As a daily user of the Superior Hiking Trail, I’ve been so appreciative these past few weeks of the progress achieved by the Conservation Corps in their spring trail cleanup. A bunch of us walk the six-mile section from Bally Creek to the Cascade River bridge at least once a week all year. This past winter’s windfalls almost curtailed our snowshoe treks. We aren’t as flexible as we used to be. There was one particularly bad tree we had to crawl under — until there got to be so much snow we had to climb over—and wearing snowshoes, it was usually a hysterical moment.
I’m guessing there were at least 25 major detours on that section alone. What a wonderful surprise greeted us last week when we hiked the whole thing with nary a branch to step over. We sang praises to the CC at every fresh log cut we passed!
On the Split Rock River section between Beaver Bay and Gooseberry, we met up with one of the crews taking a lunch break. They were young, dirty, sweaty, happy and pleasant to chat with. We expressed our thanks and sort of envied their young, dirty, sweaty and happy selves!
Kudos to the Conservation Corps and to the Superior Hiking Trail Association for hiring them!
Karen Neal
Grand Marais
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