Campground Review:
Wood's Creek Campsite is located about 6.3 miles (including a spur stop on Pincushion Mountain) from the Grand Marais, Pincushion Mtn overlook parking lot. Since we drove up from the cities and got a late start we chose to do a slightly shorter day as we headed NOBO on the Superior Hiking Trail. The trail was very up and down with some great Superior views, many changes in trees and a dramatic drop and rise in and out of the Devils Track River gorge. The site sits on the small but flowing Wood's Creek. Considering we went in a drier time of year and still had water to filter from tells me this is not a creek to worry about drying up. I can imagine it's raging in the Spring. The site has three main tent pads and then another spot a little more secluded and a backup spot if needed right by the fire pit. In all our days on the SHT we have actually never shared a site until this one. Our group of 4 (2 tents) arrived first and shortly after another couple (2 tents), a single gal and a pair of sisters (1 tent) hiked in. We were able to fit all 6 tents on the site. The latrine is back up the trail a bit but a nice benefit of hiking on the SHT (aka no hole digging). The water was clear and delicious thru our Sawyer minis. No bugs in mid September was also a HUGE bonus.
Product Review:
Our first morning waking up on the trail was made all the better by our camp coffee. For the first time we tried out the Nature's Coffee Kettle in the hazelnut flavor. We got off to a rocky start when the pre-cut slits for opening did not open low enough to break the seal above the sip lock. Luckily we had a swiss army knife to work with and after a couple minutes got it open. We boiled our water and poured it into the top of the kettle bag where a filter bag of the coffee is placed. We poured the first cup slowly to let it saturate the filter bag and then poured in the rest. Sealed it up and let it sit for a few minutes. Once we thought it was ready we were able to pour out about 4 cups. It does say if it's doesn't look strong enough to pour it back thru the filter but it looked and tasted great to us. Once done we sealed it back up put the cap back on and put it in the bear vault, where unfortunately thru the day it leaked all over. Bonus, everything in the BV smelled AMAZING, but of course everything was also covered in coffee. The next morning we opened up the kettle and put in a new filter to use the kettle again. It worked the same as the previous morning with another cup of yummy hazelnut coffee. Overall I'd give the kettle a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Missing 1/2 a star for the bag malfunctions. The coffee was delicious and I look forward to trying out other flavors in the future. Maybe the cider or hot chocolate as well! https://www.naturescoffeekettle.com/
