Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Superior Hiking Trail Traditional Start

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First campsite since Jay Cooke State Park, about 4 miles from Martin Rd.
Many road crossings, but no stores or parking.
Steady mild uphill climb north from the lake. 

https://superiorhiking.org/trail-section/duluth-to-two-harbors/#section_0 

Not much to say about the first 3.1 miles of this section. When we first set this goal of hiking every section of the SHT, there were 4 maps. The first one started in Two Harbors and included a note about future plans. We're now over 50 miles from the terminus and still a ways to go before connecting to this old map. 


At Martin Rd. it's snowmobile trail, so it's wide. The grass can get high, but we were hiking at the end of a drought so it wasn't a problem. There was always at least a single path that was smooth with the occasional rock or tree root. 

There are many businesses and houses. The University farm has a tall barb-wired fence for a while. There was the most specific directions I've ever seen on the trail at the crossing of Martin Rd. The snowmobile parallels the road through what looked like a ditch. We took the pavement.


On my Cairn app, it showed the trail splitting, then coming back together at the Lismore trailhead. It also called the SHT option a "spur". But at that split, it was clear that one way was foot travel and the other was for snowmobiles. We did this out and back, and we'll cover the Lismore section next. The Martin Rd trailhead is listed as a shuttle pick-up point, but all the road crossings are odd locations, even the Lismore Rd trailhead, with possibly difficult addresses to explain to a driver. 

Lismore is not an "official" trailhead. Overnight parking is NOT recommended