The Superior Hiking Trail: Jay Cooke State Park Section

Today I finished hiking the last section of the SHT in the Duluth area. I have to admit, however, that this section of the trail was the least interesting that I've hiked so far. For most of the hike I really felt that I was just hiking to get it done. I guess it didn't help that the weather was overcast. I made it the 6.6 miles from the Grand Portage Trail parking lot to the terminus at the visitor center in a little over 2 hours. On the way back to the car I switched things up a little bit by straying from the SHT and traveling on other trails whenever possible.

I passed through a protected area called hemlock Ravine which protects the westernmost population of eastern hemlocks. They are quite isolated from other stands of hemlocks and I wonder if this isolation will protect them from the hemlock wooly adelgid? In any case I didn't see any hemlocks on my walk, but the sun did peek through the clouds for a bit on the return hike.