August 19, 2018
Sucker Creek to Stewart River
Superior Hiking Trail Thru-Hike: Day 5
Bugs.
Fucking. Bugs.
Mosquitos. Deer Flies. Holy hell. I cannot put any more DEET on. I've covered myself in i9t. There's nowhere else to cover.
Big Bend Campsite
Takeing a break at Big Bend campsite and it's surprisingly glorious. A breeze, and enough of an opening that there are NO BUGS. The sweat is slowing down, slowly leaking out of my pores instead of pouring buckets, the breeze is cooling me down, and I have a log to lean up against. Sweet, sweet relief.
I saw this wonderful woman walking in the opposite direction today and she told me that the bugs didn't seem so bad at her campsite this morning (further up trail). She was right, somehow they don't seem so bad here.
I do have wet socks and wet shoes that make for uncomfortable travel. My shoes are so wet that even if I use a fresh pair of socks they will quickly get soaked. Anyway, I'm resting here and the sun has gotten a bit stronger so I can feel its warmth. There's a river nearby and a very slight breeze, and I get to see Alex tomorrow.
And best of all that woman, that wonderful wonderful woman told me that I'd be out of this insect hell in about 2 days. If I didn't know what cool shit was coming up, I be devastated about how much I am disliking this trail.
Thoughts
I like that pistachios are purple and green. What silly colors for a nut to be!
I like that my sleeping pad has divots. The divots catch things before they roll onto the ground.
Stewart River Campsite
Made it to the futher campsite and thank goodness or I would've had about 15 miles to go in the morning. I'm curious how many miles total I have left and how many I need to average to get to the end in time to do Isle Royale. Also, where is the halfway point for this trail?
End of Day
I either
A) Way overexerted myself
B) Am dehydrated
C) Need electrolytes
D) A combination of all three because I feel like shittake mushrooms.
I pushed HARD today and did 21 miles in 11 hours, or maybe 10.5 hours. Tomorrow is the first rainy day and I have 10.5 miles to make before 11, so I'll be waking up at like 4am, trying to figure out how to pack everything tonight so it goes faster tomorrow. But the awkward thing is that I need to get my pack out of the tent before I can pack the tent up, but I don't want it to get wet in the rain.
One thing to think about is that it will be COLD. Like probably 50 something and storming so yeah, cold. Who knows, I could get a break of hot rain while I take the tent down buuuut I feel like that shit is never going to happen in this section. The swamp.
Oh! I do have rain pants to stay just a little bit warmer. Yaay! I am super duper ready for sleep time which means I have to pee.
I did say I'd rather have rain than bugs and I stand by that 100%. It just makes it tricky to pack up in the morning.
Put the rainfly on, moved my disgustingly smelly shoes into the vestibule (soooo much better). It still reeks in here but it's a little more bearable. I think I need electrolytes because water is running right through me—I have to pee almost immediately after drinking it. I ate as many salty potato chips as I could for the salt and drank some water and just laid in the hot tent away from the bugs and I feel moderately less terrible.
There is a toad or frog outside my tent that I thought was a rodent trying to break in and steal the food. Then the toad hopped up to the tent and just sat under the vestibule. Thank you for not being a rat or mouse. We are now friends.