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| Waterfall in the Fall sun |
Saturday found the Husband and I joining S and J and 35 other folks for an organized hike from Sonju Lake Rd to Finland Rec Center on the Superior Hiking Trail. The lovely Joy from Hartley Nature Center in Duluth was our naturalist, though she admitted her passion is geology. Which is great because I love rocks. Temps were easily in the high 60's, low 70's, with a subtle lake wind to keep one cool.
We all congregated at the Finland Rec Center for our pre-hike speech and to ask for a volunteer to be the Sweep. The Sweep's responsibility is to make sure everyone gets off the trail safely and the hike coordinator is to make sure the Sweep gets off the trail safely.
Speeches and introductions complete, we all piled into as few cars as possible and made our way to Sonju Lake. Everyone was quickly on the trail - there was 7 miles to be hiked. We brought the hounds, and being in the back of the group was not working out so well. D managed to get ahead, but it took me longer to catch up.
This segment is rolling, but not challengingly so. Once up on the ridges, you pass through maple forests - now with all the leaves down in a brown carpet broken only by the tree trunks and the sky - with a few scenic overlooks that span the Sawtooth Mountains. No lake views on this portion. There are two lakes the trail passes, great places to pause and reflect on the calm inky water and the golden tamaracks reflecting in them.
The Husband and I did this in about 4 hours - most folks seemed to hit the parking lot at 4 1/2. And the Sweep made it in at 5 hours. A group of us then rendevouxed at the Rustic Inn for a fabulous dinner complete with awesome pie. And I do mean awesome pie - cranberry pear ala mode.
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| Swimming dog on Egge Lake |
Home again by 8:30p, unload and call it a day. October doesn't get any better than this.
4 comments:
I am so envious --- I want to HIKE there too. ;-)
Beautiful pictures.
I am jealous as well. I was hoping to make to the SHT in over the last couple of weekends and this is one of my favorite sections of the trail. If you are interested in other sections, check out www.superior-hiking-trail.com as more pictures and videos from the SHT are being added every week.
I just jealous that you got Rustic Inn Pie...
Karl - It was cranberry-pear pie with a crumble top served warm ala mode. Absolutely fabulous! D and I shared a piece as it was gi-normous! :)
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