Hike over 20 miles today and still fell short. I'm 2 mi from my food drop, so breakfast will be late. My knee hurts, otherwise strong. Sleep will do me well.

"Those who wonder are not always lost."

It's Brenda and I am making the first entry for Dave, since he is currently too far North to post.  

I took Dave up to the trailhead today to begin his thru-hike.  We left his car at the southernmost point of the trail near Two Harbors for him to retrieve in 10 days or so.  Then we headed towardsCanada, where the trail begins.  On the way, he strung up two bear bags filled with food along the trail.  This way he doesn't have to carry that weight the entire way.  We reached the trailhead outside of Grand Portage around 5:30pm and Dave was all sorts of ready to go by 6pm, when he hit the trail.  He only had to hike a few miles in today to reach his campsite. 

Dave always talks about how you string up the food bags in the trees in order to keep the food away from 'mini-bears' (racoons) but today I found out that they really do call them bear bags for a reason.  On the way in, right near the trailhead, we passed a great big bear, who was on the side of the road!!!  

On that note, good luck DW and Godspeed!

"Those who wander are not always lost."

It's Brenda and I am making the first entry for Dave, since he is currently too far North to post.  

I took Dave up to the trailhead today to begin his thru-hike.  We left his car at the southernmost point of the trail near Two Harbors for him to retrieve in 10 days or so.  Then we headed towards Canada, where the trail begins.  On the way, he strung up two bear bags filled with food along the trail.  This way he doesn't have to carry that weight the entire way.  We reached the trailhead outside of Grand Portage around 5:30pm and Dave was all sorts of ready to go by 6pm, when he hit the trail.  He only had to hike a few miles in today to reach his campsite. 

Dave always talks about how you string up the food bags in the trees in order to keep the food away from 'mini-bears' (racoons) but today I found out that they really do call them bear bags for a reason.  On the way in, right near the trailhead, we passed a great big bear, who was on the side of the road!!!  

On that note, good luck DW and Godspeed!

Today is the day!

The Hike

Tomorrow I'm leaving for my Superior Hiking Trail Thru Hike. I'll have ten days to complete the 205 miles from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Two Harbors, Minnesota.

I'll be setting up a couple of food caches along the way, otherwise everything I need for the ten days will be on my back at all timse. My base weight is just over ten pounds and my carry weight will be around 20.

I'm excited, scared and nervous all at once. I've never undertook something like this before, especially not by myself. The weather forecast shows possible rain for the first half of my trip, we will see what happens. Nothing would be more demoralizing than day-after-day of rain. Regardless of the weather, I'll keep my head up and keep plugging along.

I just set up through blogger to have text messages posted directly to the blog. I'm sure when I'm in the far north I won't get much for service, but as I travel south and come closer to civilization, I'll post a couple of blog updates from the trail.

See you out there!



David