Best American Adventures: Hike the Superior Trail

We've just updated our popular America's
Best Adventures feature with 50 new trips, bringing our grand total to 100 iconic escapes (see the map, state-by-state list, and photo gallery, too). So no matter what your pleasure—hiking,
heli-skiing, surfing, climbing, biking, or paddling—we've got the perfect adventure
for you. Check in each day for a new, out-the-backdoor adventure highlighted here on our blog.

By Robert Earle Howells; Photograph by Lucas Payne, My Shot

The 277-mile (365-kilometer) Superior Hiking Trail, which hugs a
ridgeline above the Lake Superior shoreline between Duluth and the
Ontario border, is the best long hike in the country between the
Continental Divide and the Appalachian Trail. It covers rugged
terrain—bluffs, cliffs, and the spine of the ancient Sawtooth mountain
range—as it traces streams and skirts wild rivers, rises to mighty
bluffs overlooking the great lake, and plunges into deciduous forests
of birch, aspen, and maple interspersed with redolent stands of boreal
spruce and balsam. Massive beaver dams compete for the title of
Minnesota’s Hoover—you cross over one on a 440-foot (134-meter)
boardwalk.

The Superior serves up every sensation of a great
wilderness hike, but adds in all sorts of flexibility. With 30
trailheads near roads and towns, plus 86 free backcountry campsites,
the trail lets you get away for a long weekend or embark on a
three-week epic with the possibility of crashing at an inn or two along
the way. (Zealous thru-hikers add in extensions on the
65-mile/105-kilometer Border Route Trail and the 40-mile/64-kilometer
Kekekabic in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.)

Sightings of moose,
bears, beavers, wolves, coyotes, or grouse are possible. At times
you’re strolling through carpets of leaves, and at others ascending a
bald for yet another dramatic lake vista—from the south you can spy the
Apostle Islands; from the north, Isle Royale. Fall brings out the best
in the Superior Trail—lower humidity, fewer bugs, intense colors, and a
migration of hawks and eagles.

Need to Know: Maps and info are available at www.shta.org. The Superior Shuttle (www.superiorshuttle.com) costs $15. Arrange a trip with Boundary Country Trekking (www.boundarycountry.com).