July 14, 2024

White Pine campsite to Canal Park, Duluth

14.7 miles

Town day! Town day! I rally myself out of lethargy as well as I can and get moving. I’m not messing around with the DEET again today. It’s a two-wipe morning. We only have a few miles of real trail left before the Duluth road walk sections start, so theoretically the bugs shouldn’t be too bad, but yesterday was rough and I’m not taking any chances even so.

As a recap: When we started this hike, our plan was to do a “total” thru all the way to the Wisconsin-Minnesota border after Jay Cooke State Park. This is just over 300 miles and, before we knew what the terrain was like, we thought it would be easy. But now we’re running out of time, so we’re going to call this a “traditional” thru, meaning that we’ll make it to the original SHT southern terminus at Martin Road. A lot of hikers start here to avoid walking in the city of Duluth, where there is no free camping available. However, our plan is to keep going after we hit Martin Road today and get as many miles of Duluth done as we can so that we can come back later, possibly this fall, and finish them up in a long weekend.

The six miles to Martin Road are actually fairly pleasant. There is some nice path in the forest followed by grassy snowmobile track. Some of it is wet, but it’s largely dry, and it was recently cut because the grass doesn’t extend past my ankles. It is hot though, and the water is minimal. Overall, we move pretty well and we make it to the original terminus in less than three hours.

Disappointingly, there is no original terminus sign that I can see, just a logbook and an SHT directional sign. Bummer. We take a short break in the shade and I surprise Machine with a can of Dr. Pepper that I bought in Two Harbors and have been carrying for him ever since. We thought we’d get here tomorrow, on his birthday, so it was going to be a birthday surprise, but now it’s a terminus soda. He seems happy about it either way.

We begin the section leading us into Duluth, following Vermillion Road to a neighborhood to a hot, large main road that’s under construction to Hartley Nature Center. We’d hoped for vending machines, bathrooms, or at least a water spigot here, but there is none of the above. There are picnic tables, though, so we sit in the shade and have a little hiker lunch to energize us for the last few miles.

The trail winds through Hartley, followed by Bagley Nature Area, followed by Chester Park. The hiking is actually extremely nice in all these parks. Hartley’s trails are wide, packed down, and in thick, leafy forest. The signage in Bagley is confusing and we take some wrong turns, but the trail there is similarly wide and well maintained, and there is a nice view of Lake Superior. The lake again, at last! I’ve missed you these last few days!

Chester Park is gorgeous, and probably our favorite of the three Duluth parks on the SHT. It follows a roaring creek as it tumbles down towards the lake. Machine drops his pack and goes to dunk his head in the water and I follow, and I feel some life injected back into me. How can it have been so cold at the beginning and so hot now?

The park ends all of a sudden and then we are in the city, passing houses and restaurants and looking at the lake. I’m hungry and very sore and we stop at the first place we see that isn’t semi-nice: Jimmy John’s. It’s not necessarily a favorite place of mine in real life, but in hiking life, it’s a great choice. We cool down in the air conditioning, have huge sodas, and load up on calories to take us to our stop for the night at Canal Park Lodge.

The trail follows the Duluth Lakewalk down to Canal Park, first winding through Leif Erikson Rose Garden and then along the boardwalk. It’s a blue-sky day, the clouds puffy over the lake, and the water is gently lapping up onto the shore. The famous Duluth aerial lift bridge is visible in the distance, and I enjoy looking at the buildings as we pass them. It’s a nice lakeside town and a very nice day.

We make it to the lodge just after check-in time and relax into the air conditioning, get cleaned up, and later go to the Canal Park Brewery next door (definitely didn’t plan this at all, hehe) for dinner and drinks. We sit outside in the gloaming and enjoy looking at the city and the lake and people-watching.

One more day, and not even a full day, of this hike for now. We’ll be back to finish it up in a better season. For now, I’m ready to be done.