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42.5 miles down, 12.5 to go! Tomorrow we finish the teal map and then zip down to the southern Terminus for a few more miles to touch the sign—the end is in sight!
The fall colors are popping, the mushrooms blooming and we are still glad we avoided the monsoon.
Its 43° this morning in Finland MN and I don’t want to get out of my quilt. Slept in until 4:30am. Pitched my tarp against a tree trunk last night and used my umbrella as a door again. Stuffed my gear under my left side to avoid rolling down hill at Leskinen.
-Still breezy in the tarp with that cold hard wind last night but it stayed sturdy and I slept great!
No bugs!
We encountered the giant erratic rock early on our hike and took about 20 pictures in front of it because it was so cool.
Its mind boggling think about how a rock of this size was just left right where it is now, thousands of years ago by a glacier!
Said farewell to Ross and Robert at county road 6.
Road walk!
Climbed up Sawmill dome- we thought we hit that yesterday (ha), but that was Sawbill lake….this is a HUGE dome that attracts rock climbers, we even met one!
Tried something new with my CNOC water bag. I pre-filtered it with a nylon pantyhose sock on the opening and I think it helped extend the life of my sawyer filter without having to backflush it.
There were many outcroppings, and rocks to rest on during the day. That is one of the things I have loved most about this trip, tougher terrain, shorter miles, lots of leisure time in between. Just get to camp by dinner time…
West Kennedy was FULL with several people and a couple of large car camping tents, so we moved on to East Kennedy Creek Campsite. It is a long narrow site with about 4 tent pads and a few good hammock sites. It rained while we set up, but we jammed in and made new friends!
Caleb and Matt were awesome campmates and always had kind words and a campfire going share with us.
Saw a triple rainbow after dinner! It was probably just a double, but there was this unusual halo-cloud formation thing that made it look like a triple, so I took it as a blessing for my last night on the trail.
Just as a I settled into my bivy after the most perfect day I’ve had on the SHT in 303 miles….A Moth flew into my screen as I was zipping it up….then right into my ear !!! It got stuck deep inside my ear canal for about 5 minutes and did a crazy flappy dance on my ear drum! I cried to my tent mates for help! It was so deep they couldn’t see it, and they thought I was making it up. Tweezers came out, hollering in the dark ensued—it felt like it was in there for an eternity. From two tent pads away, Fancy Nancy shouted, “Use your bidet to flush it out!” Culo Clean Backcountry Bidet to the rescue!!! I gave that moth 4 big blasts of water and it finally flew out of my ear! The gals were shocked to see that! I went to bed a little traumatized, but was so glad to have it out.
By the end of today, we’ve hiked 53 miles on this trip, only 7 more to go! This last full day on the SHT was the most beautiful, full of sunshine and fall colors! Its hard to pick a favorite part of the trail, but this section is so dramatic and rewarding. Perfect time to be here!
This is something I hope to experience soon. Thanks for sharing your trip.
I hope you get to do it soon. Fall is gorgeous up there!!!
my son and i (mudsmeller) enjoyed meeting you and your great group of woman hikers at Leskinen. it WAS a most beautiful hike this past weekend. Hike on!! 🙂
We loved meeting you too! Check out Thrive Hudson and Women Who Hike Minnesota in FB, we’d love to hike with you again! Hope you two had a great trip!
That’s one of my favorite sections of trail and no one ever talks about it … shhhhhh! Uh, I would be traumatized by the moth too. Happy you got it out. I’ve also been thinking about the issues with the tanniny water jamming up my filter. I’ll have to see what I can find. Congrats on the finish. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Thank you Holly!
I hear of people using a bandana to prefilter, but the old panty hose worked too.
Glad to see you enjoyed your last hike up there, its gorgeous up there right now. Happy hiking!
I like the idea of the pantyhose and a rubber band. Of course, I haven’t worn hose since the 90s, so perhaps an old sock or tea towel might work.
My hike was fantastic, thank you. My goal was to just backpack solo because it scared me. That turned into let’s see how far I can go fast. I had a lot of apprehension going in because I knew it would be a challenge. I’m so happy I didn’t pull back. It felt good to accomplish such a big goal.
I don’t know that I necessarily want to finish the whole thing. Is there anything worth seeing before castle danger and after judge magney? If you were to go for a hike and just do the enjoyable parts, where would you start and end?