Smokey wouldn't be giving me a lecture on forest fires this day. Fortunately for me, my distress must've been obvious, because the rangers came back and asked if I needed a ride because of Joshua the Bear.
They saved the day, and I'm grateful.
Oh my gosh, that's both a cool but terrifying experience. Also the fact that you said this is the BIGGEST black bear you've ever seen and not the only one makes me really want to get out there and hike more.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. It was cool to ses one, but not with no way to protect myself and no other route to get back. Made for one hell of an adrenaline rush!
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