Day 10, October 8, 2021
If I had to describe today in one word it would be this: Wet. It had rained overnight and continued to rain all throughout the morning. The trail was slick and muddy. The boardwalk planks were primed to take me down again. A good thing about all this rain was that it brought out the frogs. I saw several Wood frogs enjoying the abundant moisture, coming out from their hiding places among the leaves. I also got to see another beaver swimming around in its pond. I was overjoyed at first. Beavers are such fun animals to witness. Then I turned the corner and saw that its dammed pond flooded the trail. There wasn’t a good way to avoid it, though I tried, and I just had to walk through the water. Not that my feet were dry anyway. My shoes squelched with every step.
Tomorrow, I will be back in Duluth. The trail goes right through town. I am quite excited for it as I think it will be a unique experience. The problem is lodging. The Duluth section is just too long and there aren’t any places to camp. I essentially have to stay in a hotel. Unfortunately, the hostel is completely booked, along with every other affordable option in the area. Fall is a very popular time of year for this area as everyone is coming out to view the autumn spectacle. My only option was booking a $415 room at the Holiday Inn. It’s a bummer I messed up that job interview so bad… X was faster with booking and several days ago had managed to snag himself a bunk at the hostel. I was envious that he had remembered to do his booking earlier and got a cheap lodging option, but I was also relieved to have that time apart from him.
Day 11, October 9, 2021
If I thought the rain was bad yesterday, it was nothing compared to the storm we had last night. Heavy rain poured from the sky all night long. The fat raindrops hammered down relentlessly. They hit my tent so hard that they knocked the condensation off the walls and onto my face and sleeping quilt. And they struck the ground so hard that they ricocheted back up underneath and inside my tent. Everything got wet. Lightening and thunder were going off constantly. I have never before been outside in a tent experiencing anything like that kind of weather. I had rarely experienced that fierce of weather anywhere, actually. It was a little scary.
I didn’t sleep well last night because of the storm. On top of that, I must have been laying on my neck in an awkward position. When I got up in the morning, it was incredibly painful to move my head. I couldn’t really turn my head to the left or look down. I made it worse during the day when I tripped on a small rock and jolted my neck from the impact of my step catching my fall.
After that overnight storm, I was expecting more rain throughout the day. But it actually cleared up early in the morning and the day was sunny and warm. I was able to dry out my damp, or in some cases, saturated, gear in the sun when I took my lunch break. Despite this warm day, the vegetation was still soaked from the rain. Anytime I brushed against it, water came streaming down on me. This was particularly annoying for today because much of the trail was a snowmobile trail and was overgrown with tall grass, eager to relieve itself of its watery burden on me.
I passed X at one of the road crossings at a trailhead parking lot. All of his gear was spread out, drying in the sun. He had decided to end his hike and had arranged to get picked up from there. He said he had no interest in hiking through the city. This was pretty common for this trail and there was actually a distinction between doing a “thru hike” and a “traditional thru hike” for the SHT. The traditional thru did not include going through Duluth and instead ended here at Martin Road. As I mentioned, the city section was difficult as lodging was hard to navigate and manage so many people just didn’t do it. X and I never clicked and our time together the last week and a half felt awkward and forced. I had realized X and I weren’t compatible early on, and it only became worse when I learned our different intentions for this trail. I was not sad to see him leave. I actually wondered if it was the city or me that made him decide to end his hike earlier than planned. His final act was to block the door to the trailhead restroom, claiming that I had to say the password in order to get by. That was the last I saw of him.
I continued on alone. As I got closer to the city, the trail passed by more houses. In one of these yards was a Bull Mastiff dog. This huge dog started barking and running straight at me. I stayed my ground, sensing he was bluffing and had no intention of crossing the property lines. It was still incredibly unnerving seeing this massive aggressive dog charge me. The owner was in the yard and made a half hearted attempt to recall the dog only after I had finished passing by.
The trail made its way through Duluth. Despite what everybody says about it, I actually really enjoyed it. It felt like a fun walking tour through the city. The best part was that it went right by the Love Creamery, the delicious ice cream spot on Canal Park. I sat and ate my mint chocolate chip ice cream, watching the clean city people eat their own ice creams. I bought a hot chocolate to go and drank it while I finished the day at the Holiday Inn. I am hoping these fluffy pillows help ease the pain in my neck.
Day 12, October 10, 2021
It was so hard to get up this morning. The fluffy hotel bed and its four big pillows kept pulling me back in every time I tried to get up. It had rained again overnight and, after the previous night’s storm, I was extra grateful to have been warm and dry inside. But today had to be a big mile day and I needed to get going.
I finally got packed and checked out of my room just before 7am. I stopped at starbucks for breakfast on my walk back to the trail. I am doubtful I could have had a better start to my day. Well, perhaps if I could have slept in longer. Despite its unpopularity, I actually really enjoyed this section. I think it is amazing that Duluth has so many green spaces and can incorporate nature and a walking trail into the city so seamlessly. It was easy to even forget that I was still in the city. The trail through town felt more like a hiking trail than the last 50 miles north of Duluth did. It was absolutely lovely and arguably one of my favorite sections of the entire trail. At one point, I passed by a little free library and picked out a book to carry and read.
I hiked just over 30 miles today to get to the campground in Jay Cooke State Park. It was dark when I got there and it had started to drizzle. It definitely is doable and incredibly enjoyable, but I understand why people don’t go through Duluth and stick with the “traditional” thru hike. The lack of places to camp makes it really challenging. The logistics would have been much more difficult if I wasn’t able to push those 30 miles today. But I am so glad I made it happen, because the Duluth section was a wonderful part of the trail and I wish more people got to experience it.
I can’t believe I’m going to be done tomorrow. Just a few more miles to the Southern Terminus. It doesn’t feel like I have been out here long enough.
Day 13, October 11, 2021
I began my final day on trail just before 7am. It was still dark out with hints of light breaking the horizon. I had less than eight miles to go to the Southern Terminus. I walked leisurely through the forest, savoring these final miles for myself. I made it to the end of the trail, the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, by 10am. It was marked by a wooden arch and a board nailed to a tree. I crossed under the arch, filled with joy at my accomplishment. I signed my name in the trail log book, took my photos, and turned away and walked back to where a dirt road crossed the trail.
I had already arranged a ride back into Duluth. I was early getting to my pickup point, and so was my ride, which was nice that I didn’t have to wait long. I had several hours in town before my flight left that evening. Though I wasn’t staying there, I called the hostel, explained my situation, and asked if I could take a shower. They generously agreed. I didn’t want to be a stinky, dirty person that someone on the airplane would have to sit next to. I showered, packed my bag up for airline travel, left a tip for the hostel, and then went to enjoy one last meal, that included cheese curds, at a restaurant at Canal Park. Then I took a taxi back to the tiny Duluth airport to wait for my plane to leave from one of the four gates. The trees along the road to the airport had changed color since I arrived just over two weeks ago.
Post Trail Reflections
I know I didn’t handle the situation with X well. Agreeing to fly halfway across the country to hike a 300 mile long trail with a man I hardly knew felt textbook foolish. But after hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, I felt more confident. I wanted to be spontaneous and just do the things in life that would make me happy, without second guessing myself out of fear and coming up with every reason why I shouldn’t. So, I chose to dive into this opportunity to get back on trail, knowing that there could be consequences I might have to deal with later.
Our agreement became a situation when I realized that the two of us had very different goals for this trail. For me, everything was about the trail. I was focused on hiking and getting to experience the SHT in its entirety for myself. I was excited to be out in a place I’d never been before and get to see it in the pure and raw form of foot travel. X was secondary. He would be a companion to get to know and share stories of the day’s travels with. If we decided to split, then no problem. That’s what happens on trail and it’s okay. For X, it was the reverse. He absolutely wanted to hike, but it didn’t matter where so much. He came all the way out here so that he could hike with me and get to know me. I thought he was excited to hike the SHT for the sake of the trail on its own. I had not known how instrumental I was in his being out here.
When I did realize that this was the situation I had found myself in, I was annoyed and a little bit angry. I just wanted to enjoy my thru hike. But I felt guilty for unknowingly and accidentally leading on this man I barely knew. For dragging him out halfway across the country to be somewhere he didn’t particularly care to be. I thought he asked me to join him because of how excited I was for him when he agreed to think about the SHT after I suggested it, not because he was trying to pursue a romantic interest. It seemed that I was at fault and the one to blame, and that didn’t feel fair. We both played a role in this. And I had been sidestepping myself and my desires my whole life because of men and, frankly, I was sick of it. I was tired of compromising myself, shouldering the blame to protect a man’s ego. Besides, I have no idea how he thought anyone in their right mind would agree to a two-week long hiking trip as a first date with a stranger.
So why didn’t I just have a conversation with him, explain that I was not interested in anything beyond his friendship for the length of this trail? Simply, I was afraid. I had landed myself into this mess trying to overcome my fears, and now it was my fears that kept me in it. I became painfully aware that I was in the woods with a strange man. I was afraid of him and what he could do to me if I made him angry. I was almost sure this thinking was dramatic, and that if I had just been straightforward with him, he would have understood and we would have split. But what if I was wrong? I was afraid to be wrong. The risk was small, but I feared the consequence. So I thought that maybe if I just showed him that I was uninterested, and perhaps even an unpleasant companion, he would get the message and decide to leave on his own. It would allow him to reject me, rather than be rejected. He didn’t leave until almost the end of the hike though, but we did spend less and less time together each day. At the time, this seemed to me the safer option than possibly making him angry from rejection. Perhaps this was the wrong choice. I’ve often felt that it was, and we would have both been happier had I just told him outright and we hiked separately. I can’t undo anything, but I can move on and learn how to handle the next situation better.
When I returned home to the San Francisco Bay Area, I felt much more at peace than I had when I had returned from the PCT. I think that the SHT was a great trail to ease my transition. It travels through a lot of State Parks, so I saw many more people on the trail than I had on the PCT. I also think that the Duluth section was perfect. I was able to experience a peek back into city life while still being on trail. The need to do this trail so soon after the PCT, and the benefits I earned from hiking it, helped guide me in my relationship to hiking. I learned I truly do love long trails, and I am nowhere near finished hiking them.
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