Makin' Tracks

 


Here's a puzzle that we probably can't figure out for sure. But since we've had so much fun with tracks here, I'm offering it for discussion. This canine track was in the trail in northern Minnesota. Is it a wolf, or just a very large dog?

Well, I had enough sense to put my jackknife beside it when I took the picture. The knife measures 3.75 inches in length (not counting the loop), closed as you see it. The International Wolf Center says that an average adult wolf track is 4.5 inches long, and only a very few breeds of dogs have tracks this large. What about the stride? There was only this one print in the trail, so I have no way to measure the stride.



Where is the International Wolf Center? Would you believe that it located in Ely, Minnesota. There are approximately 3000 wolves in northern Minnesota and the population there has been stable for over ten years. So it's entirely possible that a wolf track would be found there.

I can't help but make a little joke about my efforts to make tracks here at home. I've been working really hard to get caught up on all the dozens of things that were neglected while I was out hiking. I'm doing better than some homecomings at staying disciplined.

But looking at animal tracks is lots more fun than tracking my tasks!


See One More Trail Story for beaver tracks
See Our Common Mustelid for skunk tracks
See International Wolf Center

The Adventure of the Rogue Elephant

written by Auntie E, the winner of the Scavenger Hunt. The tiebreaker assignment was to write a story using all the items found in the hunt. Naturally, this requires some creativity!

It was in the year when all the lands had one ruler. His name was Gable, however in the villages he was known as The Skull. Ladies from villages afar brought him gifts. One Lady from a village called Muesli presented Gable the skull with a mirror decorated with Lilac blossoms (her favorite flower). She was hoping he would invite her to drink from his favorite tea cup. The ruler had a tea cup that his mother gave to him as a child. A rumor started that anyone that was invited to drink from it would be the next apple of his eye. The Lady from the village of Muesli was not invited. Off she went.

One Fair Lady from the village of Pawn arrived on the Rogue Elephant. Her hair was long and flowing, the color was as bright as a light bulb. All the gents in the town whistled as she rode by. This caused Gable the skull to put down his blue poker chip and go to the window for a view. “Oh what a beautiful elephant” he said. “I shall invite him and the Fair Lady for tea”. He instructed his servant to pick up the dirty socks and place an egg and a bowl of granola at each table setting. “Be sure to place my tea cup at the Fair Ladies place”. All the servants were talking and gossiping about the Lady on the rogue elephant.

The Fair Lady from the village of Pawn presented the ruler a Kayak with a painted maple leaf on the front. The ruler Gable invited the Fair Lady to tea. She accepted and they eat the eggs, granola and drink from his tea cup. Now the date had been written with a red permanent marker in his date book.

Their wedding was a sight to remember. The rogue Elephant adorned with a blue poker chips harness pulled the Kayak with the maple leaf on it though the streets. Gable the ruler and the Fair Lady of Pawn rode in the Kayak sucking on eucalyptus cough drops, for the flavor was good and gave a good smell to ones breath. All the gents of the land refrained from the whistle impulses, afraid that Gable the ruler and the new apple of his eye would behead them.

The Fair Lady, now known as The Apple of his Eye and Ruler Gable, known as The Skull, lived happily ever after. Oh, and the Rogue Elephant, now known as Blue Poker Chip, travels, telling this story all over the kingdoms.

See Scavenger Hunt Winners

Scavenger Hunt Winners!

Wow! I received five entries to the scavenger hunt. I was hoping for more, but maybe it was too hard, or long, or not really fun.... Feel free to give me some feedback about this.

The clear winner is... Auntie E! Her blog is "At Home with Auntie E," and she is the winner of a year long advertisement on this blog. She missed only one answer, AND she submitted a wonderful story to be used as a tiebreaker if necessary. Hers was the only story, and it's really cute. I'll feature it here tomorrow. Here's a teaser; the title is The Adventure of the Rogue Elephant.

Second place goes to a reluctant entrant, because he didn't think he did very well. It's our old friend Ratty of "The Everyday Adventurer," who missed only two answers and followed my "rules" to give the sentence where the answer appeared. He wins a free month of advertising on Adgitize. This was supplied by Ken Brown, the founder of Adgetize.

Third place was captured by another friend, Julia of Our Simple Life. She also only missed two, but only gave the answers. I suspect she's too busy chasing kids and chickens to copy long sentences. Julia wins the fleece throw... not sure she needs it in California, but it should hold up well to the kids! If her new chickens are featherless like the old ones maybe they will like it.

Fourth place goes to Ivy of Spinning Lovely Days, who missed 3. I almost missed her entry- it got caught in my spam filter! Sorry, Ivy! Her blog's tagline is "We persistently weave dreams into real life, consciously campaigning for enchantment as we stroll through moments, savoring the sweetness of living, gratefully rejoicing in blessed freedom, and blissfully not caring that this is a run-on sentence." Sounds good to me! Ivy will get 12 credits on CMF ads for her blog.

The other entry came from Sam Haraldson, a friend of mine from the hiking universe. His blog is Ultralight Backpacking. He missed 3.5, partly because he left on a hike before the last clue was published! Sam will receive a copy of my book North Country Cache. Sam, if you already have a copy, let me know and I'll give you the month of ads instead.

Here are the answers... no one got them all right, but the best entry missed only one. I'll just list the clue and the answer.
1. The coach, the wolf, and the hiker all found this handy - Whistle
2. accessory for the small house of the crescent moon - Toilet Paper
3. sniffy hose - Dirty Socks
4. old hose nose - elephant
5. palindromic watercraft - kayak
6. the perfectly packaged breakfast or the beginning of dinner a few months from now - egg
7. Smith Brothers or Halls? either one will do - cough drop
8. foliage of the genus Acer not necessarily from Toronto - maple leaf
9. this rose relative will keep the doctor away, they say - apple
10. Blue Pipes - lilac blossoms
11. the lowest guy on the 64 square totem pole - chess pawn
12. high quality game stock - blue poker chip
13. illuminating globe - light bulb
14. extend your pinky finger while lifting this - teacup
15. what Alice went through, in other words - mirror
16. do teachers still write "awk" or "sp" in the margins with this - red pencil or red marker
17. Jolly Roger could use some brains in his - skull
18. this will never rain or rein, but if might measure up to reign - ruler
19. toasty oats, nuts, fruit, American style - granola

Thanks for your patience till I processed the entries. I had a chance to earn almost $100 and really had to take advantage of that! I'll get the "paperwork" done for all your prizes tomorrow! A big THANK YOU to all who entered.

See Sharkbytes Scavenger Hunt- Start Here

Berries!

 



It was a fantastic year for the plants to produce berries, both edible and otherwise! Here are just a few from our hikes. One of the best treats of the far northwoods are thimbleberries, Rubus parviflorus. They have huge leaves and the soft red berries grow above the leaves. The berries are so soft that to pick and collect them is difficult, but eating them right off the bushes is great! This year's crop was rich and juicy. Yum! We also enjoyed lots of red raspberries and blueberries.



Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum biflorum, is a wildflower with inconspicuous green blossoms that hang below the leaves in spring. Each blossom turns into a red berry, but most years there aren't very many berries. What a surprise this year! There were so many berries that they just glowed through the leaves at a distance. Some other parts of the plant have been used medicinally, but the berries aren't really edible.



The last two pictures are plants that are cousins. In fact, they are both named Baneberries. "Bane" means death, and indeed, the berries are very poisonous. They can stop the heart muscle. I don't know any way to tell the leaves apart, and they both have white blossoms, although the shape of each blossom is different, so at that point the rounder cluster will have red berries, and the elongated clusters will become the white berries or "doll's eyes." The Red Baneberry is Actaea rubra, and the Doll's Eyes- you can see why they are called that! is Actaea pachypoda.

Closer In and Farther Out

 


I have been home for almost a week, and I'm trying to get my head around real life again. Today I'll just share some of the biggest impressions of the section we backpacked.

The Superior Hiking Trail is one of superlatives. It is named for its close association with the shore of Lake Superior. It was great to be back in the woods, with our small tent nestled between the trees rather than in a large public campground. Even in the busy summer season we only had to share a campsite with anyone on two of our six nights on the trail.



The SHT makes a "point" of climbing to nearly every rocky vantage point that can be found. Even though we were generally walking southwest, unless we studied the topo map or read the guide it was always a surprise whether we would have a view of valleys, distant rivers, lakes and hills, or whether we would be looking at Lake Superior. This depended on which side of the hill we had climbed, of course. Sometimes we looked it up beforehand, and sometimes we just let ourselves be surprised.



This last one was a lot of fun. We knew that we were supposed to climb Sawmill Dome this day, and in the morning we thought that this round hump must be the "dome." Sure enough, a couple of hours later we were standing on top of this round hump with its rocky sides!



So I've now got 3947 miles of the NCT done! With 104 miles coming up in Ohio at the end of September I should be over 4000 before the end of the year. However, I came home with at least tendinitis, and maybe even a stress fracture in my left leg. So.... I'm doing a lot of resting, icing, and ibuprofen. I hate taking meds, but I HAVE to have this leg ready to hike and bike in four weeks. When I got home I couldn't even do two revolutions of the pedals on the exercise bike. Today I did two minutes without severe pain. I really hate being good, but I MUST so that I can make my goal.

Tomorrow I'll show you some more Minnesota trail treasures!

	See About the Superior Hiking Trail
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