Castle Danger to Gooseberry

Today I hiked from the Castle Danger trail head to the west Gooseberry campsite. In the first half mile you climb up an incredibly steep slope on rocky stairs and come to this view on Wolf Rock where you stand 1200 feet above Crow Creek Valley and Lake Superior in the far distance.

Then you climb up six more sets of rocky stairs to go even higher.

Four miles into the hike I came to Nestor Grade.

Nestor Grade is an old logging road definitely not suitable for my car.

Here I come to my destination of the west Gooseberry campground. I stop to use the latrine and head back eating my cheese and pickle sandwich as I go.

Another highlight of this trail is Mike's rock.

Mike's rock has a nice view to the east.

When I started this hike I found two walking sticks. I used one of them and found it helpful to keep my balance. With my walking stick I feel like Gandalf, especially when I walk through this cedar grove. White cedars are beautiful, gnarly trees.

These two trees must have sprouted on a fallen log. As the log beneath them rotted away it looks like they have grown legs. Today I completed 4.7 miles making my  new total on the  Superior Hiking Trail 85.5 miles. I have 247.0 left to go.