The Royce Files

6/17/2022 Update: There are considerably more articles online about the Sioux Hustler Trail since I took this trip almost a decade ago. Most are narratives of treks taken upon this loop. The info from pemmican site linked to below is no longer online. The biggest news to come out about the trail was the discovery of the remains of a missing camper found near the area of the trail in 2019. There has been some maintenance done  around the Sioux Hustler but based on what I have read the trail is still mostly rugged.    Small map of Entry Point 15- Sioux Hustler Trail  A few weeks ago my friend Man of 3 Names I journeyed up to the BWCA to embark on an adventure. With it being October and the weather not always cooperative at that time of year (although in the past I have had some great October trips), I planned a rugged hiking trip. Our goal: hike the entire Sioux Hustler Loop . The challenge: the ~32 mile trail does not get much maintenance and is at best prim...

A few weeks ago I decided to do some backpacking and ended up backpacking in the BWCA. Yeah, no canoe, I hiked out to the lakes on the Kekekabic Trail, a unforeseen challenge. The Kek, as it is known to some, sprang up back in the 1930s for fire suppression in Superior National Forest.  It fell into disuse until some Boy Scouts cleared it out in 1949. Back in 1949 a Boy Scout said of this trail: The Kekekabic Trail is one of the toughest, meanest rabbit tracks in North America. The trail struggles its way through swamps, around cliffs, up the sides of bluffs, and across rocky ridges. It is choked with nightmarish patches of clinging brush. It is blocked with tangles of windfalls and standing timber... It is the kind of trail that would break the heart of a man who didn’t have what it takes to go into the wilderness and try and ‘smooth it.’” He was right! Of course smoothing the wilderness is not politically correct anymore nor even of the leave no trace ethic. The trai...