Photo Credit Mike Wheeler
Greetings Runners,
With just under three weeks to go, I wanted to check in, and extend an early welcome to everyone. I will, as usual, be sending out our final / week-of ‘2025 Superior Spring Trail Race Runner Welcome’ email with final updates and more, but I wanted to quickly share a handful of things with you…
Superior is on Saturday May 17, 2025. As always, if your plans have changed and you can no longer make it to the race, there is no need to contact us. We will know you are not running if you do not show on race day.
Now is a good time to study up on the Superior race website – everything you need to know about getting to the race, the distance you are running, and the race course can be found on our website.
Trail Conditions:
Leading into last year’s race, the little snow we had (50ish inches over the entire winter) melted very early, but that was followed by cool weather, cloudy days, and a good bit of rain. Race weekend was muddy in the low / wetland areas, but overall trail conditions in the uplands were pretty good. For some recent historical context both the winter(s) of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 saw in the neighborhood of 150 inches, with the spring of 2022 delivering some historic flooding to the north shore which all culminated in the change of race course / venue that year to the “the party in the pit“. This winter (2024-2025) the 74 inches of snow that we received was still below the annual average of 90 inches. Just as the spring melt was underway and ahead of schedule this late March, the Lutsen area received around a foot of new snow on April 2, and we even got a couple of fresh inches on April 21. As of today the race course, besides north facing slopes is largely snow free. Without a lot of precipitation in April the majority of trail is at or ahead of schedule but that snow on those north facing slopes has been stubborn as they do not get much sun and the overnight temps have still been in the mid-30’s. We are out scouting and clearing trails between now and the race and will provide a conditions update the week before the race in our normal ‘week of’ runner email.
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T-Shirts:
After a three year hiatus in order to do some different hat styles, we are back to t-shirts for 2025. We are very excited about these! All registered runners and volunteers will receive one.
The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is the inspiration for this years Superior Spring Trail Race T-Shirt. The black bear is the only bear species in the state of Minnesota. They mostly live in forested areas in the northern and central part of the state, but some do occasionally make it further south. In spring they emerge from their winter dens, seeking food as the weather warms and plants return. They may have lost up to half of their body fat during hibernation and will start foraging for vegetation and other natural foods. They are omnivores, primarily eating plant-based foods, with about 75-85% of their diet consisting of vegetation like berries, nuts, and roots. They also consume insects, and occasionally fish or small mammals, with animal matter making up the remaining 15-25% of their diet. They follow their noses, and use their mental maps of the landscape to locate food sources, which are in a constant state of flux, from season to season and year to year. They have a keen sense of smell (better than a dog). Adult black bears will attain a length five to six feet, varying in weight from 150 lbs for a small female to 500 lbs for a large male. Black bears in Minnesota avoid human contact and are very rarely aggressive, but their space should always be respected. They are a treat to see when you get a chance. While sightings during the race are rare, I have seen many bears on the Spring race course sections over the past 30 years.
Beyond the giveaway t-shirt we will as always we will have all kinds of Superior and RSR goodies available for sale at the race (including a companion poster and sticker with this years t-shirt design). We also have items available on our website HERE https://www.rocksteadyrunning.com/shop/
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Superior Spring Trail Race Wood Print Map and Elevation Charts:
We are happy to offer these super cool Superior Spring Trail Race course map and elevation chart art prints for sale again in 2025. We produce these prints with a close friend of ours, in his local shop. Each print starts its life as a full sheet of plywood that we are going and picking up, transporting, ripping to size, routing, sanding, printing, packing and transporting to the race(s). If interested, you can learn more and place your order for in person pickup on race weekend HERE https://forms.gle/5xmYqqeU5mzHdEhC7
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Moose Mountain Boardwalk Replacement Project:
It was a longtime in the making (finding and allocating the funds, and planning) but it finally happened! In July of last year a group of us (Superior Trail Race organizers, volunteers, and racers) got together with SHT staff and replaced the bad bad boardwalk through the upper Rollins Creek watershed in the Moose / Mystery valley. If you have run either the Spring or Fall races over the past few years, you know the one. Those of you that participated in the 2024 Fall Race got to run over the new one, and this years Spring Race participants will now get to as well. This 160+ foot boardwalk is about 2.5 miles from the race finish, so all Superior Trail Race participants (besides those in the 12.5K) pass over it. It took nearly 450 volunteer planning and labor hours to get this one done – a huge thank you to all who donated their time! HERE https://photos.app.goo.gl/WG83rjotXahib4pc6 is a photo album from the project.
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As always, a huge thank you to sponsors and partners. Please take a moment to click the link and check them out https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/sponsors/
If you are not quite ready to get back to what you were doing, linger a few more minutes and get stoked for what’s to come (and maybe say a quick prayer for some sun!) https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/photos-2024-highlights/
That is all I have for you today – thank you for your time. We can’t wait to see you all in (just under) a few weeks!
Thank You,
John Storkamp
Race Director
Superior Spring Trail Race