Oberg and Leveaux Mountains

Like yesterday, today was another nearly perfect fall day. Noelle was out backpacking with some girlfriends for the weekend and I volunteered to help them out by picking them up at the end point of their hike and shuttling them back to their car. This gave me an excuse to head up the North Shore for a fall color adventure.

I arrived at the predetermined meeting spot, the Superior Hiking Trail trail-head on the Caribou Trail at 9 am like we had arranged, but the girls were not there yet. I decided to take the opportunity to hike up to White Sky Rocks while I waited. It was a good decision. The view from the overlook was spectacular and the colors looked to be at peak. 

From White Sky overlook headed up the trail to Noelle's campsite from the night before thinking that I would run into my shuttlees, and sure enough I did. It was good to see Noelle and hear about their trip. We walked back to the car together and then I drove the girls to their car at Lutsen. There I said goodbye to Noelle and headed over to the trail-head for Oberg and Leveaux Mountains.

The trail-head parking lot there was packed. It looked like everyone and their mother decided to go for a hike today to see the fall colors. After a short time on the Oberg Mountain trail it became obvious why. The colors were indeed spectacular! There are several different overlooks off the sides of the mountain and each one offered great views of maples in their full splendor. The overlooks also offered views of Lake Superior, rock outcroppings and small lakes.

From Oberg, I passed through the parking lot again and followed the Superior Hiking Trail to the Onion River. Shortly after crossing the Onion River on a footbridge, I took the side trail up Leveaux Mountain. The trail here was much less crowded than the one on Oberg Mountain. I probably saw 1/10 of the people I saw while on Oberg. Still, the views were great!