GRAND MARAIS OVERLOOK
In Pioneers in the Wilderness, a history of the settling of Grand Marais and Cook County, author Willis H. Raff relates another story about the name origin of Devil Track River. Sam Zimmerman, who arrived at Grand Marais as a 22 year old in 1874, had a limp caused by severe bums to his right leg that he suffered as a youngster. At the end of the trapping season of 1881-82, Sam froze both legs. He was rushed on board a mail-carrying tug and taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth where doctors amputated his right leg. But that didn’t slow Sam down. After recuperating from the ordeal, Sam continued to trap, getting around, at times, with a ski on one foot and a snowshoe on his peg-leg. Folklore suggests that Indian trappers, upon seeing the strange tracks Zimmerman left in the snow, began calling the stream along which he trapped Devil’s Track. Soon the settlers gave the name also to the lake just over the hill from which the stream flowed. While it makes a good story, Willis is clear to point out that the Chippewa name for the lake and river had been in use long before Zimmerman started walking its snow-covered banks with his peg-leg.
Once the side trip to Pincushion Mountain is over and you’re back on the main circuit, the route turns west along the edge of Devil Track River valley. You can see plenty of sky through the trees on the right because the land slopes steeply to the river canyon 900 feet below. One half mile past the Pincushion Mountain spur, the Superior Hiking Trail bears off to the right and begins its descent to the river. From this intersection, it’s 0.4 mile down to the river. The guide to the Superior Hiking Trail describes the canyon as deep and remote. If you’re ready for a slightly longer hike, you might consider hiking down to the river.
Still enjoying wonderful views ahead of you to the Seven Sisters Best family vacations USA , you now start to lose height, keeping to this very good path, and eventually arriving Best family vacations USA at Hope Gap. Even if your knowledge of natural history is very limited, you will not fail to be impressed by the beauty of the surroundings or the wonders of nature in creating this superbly secluded spot in a valley between rising cliffs. Unless the weather is unkind to you or you are in a great hurry, I thoroughly recommend that you detour down a flight of steps to the rocky pavements separating the cliffs from the sea, for it is here that you get your best opportunity on the walk to view at first hand some of the marine flora and fauna that lie off the Sussex coast. To return to your walk, you turn left at the foot of the slope, ascending to a rather less spectacular cliff top. Staying on the cliff path, you proceed towards a small grouping of houses, which erosion has brought rather too close to the cliff edge for comfort. Passing to the left of them you reach a clear track at a right-angle to the cliff path you have been following, then bear right onto the track and descend, going to the left of the houses, eventually reaching a gate.
