I left Duluth on Friday morning, but it's not seen the last of me. I'll find a way to get back!
Heading up the scenic Hwy 61, two stops were made for food. My tour book recommended Lou's Fish House for the best smoked trout and Betty's Restaurant for the best pies. I concur!
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| Lake Superior trout |
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Regional specialty: pastie...beef & vegetable pocket.
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Betty's rhubarb-raspberry pie disappeared before its picture could be taken.
That Friday, we hit three state parks in a row.
The first, Gooseberry Falls SP.
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| Gooseberry Falls |
OK, I saw the falls, had enough of negotiating the trail with other hikers, so I took a back country trail.
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We had the trail all to ourselves
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...except for the presence of wolves.
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Cole was not left off leash because of the grouse around us, crossing our path, making a general racket! Nor did I want him to make the acquaintance of the wolves. Wolf scat was on every section of the trail. At first, I was concerned that someone else was on the trail with a much larger dog than Cole, judging from the fresh tracks. A couple miles later it dawned on me that I had not seen any shoe prints. I confirmed later with the ranger that we had run through gray wolf hunting territory.
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| 5.25 mi run |
The next stop was at Split Rock Lighthouse SP. I had great views of the lighthouse from the shore.
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| Endless beauty |
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| 3 mile run |
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| View of Lake Superior |
Next stop: Tettegouche SP. I wish I'd had more days to explore. I only had time to do another shore trail.
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| Yes, it's a long way down! |
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| 3 miler |
The real kicker was the camping experience. One section far removed from the main campground offered 13 tent sites. Each separated by approx. 1/10 of a mile. They're called cart-in sites and I discovered why:
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The parking lot is more than 1/2 mile from the camping area, so the park provided wheel barrows to cart in your gear.
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| Cole mooching a ride. |
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| Ineffective food safe---I found it wide open the next morning. |
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| Amazing view of Lake Superior from my tent. Only one other group camping in the area---totally peaceful. |
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My beach.
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The north shore of Superior has a unique geology. Ancient weathered lava flows coupled with glacier action produced bold headlands and deeply-eroded gorges. A rock hound's paradise. I narrowly avoided tumbling back down to shore while I was struggling to roll a big rhyolite up to the tent. I had gathered a variety of rocks and wanted to spend the night identifying them with my rock guide book.
The rain ousted me from my camp around 5 AM, so I begrudgingly headed West towards North Dakota. Somehow, some day, I'll return here. I've hiked the Ulster Way in Northern Ireland, portions of the Long Trail in Vermont, so many other places, all spectacular, but this area is beautiful beyond words. I'm a visual thinker. Movies are constantly running in my head. To retrieve a memory I simply watch the clip of, complete with sounds and smells. If pressed to choose, I'd rather lose my hearing than my keen sense of smell, that's how important it is to me. My movie of Tettegouche is too short, I'll return to make a full length feature one day!
I crossed iron mining country in northern Minnesota. I wasn't in need of restocking, but I had mapped the directions to get to Harvest Market Coop in Virginia.
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| Glad I stopped. A health food store in a log house. Unusual variety of goodies; dried peanut butter, I had to get it! |
I took Cole walking for a couple miles around the town lake. He misunderstood: I wished to eat my food, not wear it. He worked himself into a froth pointing and lunging at all the ducks. He was so focused that he didn't even see the beaver swim five feet from his nose. It came within two feet of me, being as I too was standing in the water...hey, I was lucky to have branches to grab to prevent Cole from taking me swimming. This was a two loon lake, as Garrison Keillor from the Prairie Home Companion would say. What a treat to see my favorite birds. Their calls bring tears to my eyes, the one sound to make me homesick for Canada.
The Mining Museum hadn't opened yet, but the maintenance man gave me permission to poke around. He probably thought the rain would drive me away. Wrong!
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| All the equipment is open for climbing up. Fun!!! |
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Up in a caboose.
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| One tire, in 2006, cost $18000! |
I would pay good money for the chance to drive one of these monsters, if only a spin around the parking lot (over a few cars perhaps).
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Middle of nowhere convenience store had an adjacent smoking facility. 12 varieties of bacon!
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Snow plow for sale. I think it would look sharp on the Hyundai.
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At last, arrival at Sheyenne National Grasslands in North Dakota.
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| Campground entrance |
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Slight problem: bullet riddled map.
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I had been unable to download and print the trail map for Hankinson Hills. The map sign is destroyed and the ranger station is 20 miles away. Thankfully, one family was here camping and they told me that the horse trail is a loop trail.
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| Cole ran off leash for a long time, but we were encountering too many of these! |
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The guide lead us down cow trails until I spotted the true horse trail (we were lost).
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Absolutely giddy about my first time on the prairies.
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The tallgrass prairie ecosystem is one of the most endangered on Earth. These hills are not glacial deposits, but windswept dunes. Fantastic to experience it. I'm lucky that the Sun didn't set until 9 PM, because that's when we found our way back to the campground! Instead of camping here, I opted to stay in a local motel, safe from the forecasted storms and the plague of ticks that covered us during our run.
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| Hankinson Hills 6.2 mile run |
2500 miles in 9 days. I'm looking forward to a break in South Dakota.
