I had the bright idea of taking some friends out to the Superior Hiking Trail in the fall. We decided on hiking in the Silver Bay area would be perfect for the fall colors. Everyone else also thought so as well.
The parking lot was completely full, there were even some trailers set up with a satellite dish. Now Penn Creek Camp is only about 2 miles in on a moderate trail with some slight elevation change. With it being about 45º it was a nice hike in on a Saturday. The trails were overly muddy and very packed with day hikers. The Silver Bay area is one of the most popular sections of the Superior Hiking trail.
Once we finally arrived at Penn Creek campsite there was only one other couple there. Great news for us, the Penn Creek site has around 6-8 tent pads. If you ever go to the site, hike all the way back on the creek and you will find a site that is a little more private than the others which is perfect if it is not taken.
We spend the next two hours setting up and gathering firewood because the temps were going to get to the 30ºs. About three o'clock in the afternoon we start to look across the site and see this string of backpacks moving through the woods. By five o'clock there were 43 new campers and 16 tents spread over the trail and other camp pads. It ended up being a high school group for a class.
With the Latrines being out in the open none of the kids wanted to use them. So they were bushwhacking it in the woods. We had kids constantly walking through or nearby our camp to go relieve themselves in the woods. Some had no perception of how close we were to them. The trails were covered with tents and spilling over into the woods crushing the vegetation.
The next day we begin hiking out and we were stepping over tents and weaving back and forth. I happened to catch one of the adults and mention to him that 16 tents is a little much for this site and you should encourage the kids to use the tent pads instead of crushing vegetation. All he said was "sorry for the noise" and walked away. I left that site with mixed feelings. I am happy there are classes for kids to learn the outdoors and camp, but disappointed that the teachers don't practice the leave no trace.
Does anyone know if there is a Tent limited to a site on the SHT? I am thinking of reaching out to the school but I don't think that will get me anywhere.
Here is a video focused on the trip with not much focus on the tent invasion.
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