SW Minnesota road trip

Pipestone National Monument is (and has been) a sacred place to Native Americans for hundreds of years. Wonder how they feel about this sign prominently displayed less than a mile away?



Let me backtrack a bit: I made it to the prairies of southwest Minnesota finally. I love the wide open feel of the prairie with its never-ending skies.

Before I got there, I made a quick stop at Fort Ridgely State Park as it was on the way. The Minnesota Kite society was supposed to be flying some huge kites there - those plans seemed to have been cancelled due to high winds. A (Civil War?) re-enactment group from Sleepy Eye was on hand, camped out and doing cultural demonstrations and such. I was bored.

South of there, I stopped in at the Jeffers Petroglyphs site. As always, petroglyphs and other rock art interest me. This site has over 2000 petroglyphs, most of them very hard to see in broad daylight. When the sun is lower in the sky, it creates shadows making the outlines easier to spot. Of course, I was there in broad daylight so I struggled to see them. Even with a tour guide pointing them out, and in some instances tracing the outline with a stick, it was hard to see some of them. This is a bison petroglyph:


She was good, and very helpful and believable, so I took her at her word that the spot she was tracing really was a bison or thunderbird or whatever. The hike around the rest of the grounds was nice - the sun was out and it was a beautiful day with some nice fluffy clouds that cast some occasional shade.



Onward to Blue Mounds State Park, home of Minnesota's only bison herd (at least in a state park). It struck me as funny every time it was mentioned (and it was a rather frequent occurence) that this was the only state park in Minnesota with a resident bison herd. I think most people understand that a bison herd is a pretty unusual thing to have in a state park anywhere.

After setting up camp in a nice shady walk-in site, I took off on a 4 mile hike to try to spot some bison. I saw a tick (on my leg), some birds and a few bunnies, but the bison were safely out of sight. Nevertheless, it was a good hike, about 2 miles to the visitors center where I took a break in the shade. A nice woman warned me of some approaching storms. The skies went from this:


To this view of the visitors center about 15 minutes later:


To this about 5 minutes later:


Not even halfway back to the campground, it started to rain a bit, off and on. Not a big deal for me, but I hadn't put the rain fly on my tent so I ran back as best I could carrying a camera, camera bag and water bottle. It was a nice workout and the tent was mostly dry.

Other than some drunk people deciding to leave the campground at 2am, it was a nice quiet night. I declined to get up early to shoot sunrise and was thankful I slept in as the clouds and bison were non-existent. I did eventually spot some bison off in the distance - I had hoped for photos of bison babies frolicking on the prairie, and all I got was this.

Heading up to Pipestone National Monument, I stopped and took some photos of a few bison on a neighboring farm. At least they were somewhat cooperative.

Pipestone NM is (as I said above) a sacred place for Native Americans. It contains several quarries used to produce pipestone (surprise) which is carved into pipes (shocking!) and other ceremonial items as well as artwork. There's a nice trail to walk and see a few quarries as well as rock formations. The visitors center is actually more interesting than the outdoors as they have cultural demonstrations - people are working on pipestone, carving it into art or other things and available to answer any questions. I declined to ask how they felt about Jesus being Lord of Pipestone.

I left Pipestone and settled on Flandrau State Park for my Sunday night stay. After deciding I wanted to pay the extra $6 to stay in the modern campground with a shower building and water from the tap (as opposed to the rustic campground with no showers and a hand pump), a ranger came around and informed everyone one of the water mains had broken and they were shutting off the showers and drinking water. He *hoped* the toilets would continue to function until the could fix the system the next day. Yay for no showers!

I just sat around getting some sun and reading, then went into town for some food and water. Nothing exciting or eventful, just a relaxing evening doing nothing.

You can see more photos (3 separate albums) here.

Birding at Fort Snelling

It's been awhile. I intended to finish up the Ramsey/Hill house post but my personal life took a rather unseen turn and I never got back to edit that entry. Looking at it now, I've decided to leave it as is. There's much left unsaid and undone but I can't always edit the past, so it's time to move on and get back to living.

Today I went to Fort Snelling for a beginner's introduction to birding. I used to think of birds as being basically all alike - sure, they come in different sizes and colors, but basically a bird is a bird. The more time I've spent in the outdoors the more I realize how silly that sounds. I've decided to put a little more effort into watching them and learning about them so I have more of a clue.

It was a beautiful spring day - the trees are starting to leaf out, the grass is finally green, the sun is out and the birds are back for the summer. In other words, winter is just around the corner.

The park naturalist sat us down and explained some things (how to use binoculars and a field guide, how to spot birds and explain where they are to everyone else, what to listen and look for), and then we got outside. We stopped several times as she pointed out various birds before getting even 100 feet from the visitor center, which was a bit of an eye-opener for me. I've always seen birds, but this was the really the first time I deliberately saw birds, and there was quite the variety. Turkey vultures, mourning doves, cardinals, robins, great blue herons, mallards, wood ducks, chickadees ..... clearly a bird is not just a bird.

The highlight was finding a barred owl. The naturalist had seen this bird perched on a tree on the edge of a small clearing in mid-day for a couple days, so we set out to find it again. Alas, it was not where she had last seen it, but after giving herself 5-10 minutes to scan the immediate vicinity, she found it about 50 feet from it's last position. Owls are generally not seen in broad daylight so it was pretty cool, not to mention it was the first owl I've seen in the wild ever. I'm going to go back with my camera a time or two and see if it's still hanging out in that area - if I get a photo I'll come back and post it.

That's about it. An hour or so of meandering around, looking at the trees and sky on a perfect spring day - I could get used to this.

Ramsey and Hill house tours

The Alexander Ramsey and James J. Hill houses in St. Paul are former residences of men who had a great influence on early Minnesota. Alexander Ramsey was first appointed governor of the Minnesota territory and later elected governor of the state. James J. Hill built a massive business empire, with the Great Northern Railway at the center of everything.

A warm winter weekend on the North Shore

With a late winter storm dumping up to a foot of snow on northern Minnesota, I knew this was the last weekend for any sort of winter fun. I headed up to the North Shore to snowshoe and meander a bit. My first stop was Gooseberry Falls State Park, where I got some info on the wolf that had been seen wandering around the past few days (mornings before 9, either on the lake north of the river or along the highway). With that out of the way, I headed up to Split Rock Lighthouse State Park and meandered a bit.

The trails absolutely sucked up there, either slushy or icy depending on whether they were in the shade or full sunlight. Not that it mattered, I was being more of a photographer than snowshoer today. I drove to Tettegouche State Park and walked partway to Shovel Point, slipping and sliding as I went. The views near the arch rock (not sure if it has an official name) were cool.




That was about it for the day. I've never really found a great spot for sunset along the North Shore - seems like the clouds never really cooperate and this day was no exception.

Next morning, I got up early and went to Gooseberry for a chance to see the elusive wolf. The snowshoe trail was quite icy but doable, deer and seagulls were everywhere but unfortunately no wolf. I suppose some day I will see one but my camera will most likely be stashed away at that moment.

I did some more snowshoeing up at George Crosby Manitou State Park. This park is pretty primitive, no campground or visitor center, but some nice trails and very few visitors. No staff either, so the road in was plowed only to the park entrance, adding about a mile to my trek altogether. To be consistent, I didn't enjoy the trail very much - lots of forest views, little in the way of wide open scenery, and basically no wildlife. Some day I'll learn.

On my way home, I stopped and took some photos of the ice piled up on the shore of Lake Superior near Duluth.

The rest of 'em are here.

Skiing the Great White North

That's me, waving to the camera. Standing on Lake Kabetogama in Voyageurs National Park, I stopped and set up shop for some sunset photos after a few hours of skiing around looking at stuff. Those didn't really turn out but I had a great time anyway because looking at stuff is something I enjoy (and I'm pretty good at it too). Saw lots of tracks (wolf, deer, chickens) and only partially froze off 2 toes - they've since grown back but I must be a bit more diligent about layering up when I stop moving because it's next to impossible to unthaw frozen toes when skiing, at least for me.

With a couple more hours I could've circumnavigated Round Bear Island but a trip to Lost Lake and then around the southern part of Round Bear was still good. The snow was pretty crusty, but pretty easy going if I stayed on some of the old snowmobile tracks. To get to Lost Lake, I crossed the Kabetogama Narrows (which was significantly easier than the last time I was here). No waves or lightening, just a bunch of snowmobiles and their rather wide trail to get across. No problems there, although it got a bit trickier after dark when I realized crossing the snowmobile trail was a bit like being in the Frogger video game. Next time, reflective tape on my clothes and a bit more lighting would be smart. Listening to the ice crack and boom was interesting and not altogether pleasant.




My goal for this trip was to ski as much of the trail system as I could. Originally I was going to winter camp and snowshoe or ski to Ek Lake or something, but my last experience with winter camping convinced me I really, really dislike sleeping outdoors in cold temps. Perhaps when I become a master igloo builder I'll do that trip, but for now hotels are my preferred winter shelter.

Back to the point: I skiied part of the Black Bay trail on Sunday morning, and hated just about every single minute of it. Overcast skies, an icy trail with multiple hills and less than inspiring scenery do not make me happy. Did part of the intermediate loop and left. Not suprisingly, the skies cleared on my drive down to Kabetogama, not that clear skies would've improved the Black Bay experience by much.

On Kabetogama, I checked out my map and decided to make for Sugarbush Island. You can see it off in the distance, a dark spot on the horizon on the right side of the photo, about 3/4 of the way over. OK, maybe you can't really see it but it's there. I couldn't see it either, I just took a compass bearing and since the dark trees were in line with the compass, that's what I headed towards.

This is the campsite on Sugarbush Island.

It was pretty warm, somewhere in the upper 30s maybe, which isn't really all that warm unless you're skiing on top of a giant reflector shield. I wound up in just my t-shirt and pants and was still hot, wound up taking a break at the campsite picnic table trying to get in the shade of a little tree for a bit. The skiing wasn't as nice as yesterday, with virtually no snowmobile tracks heading my way I was breaking through the crust with every stride. Took about an hour to go the 2 miles to Sugarbush.

From there, I headed southwest to a couple smaller islands, rather than continue on to the Ellsworth Rock Gardens (scroll down halfway). With a couple more hours I could've made it to the gardens (curses again, you stupid Black Bay trail). But I did have a good time the rest of the day, checking out the lichen and ice formations on the islands and hanging out waiting for sunset. It's amazing/ridiculous how many of my photos have the moon in them.

This is the sunset from Martin Island.

Getting back to my Jeep was a 3 mile ski by moonlight/headlamp, not much snowmobile traffic but quite tiresome. I tried howling for wolves but got no answer. Given the number of wolf tracks I'd seen I know they're out there, but I must sound very much like a wolf imposter.

My weather radio was full of info about the impending winter storm so I decided to cut my trip short by a day. I headed to Ely the next morning and snowshoed out onto South Hegmann Lake to see the pictographs - a human figure, wolf and anatomically correct moose, along with some squiggles.

Some random stuff on the way back:


The trek out there was fairly easy since the lake is (obviously) flat, and I made it back to the trailhead without incident. Again, no wolves crossed my path, but a little squirrel did - I watched him eat a pine cone as if it were corn on the cob.



It would've been cool to spend more time around Ely, especially if the snow was better and I could've skiied some of the trails in and around the Boundary Waters. But with the trails icy and a storm on the way, I just pointed my Jeep in the direction of home. Further exploration will have to wait until I'm a better skiier - I think it would be fun to come back some time and spend a few winter days on the trails.

All my photos are here.

Cold weekend in Itasca

I spent a weekend skiing on the frozen tundra of north central Minnesota. More specifically, I made my long-awaited trip to Itasca State Park and also went to Lake Bemidji State Park to check it out in the wintertime. I had hoped to get to Itasca last summer on my way home from the great Old Mill trip but ran out of energy and 'settled' for Lake Bemidji. This time around Itasca was my primary goal and it was well worth it.

I started out a bit late on Friday night due to an unexpected cat problem - Weasel developed a severe limp on Friday morning and I went back home to check on him before heading out, rather than leave straight from work. That set me back over an hour so I wound up getting into Park Rapids after 11pm. (Weasel is fine, by the way, I think he was faking to try to get me to stay home.)

With temps below zero on Saturday morning, I took my time getting to Lake Bemidji. Once there, I skied a loop which took me to the bog trail. In summer this is a boardwalk leading to Big Bog Lake, in winter it's a pain to ski as there are numerous right angle turns to negotiate. Nevertheless, I made it so I could compare winter and summer views.




With that nonsense out of the way, I finished off the loop and headed to Itasca. (Lake Bemidji is really nice and not at all nonsensical). On the way I saw a shrew - or maybe a vole - on the road just north of Itasca. It's navigational system was pretty whacked out as it seemed to just run and bounce about aimlessly, jumping on my shoes a couple times before staggering back to the ditch and running away.

Itasca is an interesting park - it's the oldest state park (and one of the largest) in Minnesota, with about half a million people visiting each year. Lake Itasca is famous for being the Headwaters of the Mississippi River - undoubtedly many of the visitors come just for that fact as you can easily walk across the river where it exits Lake Itasca, but many people visit for the scenery, historical buildings and chance to see a wide variety of wildlife (including wolves).

As one might expect, visitation is relatively low in winter. I saw half a dozen skiers on the trail Saturday afternoon, and just two on Sunday morning. The Headwaters were all mine on Sunday morning - very cool with the steam coming off the water. And I only fell in the water once!



But let me back up as I'm a little ahead of myself. Saturday afternoon, I skied part of the Ozawindib trail and made a loop by taking the south entrance road back to the parking lot, about 6K total. I fell a couple times early on and was fine after that, despite the Ozawindib being rated a difficult trail. Not sure about that because it didn't seem that bad and if I can make it relatively unscathed, it shouldn't be rated difficult. The trail was a bit cold and windy near the end but still beautiful. I saw some tracks - I pegged them as wolf tracks but perhaps just wishful thinking? Here's a shot of the south entrance road, closed to vehicle traffic but groomed nicely for skiing.



I had searched for a place to take some sunset and moon photos while driving through the park, finally settling on Peacepipe Vista. Unfortunately, sunset was less than amazing and the moon shots are not anything to write home about so a bit of a waste of my time. I should've set up at the boat rental docks as I would've been right on the lake instead of on the hill overlooking Itasca. Next time. I did manage to lose feeling in several fingers. Due to the cold, I skipped the wolf program at the visitor center.

On to the lodgin - I had reserved a bed at the hostel inside the park, rated one of the top 10 hostels in the U.S. I was assigned a room with one other occupant who wound up leaving an hour later (nothing I said or did, he just wanted to get on the road and make some mileage) so I wound up with a room to myself. Nice place with a couple quiet sitting rooms for reading but I would not want to stay there in summer and share a small room with 3 other people. Having a bedroom near the kitchen and dining room was a bit louder than I hoped for, but at least the group staying in the hostel respected the quiet hours.

The next morning I visited the Headwaters (see above) and hiked a portion of the Schoolcraft trail before checking out of the hostel. I drove back down to the visitor center and put on my skis for a trip around the Nicollet/DeSoto/Deer Park loop, about 8K altogether. This time I did see wolf tracks (easily identified by the yellow snow marking their territory), a couple of feather piles, assorted other animal tracks and lots of frozen lakes. The cloudy skies didn't lend themselves to great photos but I tried...





Off the trail at last, I warmed up in the visitor center by watching the birds congregate at the feeders.
The lobby was very comfy with 2 fireplaces and I could've stayed there for a couple hours. But alas, it was time to head home so I pointed my Jeep in the right direction and put it on autopilot. About 4 hours later, the cats greeted me at the front door - too bad they didn't help carry my stuff up the stairs. Neither did they help edit the rest of my photos, which you can see here.

In short, Itasca is really cool and I'm hoping to drag Terp up there this summer or fall before we move. I may also go back for more skiing or hiking later this spring.

Skiing with the swans

I picked up my skis at REI and drove to Wild River State Park on Sunday. I've been there a couple times, once last fall and again a few weeks ago for my reintroduction to winter camping. This was just a day trip to get in some skiing and search for the beavers and trumpeter swans which had been seen recently on the Deer Creek trail.


I had to descend a steep hill and fall twice before reaching the Deer Creek trail. It got a little better after that, although I did fall again going down a small hill. I also stopped myself twice by running into a tree at slow speed. No one witnessed any of these mishaps so technically they didn't happen.


I didn't see any beavers but did see the beaver hausen and dam. I spotted a couple swans on the inner part of the Deer Creek loop and snuck down to get some close up photos of them. I would later discover I had accidentally switched my camera to shutter priority mode when I turned it on (presumably because of my gloves catching on the dial). With a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds the photos were OK but could've been much better.

The skiing was OK - a bit icy and very little base, maybe a couple inches at most so the poles didn't always grab hold very well. In the more open areas the base was even thinner, with a few patches of grass showing through.

I followed the trail up the river a little ways and found more swans, some very close to the trail and a larger group out in the middle of the river near an island. A pair of bald eagles was guarding their nest high up in the trees on the same island. I was fortunate to see 2 different groups of swans in flight and got a few photos of that - they are quite large and impressive when flying in formation. The first one has evidently been caught and tagged at some point in her/his life.




The second group had what I'm guessing were 2 young swans and their parents, based on the gray plumage. They were perfectly willing to go about their business, feeding on the river bottom and trumpeting away while I stood their watching. Even another fall from the cameraman didn't drive them away.



Altogether I saw at least a dozen swans and zero beavers, so I called it a good day and skied back to my Jeep and went home. More photos are here.