The Proclaimers were ready to walk 500 miles to show up at your door, but if they had started at the beginning of the Superior Hiking Trail, they’d only have had to walk 296. This hilly footpath stretches from the Canadian border all the way down to Duluth, running alongside Lake Superior and through beautiful woods.
The trail requires zero licenses, zero permits, and zero dollars in fees to use. It’s one of the few civic goods that’s hard to feel grumpy about. Unlike the aquarium, it’s clearly both beautiful and useful, and unlike the proposed Northern Lights Express, it won’t cost a cool billion dollars. As far as the good outweighing the bad, it’s right up there with public libraries and the Lakewalk. “Easy for someone who writes books and likes to hike to say,” would be a reasonable objection, especially if you’re into fish or trains (or fish riding trains). Unfortunately, you can’t make that objection here, because this whole page is dedicated to my opinion. Next!
The Duluth section of the trail starts down at Jay Cooke and travels past Spirit Mountain and Enger Park. I picked up the trail at the Rose Garden. For anyone who’s hiked the northern part of the SHT, it’s jolting to find yourself dodging traffic and walking up sidewalks. In town, the trail changes. The blue blazes that normally mark trees on the route now mark power poles, with the occasional Superior Hiking Trail logo manifesting as stickers on the back of road signs instead of plastic placards stapled to trees. Externally, I was cruising up the same sidewalk frequented by heavyset guys ambling to the gas station. But internally, I was On A Trail Run!
After a half mile of this (my first wrong turn: one block in), I ended up in the gorgeous woods of Chester Park. Sunlight speckled through the branches, pine needles blanketed the ground, and my legs were tired! Fortunately, I only had 15.5 more miles to run. It turns out I’d be doing some orienteering, too. I don’t know if you prefer maps or verbal directions, but I do know that if you want to run this section of the SHT, you’re going to be using the latter. You can print out a supremely unhelpful map that essentially shows you “trail goes uphill”, or, and this is the part I liked, you can print out two solid pages of 10 point font directions.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

“At crosswalk by Parking Lot U, SHT crosses Junction Ave into Parking Lot U, goes to back of lot, and follows blacktop trail through woods 40 feet to dead end of E. Buffalo Street, crosses street and goes into woods 100 feet to dirt road. Trail turns left onto road, goes 25 feet, and then turns left onto Bagley trail. SHT follows Bagley trail for 0.2 miles, turns right back to dirt road, and then turns left and follows road into open area on hilltop with overlook viewing platform with great views.”
Bear in mind, these two pages only describe about 7.7 miles of a 296 mile trail. If you’d like to hike further, you’d be well-served by purchasing the official Guide to the Superior Hiking Trail for $15.95. It’s not only one of the few ways the free trail makes money to pay expenses, it’s also one of the surest ways not to get lost.
That’s because of the way the trail is marked. After losing my way once or twice, I started to imagine what it must have been like for the volunteer crew that painted the telltale blue blazes on the trees. I picture a girl with a bandana and a Nalgene, probably named Kayla, and a couple of guys in cargo shorts, probably named Brad. It’s a sunny day in the woods, a little bit of a breeze, everyone’s feeling sore from yesterday’s Ultimate Frisbee game. No one talks much while they work, they’re just enjoying the day. “Brad,” Kayla says after awhile. Both guys turn to look.
“I think we only marked like four trees the entire last mile.”
The Brads frown. This is kind of a bummer. The good vibes are not quite as good, now. There is a longish pause. “Ok,” the first Brad says. “Let’s paint a ton of trees with blue blazes one after the other this mile to make up for it.”
Kayla and the second Brad smile. The good vibes are back.
That’s where those detailed directions really come into play. I read every word at least twice and only spent around 20 minutes lost out of a 4 hour run. You’ll see streams, ponds, birch trees, and flowers, and except for the sounds of cars, most of the trail feels far from civilization. Plus, to be fair to Brad and Kayla, most of the intersections are marked well. Visit http://www.shta.org to plan your next day hike.