Climbing Ely's Peak

Today I had the day off, so I decided to climb Ely's Peak. At roughly 1,250 feet, Ely's Peak is a peak in the Sawtooth Mountains(the ridge that Duluth is built on and which extends along the North Shore.) It was also a sacred place for the Anishinaabe being a place of vision quests and rites of passage. Here boys would climb to the top with no food or water and lay on a rock. After several days the boy would have his vision quest. He would then climb back down as a man. 

I parked my car in Fond du Lac(which was once the location of an Anishinaabe village and is today Duluth's westernmost neighborhood) and started the ascend. 

I climbed the peak via the Superior Hiking Trail. My goal is to someday hike the entire SHT. 

A cool bridge crossing a creek. 

Found some wild roses. 

After climbing a hundred feet or so was able to see the peak. 

A muskrat or something. 

Wild strawberries: while they weren't entirely ripe, they were still delicious. 

Almost to the top.

And finally I reached the top.

A view of Spirit Island from Ely's Peak. Someday I want to canoe here. Spirit Island is also a really sacred place in Anishinaabe culture; probably more so than anything else in Duluth. According to the Migration Story, Spirit Island was the sixth and second last stop of the great migration of the Anishinaabe who came from the East Coast. The seventh and final stop was Madeline Island in the Apostles as it was the place where food grew on water: aka manoomin(wild rice.)

More landscapes

I also heard that there was an abandoned train tunnel that goes under Ely's Peak. After following some unmarked trails I finally found it. This tunnel was used by the Duluth-Winnipeg-Pacific Railroad. DWP is now a subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway.

The middle of the tunnel was hazardous. It was pitch black and parts of the tunnel had collapsed, so I had to use my auto-focas light as a flashlight. 

Next time I am bringing a flashlight and a hot shoe flash. 

After the hike I was exhausted. So I stopped at Duluth's best (and possibly only?) real drive-in: A & Dubs. I needed some energy dense food, so I got onion rings and a strawberry milkshake.