Episode 3: Volunteers, and Finding Your Inner Wild

Blazing Trail Episode 5 - Celebrating Community on the Trail

In Episode 5 of Blazing Trail: 40 Years on the Superior Hiking Trail, we meet Myrtle Turnquist, her husband Eric, their son Ray Moose and Ray’s girlfriend Chloe Banken, who were preparing to hike to the Pincushion Overlook near Grand Marais, Minnesota as part of a day-long community hike and celebration on June 6th, 2026. SHTA Director Lisa Luokkala talks about the many ways the trail brings people together, including the celebratory hike organized by the SHTA to commemorate 40 years on the trail.  Over 400 hikers participated in the community hike, including Mike Ward, a section adopter and former SHTA Board Member, as well as several other trail enthusiasts who hiked a section of the trail, or attended one of four birthday parties along the route.

Blazing Trail Ep. 5 - A Hike to Commemorate 40 Years on the Trail

In this teaser for Episode 5, we meet Myrtle Turnquist, her husband Eric, their son Ray Moose and Ray's girlfriend Chloe Banken, who were preparing to hike to the Pincushion Overlook near Grand Marais, Minnesota as part of a day-long community hike and celebration on June 6th, 2026. The day of hiking was organized by the Superior Hiking Trail Association as a way to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the SHT. Over 400 hikers took to the trail that day, and we hear from a few of them in this community-focused episode of the Blazing Trail podcast. The full episode will be available on July 2nd, 2026.

Making Family Memories on the Superior Hiking Trail

The Superior Hiking Trail provides great opportunities to connect people of all ages with wild spaces. In Episode 4 we meet Jody Nonnemacher, a North Shore grandmother who has established the tradition of hiking with each of her grandchildren when they turn five-years-old. She talks about how to prepare for a hike with young children, and the importance of creating healthy habits related to walking in the woods together. In the second half we talk to Henry Downing and Erin Soderberg Downing, a mother and son who tackled 100 miles of the SHT while Erin was doing research for her middle-grade novel "Just Keep Walking." The hike inspired the storyline for the book and deepened the real-life connection between the two of them, proving that families can do hard things and that connections made on the trail sometimes last a lifetime.

Blazing Trail Ep. 3 Teaser - Volunteers!

Episode three of Blazing Trail, is all about volunteers! In this teaser, we meet Steph Hoff, a competitive trail runner and volunteer crew leader for the SHTA, Monica Shoberg, founder of Unruly Women, an all-femme organization that partners with the SHTA on group trail projects, and Barbara Budd, volunteer coordinator for the SHTA.

Blazing Trail Ep. 4 Teaser - Family Connections on the SHT

In Episode 4 of Blazing Trail: 40 Years on the Superior Hiking Trail, we talk with Jody Nonnemacher, a North Shore grandmother who established the family tradition of taking each of her eight grandchildren on a SHT hike when they turned five years old, with more hikes planned. We also had a nice conversation with Minnesota author Erin Soderberg Downing and her son Henry Downing about a 100-mile hike on the SHT they tackled while Erin gathered research for her book "Just Keep Walking," a middle-grade novel published in 2024.  The full episode will be available on May 25th!