SHT in Duluth

Bridge over Sargent Creek
Originally uploaded by cageyj

"You don't actually call it SHT!

Do you?"

Even without the emoticon for surprise :-o, the common abbreviation for Superior Hiking Trail amazed the fellow.

He sought information about the trail on the Web a few days back. Indeed we do shorten the name of this most amazing of trails to SHT.

Understand, lest you read no farther, the incongruity between what the abbreviation might imply and quality of what actually exits.

SHT is wonderful.

The Superior Hiking Trail has a beauty as bold as the idea of walking from Duluth to the Canadian Border along the ridges of North Shore of Lake Superior

Trail Near Spirit Mountain
Originally uploaded by cageyj

The Duluth News Tribune announced completion of the Duluth section of the Superior Hiking Trail. Sam Cook notes, "it’s difficult to imagine an urban setting anywhere in the country that encompasses more natural splendors than this trail does."

This trail demands that you see the true beauty of Duluth on foot just as you must see the beauty of the North Shore on foot.

A few days ago I hiked the portion of the trail from the Grand Portage Trail in Jay Cooke State Park to Becks Road. (Last year I hiked the Beck's Road to Spirit Mountain portion.) This 14 mile burst (7 miles to and 7 miles return) of enthusiasm crippled me for three days.

Actually I added a couple mile by beginning further west up Highway 210. The secretary at my grade school had a wise saying for this. When students appeared at the office without the necessary hall pass, she sent us to retrieve them. She reminded us, "He who doesn't use his head, must use his feet." I added another mile or two checking on two old friends: the Mission Creek Parkway and the Mission Creek Trail.

Backpacker magazine ranks Minnesota's Superior Hiking trail (SHT) as one of the 10 best hiking trails in the country and one of the top 10 in the world!

The 39 miles of the Duluth SHT proves equal to other 246 miles of the trail.

Trail Runs from Here to Distant Peak
Originally uploaded by cageyj

Unlike older trails built straight and flat for utility, this trails follows the ridges flowing up and down and swaying side to side with the lay of the land. It has no desire to get you to your destination quickly or without exertion but only to deliver you with beauty and the satisfaction earned from toil.

Volunteers designed and built the trail with skill. This should aid keeping it in good repair.

I planned to take photographs of spring wildflowers. That project certainly did not require 14 miles, but the trail seduced me. I love these deep valleys and hardwood clad ridges that hover unused above the City of Duluth.

Find a portion of the trail that suits your stamina and experience the grandeur of the SHT.

Begin your hiking tour of Duluth wonderful green space.

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The SHT crosses two historic trails and ways. I stopped to walk a bit of both the Mission Creek Trail and the long disused extreme western end of the Skyline Parkway. These trails suffer sever erosion and damage from neglect and abuse by off-road-vehicles.

The Ojibway used the Mission Creek Trail long before Duluth existed (I notice a work crew will be organized to repair this trail.)

The Mission Creek road opened as a western extension of the Duluth Boulevard system in 1926.

An article in the November 26th, 1926 edition of the Duluth Herald begins, 'Determination and long hours of labor, even to work with a pick and shovel is finally bringing Mayor S. Snively reward for his dream of a short-cut road from the western extension of the boulevard through Fond du Lac to Jay Cooke state park.'

Shared Bridge on Mission Creek Road
Originally uploaded by cageyj

Mayor Snively himself frequently donned work clothes, took up a pick or shovel and worked side by side with the road laborers. The road opened in the summer of 1927. The road passed over two railway bridges and entered the Mission Creek valley. It crossed the Mission creek five different times over 'artistic stone and cement bridges'.

The Mission Creek Road closed in July of 1958. It closed because of the disastrous July 1, 1958 Mission Creek Flood.

Two retired Duluth street maintenance personnel from the Far West Tool House, reported that a severe storm on July 1 dumped almost 6 inches of rain on the city. Mission Creek washed out the Highway 210 closing the road in Fond du Lac.The storm washed out two of the lower bridges on the Mission Creek Road. 'The city had no money back then,' reported one foreman, 'so we put up the barricades.' A newspaper report in the Duluth News Tribune called it the worst storm since 1909!