How the 300-Mile-Long Superior Hiking Trail Was Made

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Tighten up your laces, you’ve got a long hike ahead.

As of summer 2013, you can hike the 300 contiguous miles along the Superior Hiking Trail, or SHT, from Jay Cooke State Park on the St. Louis River west of Duluth all the way to the tip of Minnesota’s Arrowhead. Two final sections of trail between Duluth and Two Harbors opened June 1, completing a vision that began 27 years ago.

The trail treks through wild and scenic country once left to moose and hawks, creating a path with bold views of Lake Superior and countless creek crossings, each lovelier than the last.

Yes, the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota is open for business.

It took everyone to build

Creation of a trail the magnitude of the Superior Hiking Trail is no simple walk in the woods.

The first section of the SHT opened in July 1987, a year after official organizing started. Dignitaries gathered near the base of Britton Peak, a few miles inland from Tofte. Instead of cutting a ribbon, they cut a log.

The founders’ vision was a long-distance trail along the rocky ridgeline overlooking Lake Superior. It would take more than two decades to complete that vision, not surprising considering the country through which the trail was forged.

Due to the steep topography of Minnesota’s North Shore and the lack of tillable soil, the ridges and peaks that parallel the Lake had never been permanently settled or developed. A few roads, such as the Sawbill or Gunflint trails, pierced the interior, but even those were known as “trails,” not highways.

In the days before the SHT, only a handful of anglers, berry pickers, hunters and foresters knew the terrain. Here and there, a trout fishermen’s foot trail followed a North Shore stream into the interior. A few hikers had reached a few high points for fire lookouts or for fun. By the 1980s, there was a virtually untouched and unknown ribbon of open rugged wild space paralleling the busy tourist corridor of Minnesota’s Highway 61.

On the highway, you can drive from Duluth to Grand Marais in a few hours. The SHT was the first time anyone tried to slow that journey down … way down, a trail for foot-power only.

Early trail designers, such as Tom Peterson of the Minnesota DNR, worked with maps and spent field time in insect-infested forests to find the best rocky outcrops, the most scenic waterfalls and most sweeping views of big blue Lake Superior.

Then they laid out the trail connecting those unique dots. The intent of the trail was to traverse the North Shore, but it was designed for scenic enjoyment, not just to get from Point A to Point B.

Soon after the initial plans were drawn up, support rolled in. Minnesota’s Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources supported a frenzy of trail construction from 1987 to 1993. Volunteers worked side-by-side with contractors and conservation corps.

Among the early supporters were North Shore resort and lodge owners, who saw in the trail a way to enhance guests’ experiences. Their support for the trail remains strong today.

Sally Nankivell knows the trail is an asset. The former executive director of the Cook County Visitors Bureau calls the trail “a North Shore treasure” and says hiking has been identified as a top regional attraction. “Our guests love to hike.”

By 1994, the trail was nearly complete from Two Harbors to Hovland. The first known thru-hiker of the trail was Paul Hlina in 1995, but the trail has more than doubled in length since his feat. Since the late 1990s, one or two new sections of trail have opened almost every year.

By 2007, 43 miles of trail were completed through the urban wilderness of Duluth. The final two sections between Martin and Normanna roads northeast of Duluth opened in June 2013.

One amazing aspect of the SHT is that it was built and is maintained and managed by a nonprofit organization of individual and business members, the Superior Hiking Trail Association, based in an old house in Two Harbors.

Thumbs Up for the Trail

The result of 26 years of construction is spectacular and gaining national recognition.

“You can’t beat the SHT,” says Todd “Tman” McMahon, a Madison, Wisconsin, man nationally known among backpackers and hikers.

Backpacker magazine called the SHT one of the “10 prime walks that leaves all others in the dust.”

In the December 2000 issue of that magazine, readers voted SHT more scenic than any other trail in the eastern United States and the second-best trail in the country, giving high points for trail conditions and signage. (No. 1 was Wonderland Trail at Mount Rainer National Park, Washington state.)

Some have argued that the SHT is more scenic than its longer, older sister trails. The famed Appalachian National Scenic Trail, which crosses several states and 2,200 miles, is known for long stretches of green tunnel, where all the hiker sees is trees and leaves.

On the SHT, you never hike more than a mile before reaching an overlook or waterfall. And that’s just the beginning of what you will see. One covers a lot of different terrain along the route.

The southern end at the Wisconsin border starts by the rollicking St. Louis River in Jay Cooke State Park. The forest transforms from northern hardwoods of oak and sugar maple at its southern portions to boreal stands of spruce and birch.

After winding through a major urban area, eight state parks and a big chunk of the Superior National Forest, the trail reaches its official northern end at a scenic high spot off the remote Otter Lake Road known as the “270-Degree Overlook.”

It isn’t quite in Ontario, “but you can see Canada from there,” says the Superior Hiking Trail Association’s Gayle Coyer. Gayle, longtime SHTA executive director, has been the impetus behind the most recent final wave of trail construction.

While the landscape and views change along the trail, the hiking experience is consistent. Technically, the SHT is halfway between walking on a city sidewalk and summiting Mount Everest. It feels like you’re always scrambling up hills and stepping over roots. There’s almost always a sweaty climb to a scenic overlook. You’ll meet fellow hikers now and then, and you’ll stop and share your trail stories. Most hikes take you from Point A to Point B, but the terrain is challenging and the views terrific, so when you reach your destination, you feel like you’ve accomplished something great.

The 296-mile trail is broken up into 47 sections, which range from 1.7 miles to 11.8 miles in length.

Each section runs from one well-marked trailhead and parking area to another. Hikers either arrange a shuttle so they can hike one way, or they hike in to a scenic overlook and then turn around.

The trail is built and maintained just for hikers. No bicycles, motorized vehicles or horses are allowed. Even winter cross-country skiing is not recommended, but snowshoeing is.

“The SHT is special,” says inveterate hiker Tman. “You go up to a stunning overlook, then you go down to a stunning waterfall. And then you repeat that 15 times.”

Sally, who promoted the trail when she worked with visitors to Cook County, points out that the trail allows just about anybody to “get out there. … Very quickly, you feel like you’re in the heart of nature.”

The SHT has designated backcountry campsites along the entire route outside Duluth. The SHT provides the perfect setting for an introduction to backpacking: It’s remote and quiet enough that you feel like you’ve gotten into the wild, but you’re never more than a few miles from a trailhead or emergency access point.

Many hikers consider autumn the best time to trek the SHT, as much of the trail runs through sugar maple forests, which come alive with color in September and early October.

Each season, though, has its charms. In spring, wildflowers like spring beauty and Canadian violet cover the same maple forest floor. Early summer can mean insects, so bring plenty of repellent and long sleeves. The forest will be alive with other wildlife, too. In winter, most sections are open for snowshoeing; the only restriction in winter is that many of the trailheads are not plowed out, so parking can be a challenge.

Some hikers and businesses have experimented with “lodge-to-lodge” hiking. This option allows you to sleep in a cozy bed each night while completing three, four or even more sections of the trail.

For those camping, there are 93 backcountry campsites at no charge, but reservations or permits are required and all water must be treated. Campsites are shared.

Encounters with large animals tend to be rare and exciting rather than threatening, Gayle says. Bears are seldom a problem, partly because of the responsible practices of overnight hikers keeping food in proper containers and hoisted into trees. “That’s the reason bears don’t associate the trail with food.”

Don’t worry if you’re not up to carrying 30 to 50 pounds for an overnight backpack trip. Far more people do day hikes on this trail than overnight treks. The biggest physical challenge for most SHT hikers is the steep terrain, as the trail winds down into river valleys or up over high points like Ely’s Peak, Carlton Peak or Pincushion Mountain.

The biggest single mistake hikers make is underestimating how hard and slow the trail is to hike.

Plan on hiking no more than 2 miles per hour. Bring plenty of water and snacks. Although the trail is well marked, bring a map or guidebook so you know where you are relative to trailheads and other landmarks. As Tman says, “It’s not a walk in the park.”

Do not rely on your cell phone as your safety backup. Reception can be limited or nonexistent in the remote valleys that the trail passes.

Trail is done. What’s next?

While it’s huge news that the SHT is complete from Jay Cooke to the Border Route Trail, the work is not really done.

“It will never be done,” says Steve Coz of Duluth. “There’s always going to be construction or repairs.”

Steve should know. He was chosen 2012 Volunteer of the Year by the Superior Hiking Trail Association.

All of the energy from the initial 25-year rush of volunteer building to complete the trail, says Gayle, will now go into maintenance.

Maintenance will include improvements, she adds. Recent heavy rains washed out trails. These days the trail-building techniques SHTA is using, such as stairs or switchbacks on steep grades, might have withstood the water. Duluth’s June 2012 floods destroyed the Gill Creek Trail portions of the SHT in Jay Cooke State Park. There is an official reroute around that section.

Just this spring, snowmelt in the Encampment River east of Two Harbors washed out the SHT bridge for the fourth time. Volunteers will always be indispensable and will always be there, Steve says. “They always seem to have just enough volunteers to get the work done.”

Volunteering to maintain a trail takes work. If you like to work hard, don’t mind swarms of insects and want an accomplishment you can point to with pride, you’ll make a great SHT volunteer.

Volunteers have very specific tasks: One set hikes its trail section twice a year and does light trimming, another set visits its adopted trailhead a few times a month, touching up the trail and picking up the garbage. “If we keep an area clean,” says Gayle, “it’s less likely to get trashed out.”

Sometimes the work brings long, strenuous hours. Lumber for bridges and boardwalks comes in the same way hikers do: by trail.

The dirt treadway underneath isn’t just created by foot traffic, it’s cleared by handsaw, constructed by shovel and cleared by hand and crowbar of stones and roots. The sweatiest, most difficult job of all was laying out the original trail, with day after day of crashing through underbrush and flailing through marshes to find just the right route.

Building the coalition

Although the trail is completed, another long-term focus for the Superior Hiking Trail Association is ongoing relationships with landowners, private and public.

The SHT crosses the land of 40 to 50 private landowners, in addition to state parks, county forests, state forests and the national forest. Few landowners have given permanent easements for the trail, so the association actively works to address their concerns and maintain the trail corridor.

Ultimately, the Superior Hiking Trail is truly about community. It’s a community of hikers, a community of volunteers, a community of supporters and a community of neighbors willing to share their lands.

Enjoying the trail can be about community, too. Group hikes help the novice hiker get comfortable in the wilderness. Fellow hikers share a campsite on the trail and become friends for life. Families spread ashes of departed relatives at a favorite bridge, a favorite overlook, and make that spot part of their community. “The annual meeting of the assocation the first weekend in May is great way to start the hiking season with three days of hikes of various lengths along with workshops and entertainment,” Gayle says.

A Trail System

The ultimate link to the hiking community for the SHT is still to come.

Minnesota, of course, is not the only Lake Superior region where the hiking bug bit residents. Trails nearly surround the Lake, including long remote trails in Ontario’s national and provincial parks, and in Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.

Construction on the Voyageur Hiking Trail, along the Ontario shore between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay, is about half complete.

The SHT is at once as rugged and as scenic as all of these, but also more accessible and used far more.

The route will soon become part of a national scenic trail system. The North Country National Scenic Trail runs from upstate New York to North Dakota and through all three Lake Superior states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. SHT will be linked to it, pending federal legislation. Regionally that will connect SHT to the Border Route Trail, which runs along the U.S./Canada border in the eastern Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or farther to the Kekekabic Trail, an old fire-access trail that connects the Gunflint Trail area and the Ely area across the heart of the BWCAW.

“All the other trails are going to benefit from their connection with the SHT,” says Tman. “This is going to be a spectacular trail.”

Naturalist Andrew Slade, who has been an active volunteer with the SHT, is the author of five North Shore guidebooks, including Hiking the North Shore: 50 fabulous day hikes in Minnesota’s spectacular Lake Superior region.