Back to Minnesota

 


None of the things I wanted to show you today really turned out, but I keep working on labeling the pictures from the May hike in Minnesota, so I thought I'd show you a few more of those. I really gave that hike short shrift.

The first picture is Devil's Kettle on the Brule River in Judge Magney State Park. We had only walked about 20 minutes from the very start of the whole hike before we came to this exciting feature, where the water pours down into a rocky bowl and churns around before heading down to the river. So this view is readily accessible to most people.



This view, however, is only for those who are willing to work for it! I think that the Border Route has some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere along the North Country Trail, but it takes some serious hiking to reach it. On the right of the picture is Canada. We are looking west down Rose Lake. The small lake in the middle is Rat Lake, followed by the blunt end of South Lake.



Finally, just to point out that not every location on the trail is rugged and intimidating, here is our campsite the night following that spectacular view. The four of us had three tents, but Marie and I had this lovely spot by the calm waters of Topper Lake. At that lake I saw (but couldn't catch a picture of) what I think was a Common Merganser duck. I'm not so great with waterfowl, but it was a large white duck with a skinny neck, dark head and a black wing tips. It was awesome!

The upcoming Minnesota trip won't have such spectacular sights every day, but each trip has its own special secrets!

See Hiking the Minnesota Arrowhead
See Home- the Hike was Great!
See Walking Into Spring
See Early Yellow Minnesota Flowers

Early Yellow Minnesota Flowers

 
It was too early for many flowers to be out yet, but several were opening during the final week of our hike. I'm sharing these two because they are ones I had not seen before.



Above is Yellow Corydalis (Corydalis flavula). It is related to bleeding heart. I've seen Pink Corydalis on several hikes, but hadn't previously seen the yellow ones except in pictures. The pink ones are more delicate- almost so pale that they often are hard to see against the granite on which they like to grow. The yellow ones seem much more showy even though the plant is only a few inches high and each bloom about 1/2 inch long. We found them growing at the base of some rocks in the area that had been logged (see yesterday's post).



The second one is American Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis). This is one of the native honeysuckles, much more welcome than the alien Tartarian Honeysuckle bushes that grow everywhere in Michigan. The flowers were very pale yellow, maybe that's not quite so obvious in the picture. Each trumpet is about one inch long, but the bushes were several feet tall. Somehow I had thought that the Fly Honeysuckle had a sweet scent, but they didn't smell like anything at all. Honeysuckle is easy to identify, at least in general because it is one of the few shrubs with opposite branching. Also the flowers and berries are in pairs, often looking like two berries stuck together.

Wow, tomorrow is the last day of May. It needs to be contest day! I'll try to make one that isn't so daunting. Hope some of you will play!

	See The Moles Missed This One
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Walking Into Spring

This is the first time I've taken this long of a trip in May. I've been out for five days in this month other years. But never before have I so completely walked from bare trees and the end of winter into green leaves and wildflowers.

The top picture was taken on our second hiking day. The view is of Lake Superior from the Superior Hiking Trail. As you can see it was a gray day and the trees are all bare and gray except for the conifers.



The second picture was on the last hiking day. We had just emerged from the greening trees in back of us into an area that had experienced a severe blowdown. Timber was salvaged, leaving the space looking about the same as if it had been logged (and difficult to walk through).

This afternoon I took a slow walk around my trail at home and picked some of the wild asparagus here. I thought that I might miss it all, so I was very happy to find some yet. It was rather mature, but I cut it up and made it into soup for dinner. I forgot to take a picture! Obviously I'm not back into blogging mode just yet-- trying to get my head around the schedule I was keeping before the hike.

I think tomorrow I'll show you some wildflowers from the hike.

Home- The Hike Was Great!

 



We don't look like the brightest bulbs in the room in this picture, but here is the group (except me, I took the picture) that finished on the 24th at the Kekekabic Trailhead near Ely, Minnesota. We had a fifth hiker join us for the final five days. The weather warmed and the end of the hike was pleasant, for which we were not sorry!

Dinner at the Chocolate Moose in Ely was as wonderful gastronomically as the hike was wonderful hikin'omically!

We stayed in small motels/cabins on the way home with no web access. Marie and I arrived at my house last night, and spent today cleaning gear and putting it away before she left at 4 pm. It just all seems to have happened too quickly!

I've got so many things to catch up on!



Here's one fun thing to share. This spruce grouse gave us a nice display on the next to the last day of the hike. After watching us for several minutes it flew to roost in a tree right over the trail where I guess it thought it was hidden. We hiked right under it! They are odd birds in that they are known for letting people get very close to them.

	See Trail Work Day
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Did We Make It?

 


Well, if all went as planned we have reached our car this afternoon, and are probably warm and snug in a motel.

There aren't too many hikes I've led with as many unknowns as this one. As late as the day before we left home, I was getting conflicting reports of "2-3 feet of snow still on the trail" and "mostly bare ground with a few snow patches." We had read of Nimblewill Nomad's terrible experience just a couple of weeks before we began our hike. We know the trail is difficult to follow (marking is not allowed in the wilderness which makes it even more difficult). I'm sure we've had an adventure!

But I hope that you've enjoyed the tour while I was in the woods, and perhaps learned a little more about trails. I also hope that I can do a live post tomorrow, so I haven't scheduled one. You'll know in another day!

I'm sure we've enjoyed some evenings similar to the one pictured above from 2003.

As I write this, we need to pull out of the driveway in 4 hours and 45 minutes. I still have an hour of work to do, and then I will catch a couple of hours of sleep. I tucked Marie in long ago, so she will be fresh to drive. She is a morning person, and I'm the night owl. Hubby just got up (3 am) to do the paper route, and I need to sign off. See you soon, I hope.

	See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike
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Volunteers

So, how does the trail stay open at all, given wind, fire, water... The answer is "VOLUNTEERS."

Almost all of the work of any kind (trail building and maintenance, through making phone calls, landowner negotiations, leading hikes, etc) is done by volunteers. Why? They simply love to be able to be part of creating inviting places in the forests, hills, prairies... to walk. More often than not, they are hikers who woke up one day and realized that they wanted to give something back to the trails that gave them so much peace.

Next time you take a hike, think about who it is that makes that pathway safe and clear for your enjoyment. In a park, it may be your tax dollars. But on many trails, it is volunteers.

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

Day Off!

Today we have the whole day off, and at a very nice place. This is the Gunflint Resort. We have picked up a supply box, taken hot showers, and will generally pamper ourselves today. I thought it would be fun to show the contrast between eating styles.

The first picture is from the Volunteer Vacation I was on, here on the Kek, in 2003. This is Derrick, with what got quickly nicknamed "wolf shit on a shingle," (um... for obvious reasons!) It's really black bean dip on a tortilla.


Here is the restaurant at Gunflint Lodge. Have no doubts that we will be eating here today!

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

Live Post! What a Hike!

We are at Gunflint Lodge, and taking a much looked-forward to day off! All nights have been below freezing, with only two warm days. But it is great! Another hiker we met took this picture of us. Here are a few samples.



This was taken from two days ago's lunch spot. How awesome! We are looking west from Rose Lake across Rat Lake (the little one) to South Lake. The cliffs were about 500 feet high.



Here we are in the first of the burned sections we have to cross. We are checking the map. We weren't lost, but a side trail was blazed in blue and we followed it for a half-mile in the wrong direction (sigh). We were deciding if we were willing to bushwhack back to the correct trail or if we had to backtrack. In the end we backtracked.



Yesterday as we hiked into the Gunflint Lodge, we were first on the top of that big rock cliff, and then we came down off the back side of it and hiked into the Lodge. We hiked 12.8 hard miles yesterday. We are tired, but very happy and enjoying a day in the warmth, and ordering restaurant food!

Thanks to everyone who has continued to keep reading. I read all your comments this morning and have enjoyed them very much. I'm out of time now, but all is well with us (although we are chilly).

Bunkhouse at Gunflint Lodge

If we are on schedule we are sleeping in this bunkhouse tonight. It's offered as a low-cost option at the Gunflint Lodge, where most of the accommodations are much nicer. This is good enough for us! The picture is of one of the participants in the Volunteer Vacation.

It MAY be possible for me to do an "on the spot" post tomorrow. But if I don't get to, please don't be too disappointed.

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

Vistas

I really don't know what today will be like. Several people told us that this section was very difficult and several people said it will be easy. There are supposed to be quite a few really nice vistas across the lakes into Canada.

This is a picture from the area farther west. It's very typical. Lots of spruce covered rocks and small lakes. I don't think I could ever get tired of views like this! However, it all looks so much alike that you need to pay attention to where you are.

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

...to Clearwater

I don't know anything at all about this section, so I just posted a piece of the map. The map does show you that we are just one lake away from Canada. Clearwater Lake is all in the US, but you can see just to the north of the trail is Watap Lake, with the international border running through the middle.

Some of the spring work crews are out on the trail this week, so we may actually run into some other people, here in this remote section of Minnesota! In designated wilderness (this is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness), no power tools, or wheeled carts can be used. All the trail work is done by hand.

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

Entering the Wilderness

Today we enter the designated Wilderness of the BWCA for the first time. A permit is required for this. If one wishes to canoe it's best to apply for a permit really early, but hiking permits are much easier to get. It's not a highly traveled trail.

We will be in the Wilderness for four days, then we come out at the Gunflint Lodge, and then go back in again for another four days. That, of course, means that we get to buy another permit.

There are only a few places along the NCT where one needs a permit, but this is one of them.



Just before we get to the wilderness we will cross the northern end of the Arrowhead Trail (a road). This is where we will pick up our first supply box. This beautiful bluff is at the edge of Little John Lake. I'm really looking forward to seeing this location again.

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

Beginning the Border Route

Today we head north on the Border Route Trail, one of the oldest long hiking trails in the United States. It is much less-well marked than the SHT, but we do have GPS points collected by two other hikers. We are quite confident that with the electronic data we won't have any trouble staying on or near the route. Of course we have good maps and compasses and brains as well, just in case the technology fails us.

Here are the words to a song that isn't as old as the BRT, but the words were published as far back as 1948. It's definitely been tugging at me ever since I learned it, and I hope our group will learn it. Marie and I like to sing, but I don't know about the guys! It's sung to the Irish Tune "The Road to the Isles." Border Trail

It's the far Northland that's a-calling me away
As take I with my backpack to the road,
It's the call on me of the forest in the North,
As step I with the sunlight for my load.

Chorus:
By Lake Duncan and Clearwater to the Bearskin I will go,
Where you see the loon and hear its plaintive wail,
If you're thinking in your inner heart there's swagger in my step,
You've never been along the Border Trail.

It's the flash of paddle blades a gleaming in the sun,
A canoe softly skimming by the shore,
It's the tang of pine and bracken, coming on the breeze,
That calls me to the waterways once more.

Chorus

It's the hiss and glide of skis on newly fallen snow,
It's the sparkle of the sun on snow and hoar;
It's the snap and tingle of cold air upon the face
That calls me to the snow-capped peaks once more.

Chorus

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike

About the Border Route

I am going to use our travel days to tell you about the trails we will be hiking. Today is the Border Route Trail (BRT). The map above is clickable to make it larger. On the big map I haven't colored any lines, but the thumbnail isn't really useful without some aid! The blue line is the Border Route. Red is the portion of the SHT that we are doing on this hike, and yellow is the Grand Portage Trail.

We are not hiking the entire BRT. It actually extends farther east and then joins the Grand Portage Trail to go all the way to the tip of the Minnesota Arrowhead at Grand Portage. But the SHT comes in about 1/3 of the way to the west, and the North Country Trail (NCT) uses that route.

The Border Route is an historic trail, that almost faded into oblivion. The current trail was re-established/built beginning in 1970 by a group that called themselves the Minnesota Rovers. They still do most of the maintenance work on the trail. It was the first long, non-motorized trail in Minnesota.

Many sections of the route follow old portages of the Voyageurs. The trail is now almost entirely within the Superior National Forest, part of which is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

See The Blog Plan for the Arrowhead Hike