A popular section of the Superior Hiking Trail will close this week because a private landowner has kicked hikers off the land. Randy Bowe, who owns 380 acres of land between the popular Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse state parks, said there have been too many smoldering campfires left by hikers and some have been hostile.

Bowe, a Duluth taxidermist, bought the property in the mid-1980s as work began on the trail, which extends 300 miles from Jay Cooke State Park, south of Duluth, to the Canadian Border. He granted permission for a 1.6-mile section of trail to cut through his property. But as the trail has grown in popularity, problems with hikers have increased, he said.

Some have berated him for driving an all-terrain vehicle. The last straw, he said, came last fall when hikers harassed a friend he had invited to hunt.

"He encountered three male hikers who pretty much read him the riot act, called him every name in the book, followed him to his stand, and stood around his stand for almost an hour howling like wolves," Rowe said.