Man, it feels good to be on a long trail again. And to be writing about it again. Opening the WordPress app for the first time since last summer gave me crazy amounts of dopamine and adrenaline. Like the years of masquerading as a real adult in between thru-hikes can be shed for the summer and I can be a feral forest-dwelling creature again.

So anyway, greetings from Minnesota, where, for the next three weeks, I will be hiking the gorgeous 300(ish)-mile Superior Hiking Trail. I’ll be writing one post per day, PCT-style. It’s not going to be the same kind of hike as that one, but I’m setting the challenge for myself to write every day anyway.

Here we go!

SHT Day 0: We Made It

June 23, 2024

I’m writing from the shores of Lake Superior. It’s just after 10 and some remnants of dusk are still hanging around.

It was a stressful travel day. I don’t even feel like I want to go into that many details because it is going to make me panic all over again. Essentially, we made it to the airport too late to check our already-paid-for bag with hiking gear in it, so they made us take it through security, where of course our trekking poles, peanut butter, and Nutella were confiscated, and we had to rearrange the aftermath of the TSA search before sprinting to the gate, paying $99 to gate check a bag I had already paid to check months ago, and get onto the plane. Moral of the story: do not fly Frontier, or at the very least if you must fly Frontier, do not assume that you have all the time in the world to draft a stupid newsletter post and then leisurely stroll to the airport. Embrace your inner midwestern dad and get there four hours early.

One hyperventilating panic attack later, we landed in Minneapolis, picked up our problematic bag, and bid adieu to the woes of airline travel for the time being. Slapshot, one of Machine’s tramily members from the PCT (real name also Dan!) picked us up. We made a pit stop at REI to buy new poles to replace our lost ones (RIP), new water filters, and bug spray. Then we hit the road north and enjoyed a lovely journey along the lake with a PCT pal.

It was a gorgeous day, the sun shining, the temperature steadily decreasing as we made our way north. The trees got imperceptibly smaller and more boreal. We stopped for lunch, some groceries, and then gas in Two Harbors.

As I was checking out at the gas station with my iced tea and caramel M&Ms, Machine came up to me and delivered the news that we had gotten locked out of the truck and that we would need to call a locksmith. On a Sunday. At the North Shore. We all sat at a picnic table and tried various routes: businesses listed on Google Maps (all closed or too far to send a technician), insurance, AAA, and asking the gas station employees. Eventually one of their recommendations came through and we got back in. Just a quick 40 minute pit stop!

About 20 minutes from the terminus we realized that it was maybe a dumb idea to go there tonight since it was starting to get dark. So Slapshot pulled over at a spot he was familiar with right along the lake, and we followed the smooth pebbly shore to a lovely campsite just in the trees. After some more wrangling of objects and stressful repairing of ripped mesh, I finally relaxed enough to have the beer Slapshot brought for each of us and, now, to write.

Today was one of those travel days full of stress and obstacles but hey, you know what? We made it. We are in the woods and the sound of the gentle waves lapping on the shore is so peaceful, and I am excited to be out here doing the thing.