About Ultralight in the Nation's Icebox

The Superior Hiking Trail, Border Route Trail, and Kekekabic Trail form a ~385-mile continuous hiking route along Minnesota's North Shore and through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), from Duluth to Ely. This area, known as the Arrowhead Region, consistently records the coldest temperatures in the Lower 48, earning it the title of the "Nation's Icebox." Towns in northeastern Minnesota record average January temperatures of 5 to 10 degrees F, with average lows usually at or below 0 F.

I started south of Duluth at Jay Cooke State Park on January 4th and emerged at the western trailhead of the Kekekabic Trail outside Ely on January 19th, 16 days later, making my average daily mileage about 24 miles/day. My pack weighed a mere 13.3 pounds, and I was wearing or carrying another 11.3 lbs, bring my total "out-of-skin" weight to 24.6 pounds. With this ridiculously light load, I was able to stay comfortable in nighttime temperatures that often exceeded 0 F (the lowest nighttime low that I saw was -12 F) and in daytime temperatures that sometimes never crept above 5 F. I was prepared, both in my gear and my attitude, for colder conditions; I believe that I could have stayed comfortable in nighttime temperatures as low as -25 F and in daytime temperatures as low as -5 F, depending on the wind chill.

In addition to the cold temperatures, the trek was made more difficult by: the first 250 miles of trail being coated in bullet-proof ice, which introduced an expected hazard (normally they would have been covered with 2-3 feet of snow), especially while traveling along the North Shore's many steep river canyons; a very limited amount of visible light -- about 9.5 hours at the start, and increasing to about 10 hours by the end; frozen water sources that required the melting of snow; extremely poor trail maintenance over the last 110 miles of trail -- in one day I encountered about 200 blowdowns (8 per mile), which are a real annoyance when covered by 12-18 inches of snow; and in many other sections the trail appeared to be on the outer verge of disappearing forever, kept intact only by an ankle-twisting rut of game tracks.