Superior Hiking Trail Day “3”: Thursday, August 27

Tenting at Stewart River Camp (SHT mile 90.2), walked 16.2 miles today

My left foot was causing me so much discomfort Saturday and Sunday that I took the expensive step of getting it looked at by a sports medicine clinic on Tuesday. The doctor, after seeing my x-rays, doubted there was a stress fracture in my foot but instead thought that a small bonelet (technical term) called the os peroneum was somehow irritated and causing me pain. The os peroneum does not exist in 3/4 of the general population’s feet, so first of all I felt very special, like a car loaded up with options—“Yes, I’ll take the Naturally Curly Hair add-on, the Pun Overdrive mode ... and hey, might as well throw in the os peroneum in the left lateral midfoot.” I never got the chance to talk to the doctor much about it, because like every doctor in this wretched healthcare system he seemed like he had -10 minutes to spare, but I did my own Googling afterward and his diagnosis seemed plausible enough. He did mention that he thought my foot would *not* snap in half if I took ibuprofen and continued to hike on it, and that was sufficient encouragement to get me back out on the trail, not to mention the pain was starting to recede by Tuesday. I rested 48 more hours, bought some Altras like a real toolbox, and hit the trail again this morning from the same place I left it, thanks to a lift from local heroes Dana and Sam.

Mosquito: that was today’s word of the day. The little pieces of shit hadn’t had a mass die-off in the past five days like I had hoped; rather, they are prospering in this part of the Minnesota woods, even so late in the summer. There might have been thirty seconds of walking today when I wasn’t thinking about some combination of them and how my foot still hurt. The trail certainly didn’t offer up any distractions. It was again 100% forested, albeit with a little more room to breathe and a little more nicely constructed trail tread. The one spot in my official guidebook marked “view” was a narrow glimpse through trees of more trees, and the spot marked “waterfall” was literally a single waist-high rock with a trickle of water running over it. I know enough to modify my expectations for certain things when I’m in Minnesota, but come on SHTA, these are outright lies!

Poorly taken photo trying to illustrate how at any given moment, multiple mosquitos would be on my arm biting through my Minnesota Melly fleece, which I was forced to wear all day even though it was 75-80F and humid.

The day was redeemed in the late afternoon when, right after some near-northern-Sierra-level mosquitos (if you’ve done the PCT, you know. You feel.), I met my first fellow northbound thru-hiker, High Loon. He runs a hotel in Fontana Dam along the AT, which he has completed twice. He and I were only a mile or so from this campsite and were both planning on stopping for the night, so it was pleasant to have company for both some walking and the camping. A young buck named Abe, sophomore at the U. of Minnesota and former Wolf Ridge counselor, soon joined at the campsite. After I had rehydrated and washed up (in that order) in the namesake Stewart River, the three of us sat down and fixed our respective dinners together, chitting and chatting, and by some miracle there were NO MOSQUITOS ANYMORE while we ate. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. Tomorrow, 20+ miles to one of the many campsites along the Gooseberry River.