Superior Hiking Trail Map #2 - All Sections

 

Superior Hiking Trail

Map 2 - All Sections

Dates Hiked: September 10. 2024, May 6th, 2025, May 10th, 2025

Miles Hiked: 6.0, 13.6, 19.2

Elevation Gain: 512 ft., 646 ft., 932 ft.

Rather than write about each section like I did within map 1, I think I need to encompass all of Map 2 with one essay, lest I end up writing "I hate Map 2 so freaking much" with a bunch of copy-pastes to match my usual word count. The Superior Hiking Trail doesn't deserve that, and especially thru-hikers will probably get a lot more out of it than I did. I just didn't get nearly as much out of Map 2 as I did Maps 1 or 3. 

The first time I ever got on the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at Reeves Road toward Lake 301, I made the mistake of... partaking in a particular leaf that makes a funny smell and causes mild differences in behavior. I was not ready for the consequences of that mistake. Deep within the isolation of the trail, which wasn't what I was expecting having grown up next to the Appalachian Trail, I found myself paranoid at the thickness of the trees and the potential disaster of encountering a bear. Thankfully the latter wouldn't happen until the following Halloween, but in my altered state, a ruffed grouse waited until I was mere feet away to suddenly panic and flutter out, and I'm pretty sure I'm still returning back to Earth Daffy Duck-style from that scare. How does one continue writing about individual sections when they got punked out by a goddamn tree chicken?

My next attempt came when I was a little more accustomed to the SHT's quirks of solitude and structure. But, after 14 sections of peaks, valleys, ascents, bluffs, and epic views of Lake Superior, early spring brownness, trail maintenance, construction crews, and swampfoot couldn't quite match up. Neither could the giant ticks I plucked off my pants after said adventures. 

Going from Ely's Peak to a snowmobile trail with no snow or mobile was a bit of a letdown by comparison. Most of these sections just looked redundant and uninteresting, and especially with the Fifth Falls and Split Rock off in the alluring distance of Map 3, it was really hard to get excited about them at all. I'm struggling to fill my 500-word quota encapsulating the entire thing, so imagine what a section breakdown would've looked like! Again, I'm not trying to discourage anyone from hiking this trail, sections or thru-hike, but I really, really hated my specific hikes at the time I did them. At least I got some damn good mileage out of them, even if the elevation gain also left something to be desired when compared to the rugged climbs of Map 1. 

The coolest thing I saw in any of these three hikes? A young woman passing me by, running on the trail, in short shorts. Maybe I was slightly bitter from an untrustworthy plank sinking into the swamp and thus making my hike that day a soggy mess, but I admired someone who could not only trail run, but invite ticks to dinner so brazenly.