Superior Hiking Trail

He's the CEO and co-founder of Garage Grown Gear.

Lloyd grew up kayaking in Lake Michigan, hiked the Superior Hiking Trail, and worked as a special education teacher prior to starting Big Outdoors, which merged with Garage Grown Gear in 2017.

GGG sells almost everything.

Yeah.

It's a pretty shitty trail.

I'll tell you.

To that point, did you work as a board member currently or past for the Superior Hiking Trail Association?

I did.

Of course, yes.

Superior Hiking Trail, that's great.

I mean, all of these places are just short jaunts to the beautiful Lake Superior, which, you know, can't be.

It is really nice up there.

So it's a pretty good way to secure yourself.

And last night I was on the Superior hiking trail, went up by Superior Mountain and down and, you know, doing all kinds of hills.

And I thought, you know, one of the things that's so good about hiking is in the woods, is that feeling of being in the woods.

And I realized I hadn't even looked down or looked.

And you mentioned that you want to do some more backpacking now.

well where do you intend to do that like border route trail in the boundary waters

i've been i've really been thinking about it i've been unpacking this trip and thinking of all the things and i know the porkies have some great hiking i've thought about that superior hiking superior hiking trails another option i don't know i want to do something solo I want to challenge myself to do that and I'm hoping that this next spring I can do that.

It was, I felt like I could have put my head down and just like walked for, so many miles I really enjoyed that I really enjoyed seeing the island from the inside out I mean we got like you said that amphibian like experience which was really cool and normally I'm super super drawn to the water but man it was so cool and maybe it is still that water aspect for me of like turning my head and like looking out and seeing the place that I've lived and experienced and Seeing the wind, I think Lake Superior's moody self and that system of the lake is enthralling and epic.

And I think as a woman, I feel a lot of...

It is rugged, and you will work for every foot of gain.

The SHT winds its way through seven magnificent state parks, and George Crosby Manitou is one of them.

For what it is worth, I find this section of trail to be the roughest and most slow-going.

It is also one of the most scenic, with fall foliage peaking in some spots and serene lakes such as Sanju, Egi, as well as Bean and Bear awaiting me after the park.

The SHT feels like it is crescendoing.

Every route, every slip on a bog board, every rotten wooden stair step, feels like it is worth it to be out on this trail.

Furthermore, the town stops for resupplies in Tofti and Finland offer different experiences, but are each purely Minnesotan in the way they offer up kind and friendly folks.

Tofti is lakeshore, while Finland is inland enough to make you feel miles from the lakeshore.

We had so many women out there, like 60 women out there, with Feisty and Another Mother Runner really challenging themselves on what is [laughs] a very technical trail.

That Superior Hiking Trail is very technical, and I live in a very technical place not far from the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania, so I was, um, surprised, pleasantly so, honestly, but wow, it is, it is something.

And for me personally, it was also just a really special event.

I followed the training plan put together by Coach Kristy Scott and just came in feeling really ready for the day, which, which was hard.

We built a little tiny cabin on that 10 acres kind of in the middle of nowhere.

And it just so happens that the Superior Hiking Trail crosses the, uh, the road and close to our driveway, so that's kinda how I discovered that little bit of nature and deci- decided to start doing hikes on that with the goal of eventually hiking the whole thing.

Well, then, when I got to college, you know, I'd been using that trail for years just kind of as, uh, a couple shorter overnight hikes, like maybe three or four days here and there, and decided to volunteer to give back to the trail, 'cause at the time they were working on filling in one of the last gaps.

And so I signed up and went up there for the weekend, and one of the volunteers there informed me that it was actually part of the much bigger North Country Trail, which I had never heard of.

And as soon as I got home, got on the computer, did a little bit of research and found that, holy crap, you can walk from North Dakota to Vermont, and, uh, if, if the rest of this trail is half as good as this, you know, Superior Hiking Trail is, it's gonna be an awesome trip.

Um, so that, that's kinda how I ended up doing that thru-hike.

Um, and it, it all kinda has its, its roots in just, like, my childhood growing up, uh, going on camping trips with my family.

So my current passion project is a pretty natural extension of that.

I was recently appointed to the board of directors of the Superior Hiking Trail.

For those that don't know what the Superior Hiking Trail, it's a not-for-profit that oversees a master plan hiking trail that runs 300 miles from the North Shore of Minnesota from Duluth to nearly the Canadian border, and has many vistas of Lake Superior along the way.

And I've spent a lot of time hiking, enjoying the area, so it's a pretty special to now have a chance to give back to something that I personally enjoy for such a long period of time.

And what I like about this board, I can bring my governance and audit and stakeholder interest experience to the table, and I'm also contributing to something that I care about, which is our natural resources.