I'm looking at a backpacking trip on the SHTA and I'm looking for reccomendations on what parts of the trail are good rather than just picking a section out from the map.

I'm planning on heading in sat or sunday of memorial day weekend and staying through possibly wednesday morning, so 3-4 days, probably 3 nights.  It is probably possible to get dropped off at one end so a 3-4 day long hike would probably work, otherwise it'd be an out/back trip.

Thanks in advance!

Jay

I've done day hikes out of Tofte and Grand Marais. The area up near Canadian border is also nice, in the Pidgeon Falls area.

I've hiked twice from Temperance River State Park to Crosby-Manitou State Park. Its an excellent section of the trail though I can't speak to other parts of the trail. Its not a terribly difficult segment of the trail...there are a few areas that are a bit challening, but then you can go a full day of relatively flat hiking. We did this over three nights and the biggest issue here was finding a campsite. We had problems  one year finding a site between Temperance and the Caribou River (all sites we're taken), but there were plenty of clearings to camp. The multi-purpose site at the Caribou River is tremendous. Two full out sites along the river with waterfalls and great swimming. If you want to camp in Crosby Manitou park you'd be wise to reserve a site ahead of time. I did this segment with a group of about a dozen 15-year olds and it took us more or less two and a half full days.

Thanks for the replies.

We plan on picking up the guidebook this coming weekend and taking a look.

For the campsites, they're first come first serve - how quickly in the day do they typically fill up?

Jay

Cool, not a bad idea to reserve ahead of time.  I'll report back here if there is any new handling of sites at the office in Two Harbors when I visit there this weekend.