Archive for the ‘Travel – MN’ Category
May 27, 2011 – Mother-Daughter Get-Away
Claire requested a BWCA wilderness trip with her mother in the time between school and the start of her internship. Three weeks after ice-out isn’t necessarily the best time, but the bugs and other people are slow and sluggish at the end of May.
Here’s the route – plenty of portaging on this route.
At the Poplar Lake landing, ready to go!
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #210″
July 18, 2010 – At the Waterfall
The final photos from the trip are from Tettegouche State Park.
The primary feature of the park is the Baptism River and its journey to Lake Superior.
Part of the Superior Hiking Trail goes through the park.
We took a slight detour and hiked up to this overlook along the trail. Martin was a good sport and enjoyed looking back at the lake and knowing he had hiked from the water’s edge up to this point. He put seven miles on his feet on this hike.
The reward is the high falls of the Baptism River. It is an enchanting place with a big pool below the cascading waterfalls. For July, the falls had a pretty good flow.
Swimming in the pool is a great thrill among the sound of the crashing water and the spray from the falls.
As the week draws to a close, a group shot. Emma commented that this was the first time she really missed her sister!
one year ago…”Final Day of Vacation”
July 17, 2010 – On the Big Water
We drove down the winding and scenic highway 1 from Ely to Lake Superior one day.
This is a view of Shovel Point from near the mouth of the Baptism River.
The water in Lake Superior is uncharacteristically warm this year – the surface temperature this time of year is usually 39 degrees, but this year it is 59 degrees!
Rocks, water, boy – a winning combination!
Emma practices her stone skipping.
A view a bit up the hill of the scene of the previous photos.
July 16, 2010 – BWCA Day 2
The promised threat of rain held off overnight, so we remained dry.
What a nice place for a mother and child to sit and watch the world wake up.
Of course, a cup of coffee in the morning helps. It was refreshing to wear a sweatshirt when back home the weather was in the upper 90′s!
Martin at the scene of his first catch with his new fishing pole.
Dad with the largest catch of the week – a catch and release largemouth bass – a bit of a rarity in this neck of the woods as smallmouth bass dominate the rocky shorelines.
The road home turned first blustery, then rainy, they thunderstorm.
By the time we arrived at the portage between Lakes One and Two, the raindrops got bigger.
They finally gave us a good soaking. We ended up huddled at the end of the portage for about an hour while the electrical storm passed by. Of course, you could have easily predicted the only lightning storm of the week would pass by when we were out far away from the cabin.
one year ago…”International Wolf Center”
July 15, 2010 – BWCA Day 1
With the oldest two girls absent from our party this year, we were all able to make a foray into the BWCA.
Here Emma rides the helm with her friend. They shared a canoe and paddled with strength and confidence.
Mike and Lori take a break in a narrows along the way to the campsite.
On Lake Three, near the portage to Horseshoe Lake, sits this wonderful island campsite – here’s the view from the water.
Here’s the view from the land. This site offered lots of nice rocks, plentiful tent sites, and nice overlooks of the lake.
The crew assembled for a quick lunch upon landing.
One of the nice overlooks on the site.
Emma and Kate cooking their own gourmet wilderness meal!
And finally, a great tree to hide the food pack away from reach of hungry bears!
one year ago…”Touring Soudan Underground Mine”
July 14, 2010 – On the Land
Away from the water, the wild blueberries are abundant this year.
Some fun with a camera setting that just detects one color.
Wild blueberries in full color. Picking blueberries is rather relaxing and it’s a great excuse to get out and tromp around the woods, sphagnum bogs, and powerlines. There’s a fine line between getting lost and not knowing exactly where you are! I also managed to scare up a covey of young ruffed grouse.
Blueberries collected for human consumption! We had blueberries on pancakes, blueberries in mixed fruit salad, and Linda made a blueberry pie as well.
Of course, we couldn’t go a whole week without picking and preserving some food! In addition to the berries we ate fresh and froze, we canned over 30 jars of these delectable little morsels!
one year ago…”Overnight in the BWCA in the Rain”
July 13, 2010 – On the Water
A great part about vacation is quiet water activity.
There are no boats making wakes, no buzzing jetskis, so the lakes are great for kids to swim across, fish, or kayak.
Emma paddling back from the beach via the water route instead of the shore path.
Most years the biggest fish is caught off the dock – not true this year – but it’s worth a try!
Dock jumping never goes out of style!
Nor does sitting on the dock with a book and refreshing beverage.
one year ago…”Something Fishy”
July 12, 2010 – The Resort
I think resort probably isn’t the right word for this place. “Lodge and Outfitters” is probably much better. There are not any golf courses, on-site restaurants (or probably not any within 20 miles), no pool, and no spa (although I think you could get a massage). Instead, what you get is a cabin in the only resort on a non-motorized lake in the Boundary Waters.
This is the main lodge where the latest concession to modernity is free wi-fi, which is a stark contrast to the old pine and national park-like interior to the lodge.
Here’s our digs for the week – cabin 11 with 3 bedrooms plus a loft that sleeps four and a couple of bathrooms – really a spacious cabin with a screened in porch.
A late-night card game with everyone except Martin!
One of my favorite cabins along the lakeside trail to the lodge.
one year ago…”Settled in at Kawishiwi Lodge”
July 11, 2010 – “End of the Road”
Being on the farm, to get away to a place more remote takes some driving! About nine hours north of us, literally at the end of the road, we exchange our automobile for a canoe and cabin.
This sign is nearly to Canada, in far northern Minnesota and the area is affectionately known as “the end of the road.” The local community owned radio station WELY is a hoot! Charles Kuralt was so enamored with Ely and the station from discovering it during his “On the Road” show that he purchased it to keep it going. It is now owned by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and maintains its eclectic programming including Lutheran Hour, The Old Town Polka Show, 80′s Night, and this description of a Wednesday Night show called The Feast:
Following Quote by Chris Godsey at Secrets of the City
Dark evergreen silhouettes loom against a wash of indigo sky on both sides of Minnesota Highway 1. Driving southwest out of Ely, toward Tower, the early autumn moon is so bright, so close and full, that driving without headlights seems only appropriate.
After a news update from ABC Radio, the voice of late-night DJ Brett Ross takes over. Ross sounds surprisingly present: “From Alan Watts,” he intones, “‘When everyone recognizes beauty as beautiful, then there is ugliness. When everyone recognizes goodness as good, then there is evil.’” Ross’s conspiratorial baritone is the night’s perfect complement: ominous and comforting and mysterious; distant, yet intimate.
An electronic beat—a tune called “Salted Fatback” from a DJ named Mocean Worker—begins pulsing in and around a sound collage of snippets from the First Amendment, Martin Luther King, Jr.—“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord!”—and other revolutionary sources. After the beat runs on its own for a minute or so, Ross is back: “End of the Road Radio W-E-L-Y,” he announces, “at 94.5 over the FM airwaves, streaming live at w-e-l-y.com, around the globe on the World Wide Web.
“It’s The Feast. So very good of you to drop in for another course.”
That’s WELY as in: owned by Charles Kuralt in the 1990s; saved from Minnesota Public Radio homogenization by a local buyer after Kuralt’s death; now owned by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa; it’s a station that is inevitably compared to KBHR from the TV show Northern Exposure, primarily because they’re both eclectic community bastions in wilderness towns populated by plenty of delightfully eccentric and intellectual people.
Introductions accomplished, Ross launches into an hour of music and words: “Rolling” by Soul Coughing; “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” and “Life During Wartime” by the Talking Heads; Pink Floyd’s “Fearless.” He reads Emily Dickinson’s “To fight aloud, is very brave” over the tune “Invocation” by an Italian ambient-electronica duo called the Dining Rooms, then spins Pearl Jam’s “Footsteps” and “W.M.A. (White Male American),” Sara Softich’s “Whiskey,” and “When the Ship Comes in” by Bob Dylan.
Perhaps none of that would be remarkable anywhere, on its own or during daylight. But late at night, driving through a forest in northern Minnesota, it’s perfectly unique, unexpected, and thrilling.
More about the trip later…but thought I should make an appearance for the faithful.
one year ago…”10 Hours in the Car”
July 18, 2009 – Final Day of Vacation
Today it’s back in the car for another 10 hour ride back home.
This year’s parting shot is a group shot in the rain – after all we got about 5 year’s worth of rain this week so the next few years should be great!
one year ago…”Visitors from the East”
July 16, 2009 – International Wolf Center
Ely is also home to the International Wolf Center, a place that “advances the survival of wolf populations by teaching about wolves, their relationship to wild lands and the human role in their future”
Part of the exhibit is an observation enclosure where visitors can try to get a glimpse of the wolves in their 1 1/4 acre enclosure.
The wolves are fed road-kill deer! The center has webcams so you don’t have to go to Ely to see them.
one year ago…”Fruit on the Verge”
July 15, 2009 – Touring Tower Soudan Underground Mine
When it rains, it’s time to do some touristy indoor things, or in this case, underground tours. The Tower-Soudan underground mine is now a state park and you go down the original mineshaft about a half-mile underground.
Here Martin plays with a toy model of the elevator shafts that show how the two shafts counterbalance each other.
Here’s an OSHA-approved open pulley and belt in the crushing room (not operational since the 1960′s)!
Donning hard hats, we’re ready to go down the shaft. Instead of the historical mining tour, we took the science/physics tour this time. The mine is an ideal place for some types of experiments since the half-mile of overhead rock shields out many particles.
Here is one of the main rooms in the physics lab. The large hexagonal thing near the center is the The MINOS (Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) Far Detector is a 6,000 ton particle tracking device that is observing neutrinos sent from Fermilab, which is near Chicago. MINOS tries to precisely determine mass differences among neutrinos, 3 of the 12 fundamental building blocks of matter.
Another experiment is The CDMS 2 (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) Detector that seeks traces of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) that might comprise a significant fraction of Dark Matter. This baby is cold – at 0.02 degrees kelvin, about -460. We all knew it could get cold in northern Minnesota, but -460?
One of the most fascinating objects is the mural on the right that depicts humanity’s search for the building blocks of matter. It is so bizarre to see a large mural a half-mile underground.
one year ago…”Willow Nursery on Track”
July 14, 2009 – Overnight in the BWCA in the Rain
In the every other year take a couple of kids to the BWCA for an overnight, this year was the oldest girls and the dads. Given the windy conditions, we opted to stay off of the open lakes and go up the Kawishiwi River instead this year.
Here’s Claire, happy at the end of the first portage. Although you can’t see it, she insists on making it in one trip, so she has the other Duluth Pack on her pack and all the rest of her gear in her hands as I carried the canoe.
First order of business is to gather some firewood for later in the evening.
There were two different pathways for water to flow between these branches of the Kawishiwi River. The main channel is where the portage is, but this smaller channel also travels between the two bodies of water and is little, if ever explored. So, Claire and I grabbed our rods and reels, some spinners and wandered up the stream until it met the lake.
It was great fun to catch smallmouth in the small pools below every riffle. We must have caught a dozen on the trip up the creek. It’s great fun to catch fish in the same water you’re standing in!
Did I mention yet that is was raining a good part of the day. Here’s a makeshift shelter near the campfire that rivals and EZ-Up Canopy! On this trip we forgot the fillet knife and ended up releasing a large number of good-sized smallmouth and walleye – some smallmouth and many walleye bigger than the one I caught off the dock in a previous picture were released on this trip.
July 13, 2009 – Something Fishy!
This week turned out to be the best fishing week in years at the cabin.
This smallmouth was caught right off the cabin dock.
So was this walleye.
Earlier in the Day Emma and I found a nice rock to sit on and fish with large sucker minnows.
She caught this northern practically before I could get my line in the water.
one year ago…”Tribute to Dad?”
