Image: squint at the circled bit. It is a moose.

As previously noted, my family always jokes when we're up north about all the moose we're NOT seeing. We religiously trek up to Moose Viewing and happily see no moose. But, this trip was not, in fact, mooseless. 

On Friday morning, Shawn and I were up before six am, per usual. We like to go down to the dock and just take in the absolute silence (by which I actually mean all the racket of the birds.) So, there we are just staring off into the lake. The guy in the dock next to us is quietly getting his motorboat ready to head off for some fishing, and Shawn says--somewhat quietly because Bearskin is very strict about it's quiet hours, which are until 10 am, "What's that?" 

I look over to where she is pointing and my brain registers an image that is something like this: \---/

I think: kayak? It's certainly moving at speeds. But the little up parts aren't going up and down. It's also making hardly any splashs. I offer "Kayak?" just as Shawn says, "Some weird piece of driftwood?" But then something clicks for both of us and we realize the sticky-up bits are EARS and we're like, "Oh! OH! It's a MOOSE!"

I honestly tend to forget that moose are powerful swimmers. 

Even though just the day before, Bob, the owner of Bearskin, had been telling me about how the moose come right down to the water's edge to calve in May because, if a bear or other predator is around, the mama and newborn can make a quick escape into the water. Which is just WILD considering how massive and ungainly these animals look. Like, they look like they should flail around and sink, not glide around a deep lake like they're fully motorized. 

Anyway, I try to get the guy next to us excited, but apparently toxic masculinity means all he can do is grunt, "Huh. Yeah. Moose," like he sees moose swimming in a deep lake every other day, ho hum. Later, however, I hear him telling his family about the moose, so I guess even the toughest of the tough guys aren't fully immune to how F*CKING AWESOME MOOSE ARE. 

And, yeah, the picture sucks. No one has a good telephoto lens on their camera in my house of cheap phones, so you'll just have to deal with Shawn's best effort. Trust me, when you're looking with your actual eyes it was much more clearly moosey. But, I won't lie. It does look like one of those photos trying to convince you that there is a Loch Ness Monster. 

That was kind of the pinnacle of the day and it was only quarter to seven.

I am hard pressed to remember the rest of the day. IIRC, it was very windy after that calm cold morning, but after seeing the moose in the water we all kind of wanted to be sure to get out in the canoe. Mason and I fought the wind all the way around "the point" as we call it, but it was ridiculously windy. But, that is what novels and a roaring fire are for.

Our final day was Saturday. Shawn and I canoed at an insanely early hour again (now looking for WATER MOOSE) but saw none. We did have a lovely, perfectly calm day, however, to do our gentle gliding. I miss it so much right now, it's not even funny.

On the way back, I really, really wanted to try to get stamps for State Parks. There are a ton up there and I have decided that, since my passport book is a life project, it's okay to run in, get a stamp. So long as the plan is to explore the parks "for real" some other time. There are, for instance, several state parks that I DON'T have stamps for that Mason and I spent hours exploring. Even so, perhaps it's cheating? I have zero intention of actually trying to get a plaque or whatever the prize is if you fill up a book, so it doesn't feel that way to me. 

Regardless, we EARNED the Cascade Falls State Park stamp, holy crap.

At first, I had intended to just go in, get a stamp and maybe a patch, but I got to talking to the ranger there (a pine marten murdered a whole bunch of her chickens, "Cute little guy, though!" she said cheerily in a fully Fargo accent,) and she convinced us that it was worth trying to see the falls. 


Image: Cascade Upper Falls. Worth the Detour!!

The walk up to see this from the Trail Center was 0.5 miles, but we got confused by the idea of the "loop hike" to see both upper and lower falls and so Mason and I proceded to get... well, not lost, but turned around by the map several times. This would not normally be a problem but the hikes at Cascade River State Park are along a massive gorge and so there are a lot of stairs and extremely steep slopes. I did alright? But thank goodness I'd been practicing, and honestly, nothing can compare to the stairs at Judge C. R. Magney/Devil's Kettle. Poor Shawn decided to stay behind again ans started to worry when this very tiny hike turned into forty-five minute hike. 


Image: Cascade River's lower falls

Then it was just a lot of dodging in and dodging out, slowed down by the fact that the day we came back was Free State Park Day and literally everyone and their dog was out checking out the state parks (Gooseberry State Park had an actual Dog Day event. So many good puppers!)  It took us forever to get back, but, luckily, my family was on board. The only bummer/hassle was an extremely slow waitress at Betty's Pies. It seems a little bit... intentional? Like, maybe a bit homophobic? The only scar in our otherwise great day. We put a whole bunch of State Parks on our "must return to for a more serious look" list. 

One park that isn't quite so far away that I really want to return to is Jay Cooke. That place looked INSANELY cool. But, I'd honestly spend several days in all of them, if I could.

So, that's all the moose fit to print. 

If you want to see a better shot of moose in the wild, check out "North Woods Adventure (Part 1)" from our very first trip to Bearskin in 2010: https://lydamorehouse.dreamwidth.org/173253.html

If I’m writing about my adventures a day behind, I should probably make a short list of the things I’ve read to start with. I finished listening to Blood Ink Sister Scribe last night. I will admit that I got a little bogged down in the middle of the book, re-read Trouble and Her Friends (for an up-coming podcast,) and then listened to the second half of it. While I’ve been up here, Martha Well’s Network Effect came up for grabs as an audiobook, so I downloaded that during one of my daily treks to the lodge for internet.

Yesterday started with a nice canoe trip around part of the lake. Shawn and I like to get up early, around 6:30 or 7 am, and do a near-silent drift along the lake. It often pays off in terms of animal sightings. Yesterday we had our first truly sunny morning, and we saw (we counted) ten turtles in various spots sunning themselves on logs. On our return trip, we got the piece d’resistance: a river otter! The river otter was actually in the lake with us and bobbed up a couple of times (almost like trying to stand in the water) to try to decide if we were a danger or not and then disappeared under the water.

Super cool!

It was pretty darned magical, even though at that point in the trip around the lake we were fighting a chilly headwind so strong that if we stopped paddling the canoe would start to go sideways.

Almost immediately after making landfall, Mason and I hopped in the car and headed off to nearby Judge C. R. Magney State Park to revisit Devil’s Kettle.

Shawn elected to stay behind. Her knee, which has been performing like an absolute champ this trip, has been getting stiff and sore after canoe rides. She bends very well for someone who is really only about six months out of knee surgery but getting in and out of the canoe from the dock is more of a challenge. The idea of doing all those stairs down—and then back up again—to see the first set of falls felt like a bad idea to her. I don’t blame her, but we still felt sad leaving her behind even though she said it was okay.

Mason and I have been to this state park before, four years ago, but I was not yet a member of either the Passport or the Minnesota State Parks and Trails Hiking Club. I brought my state park passport along and got my stamp!


Image: passport stamp


I was glad Shawn did not come once we started the hike. I’m here to tell you that being fat and asthmatic is no real barrier (so long as you have your inhaler, are generally mobile, and are willing to take it slowly,) but I do not think Shawn’s knee would have survived the uneven, sloped parts of the trail, NEVERMIND the stairs.

Speaking of being fat, I did have at least one stranger feel free to tell me that I was “doing great, honey!” But you know what? I was! So, I decided to ignore the fairly pointed assumption about my general health based on my size, and said, “Thanks! You, too!”

The effort is always worth it, however:



Image: famous Devil's Kettle.

If you have never heard of Devil's Kettle before and why it's so fascinating, feel free to read this article about the mysterious kettle that takes water in but maybe sends it straight to hell... https://www.treehugger.com/the-mystery-of-devils-kettle-falls-4863996



Mason and I had a lovely hike back down. I’d swear, actually, that I took the stairs back up much faster this year than I did four years ago. This is not to say that we didn’t pause on any of the landings that are on offer, but I made very steady progress and never felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest or any of that. I honestly think it helped that the weather has been quite cool up here, so while I worked up a sweat, it never felt overwhelming. TMI? But I’m kind of proud of myself, I guess? Especially after that lady’s “encouragement.”

On our way back to Gunflint Trail and the Lodge, Mason and I stopped in Grand Marais for lunch. This trip is a gift to Mason for graduating from university and so I let him pick the place. We stopped at Angry Trout to have fish sandwiches and an incredible view of the marina, if you can call it such, on Lake Superior.


Image: Mason contemplating the menu at Angry Trout.

The drive back was uneventful and we spent much of the rest of the evening sitting on the dock staring out at the lake (or reading.) We have new “neighbors” in cabin two. They are two old duffers who are here for a guy’s weekend of fishing and catching up. Shawn, who was here all day, talked to them a bit. One of them is from the Twin Cities (Oakdale or somewhere like that) and the other is previously from the area, but has since moved to Arizona. He told us he left nearly 100 F / C temps. We made the classic joke about having brought the sun with him, since this was one of the first non-rainy days.

Normally, we don’t interact much with the other cabins, but the forestry service has done a lot of fire maintenance around the lodge and so all of the underbrush is gone, chopped down. It looks little denuded, and apocalypse-y and it also means you see more people coming in out of cabins from further away and have to make the tough Minnesota decision: “Do I wave? Do I have to wave? Oh crap, we made eye contact, I will lift my hand and wave. Oh, god, this is awkward, how long do I wave?” And, yes, I’m actually the family’s extrovert. But I’m also very aware that most people in Minnesota do not actually want to have to talk to strangers, especially when they are “up nort” on a fishing trip with their old college buddy.

More wildflowers!


Wild sasperilla?


Image: blue flower of some variety??

Yesterday, we decided to do our usual attempt to see moose at Moose Viewing Trail. We are past moose season, really. I mean, moose are out here in the woods. It’s possible to see one. But, tourists, like ourselves, are more likely to see moose during calving, which is earlier in the year--in May.

Moose are sometimes more active in the early morning hours, so to sweeten the “how about we get up at the crack of dawn?” deal for our late risers in the house (namely Mason), we decided that once we have attempted to moose view, we would hit the new nearby coffee shop called Loon’s Rest.

We did not see any moose at Moose Viewing as expected.



Image: Moose Viewing view (Note: No Moose.)

The other funky thing about Moose Viewing trail is the fact that as you turn in to the official Moose Viewing platform, there is a myserious abandoned car. There are a lot of questions about this car. How did it get here? When did it get here? How did the boulder get on top of it?



Image: car in woods?

We ran into a couple of well-equipped hikers from Oklahoma who were perhaps a little too eager for moose. We gave our best advice, which was hang out as long as you can and be quiet—and, you know? Maybe they got lucky. I hope they did.

The Loon’s Nest was entirely full of old, white men (but one can sort of say that generally about the Gunflint Trail.) The espresso was perfectly adequate as were the croissant, egg, and sausage patties.

I did not attempt a big walk yesterday, since I wanted to save my strength for canoeing. Mason and I had yet to get out in the lake. When we did, it was the first time in a long time that Mason was in charge of steering. It took us a little time to figure out our rhythm, but once we got going we were amazing. We canoed out past the point to a part of Bearskin that Shawn and I call “capsize cove” thanks to a certain incident several years ago. There is a lovely beaver dam out in the cove. We fought the wind coming back, but it was actually fairly energizing.

An absolutely lovely day all told.

And, now…. More wildflowers for identification!


A purple wildflower of some kind!



False lily-of-the-valley?

We are at Bearskin!


The moon (and traces of Northern Lights) over Bearskin (from Cabin 1)

Yesterday, as usual, we stopped at several sites along Highway 61. We had a late lunch at the “world famous” Betty’s Pie. I do not know if this pie is truly well-known throughout the world, but it was, as they say, damned good pie.


The three of us at Betty's Pies.

As has become typical of us, we stopped to do some agate hunting about a mile north of Two Harbors at Flood Bay. We had to backtrack from Betty’s, but we didn’t care. My family simply cannot be hurried once we’re in vacation mode. Once we’ve made it to Duluth (to-du-loot!) vacation mode has fully activated. “Oh? The thing we wanted to see was back there? Sure, let’s turn around!”



Me and Mason agate hunting at Floor Bay.

I’m not ever sure what an agate looks like when it’s not polished. Not that it matters to any of us. Shawn hands out plastic baggies and we find a nice spot and start hunting. On this trip, it was extra windy. It was already decently cold, maybe mid-50s F/ 10 C. We joked that the windchill made it below freezing! Shawn had to hike back to the car for extra layers.

But, we had a great time just relaxing and sifting through the rocks on the shores of the world’s largest freshwater lake. (And, as Mason loves to point out, a lake so cold that if you’re shipwrecked in it, you don’t rot!)



Mason beach combing

Next was a pitstop at Gooseberry Falls. Sometimes, like a lot of travelers this time of year, we only stop long enough to do our business and then push on. This time, however, Mason and I decided to make the short trek up to see both the high falls and the low falls. Shawn, meanwhile, saved her knee (which is mostly doing well, but technically still in recovery,) for the next beach and hung out in the gift shop looking for, among other things, sweatpants for Mason who—for reasons all his own—decided not to pack any pants for the trip. Only shorts!

Gooseberry Falls, in my opinion, is almost always worth the detour.



Image: Gooseberry Falls

I only remembered after we’d left that I forgot to get my State Park passport stamped! We decided, however, that we would stop in as many State Parks as we could on our route back. Mason and I are also planning a day trip out to Devil’s Kettle, so I have be sure to remember to bring it with me to that hike!

I had advocated for a stop at Iona’s Beach this year but changed my mind after experiencing the wind at Flood Bay. Maybe the weather will be more cooperative on the drive home. Instead, we decided to pull in at Silver Bay to get a gander at "Rocky Taconite."


Image: Rocky Taconite at Silver Bay.

Our last beach of the trip up to the cabin was Cutface Creek Pullout (14 miles north of Lutsen, mile marker 104.) This beach is famous for its thomsonite. Again, I have no idea what thomsonite looks like in the wild (although this might be the year I may have found a piece. I’m going to try polishing it up when we get back home), but this beach generally has cool rocks because it has a ton of mini geodes.
Again, we dawdled. I have no idea how long we spent combing the beaches and listening to the waves. This beach was less windy; it was much more of a natural windbreak/cove.

We managed to miss official check-in at Bearskin (6 pm), which we often do (even leaving the Twin Cities at 9 am), and so followed the instructions to get the cabin key for check-in the next morning. It was still light enough out that Mason and I made the walk up to the Lodge to pick up the aluminum canoe that they on the beach for us out for us. We paddled it to our dock, bungied it up to our private dock for the night, and then settled in for a dinner of brats on the grill.

I fully failed to make a decent fire our first night, but luckily both Shawn and Mason are better skilled at this than I am.

This morning (Sunday) we woke up to rain.

Shawn and I walked down to the Lodge to check in. Because of all of the forest fires that are active in Minnesota right now, the Forest Service has been doing a lot of clearing of what they call “ladder trees,” but also underbrush. The place looks… a little devestated. At least in comparison to what we’re used to. I have been excited to resume my hiking of the ski trails this year and so I wanted to be sure to ask the staff about good trails for less… husbandry, we’ll say. They nicely pointed out where on the map they thought the Forestry Service hadn’t gotten to yet. So, after a quick jog back to Cabin 1 to make sure I had my inhaler, I headed off. I’d intended to slowly get my “sea legs” back, but I missed a turn off and hiked all the way to Rudy Lake. 


Image: a pristine lake (Rudy Lake) in the middle of nowhere.

Oops.

It is cool, however. Like, this is a lake you simply can not get to without walking to it. There are no roads to get you here. 

However, I am a little sore and may have overdone it already on day one. Hopefully, with a bit of rest and Aleve, I’ll be back at it in no time.



Image: trout lily

 Somehow our house looks more chaotic and full of half-filled bags and boxes as we prepare for a week long vacation to the northwoods. ONE WEEK! You'd think we were packing to move out!

The thing about the place we're headed is that the closest town with a grocery store is twenty minutes down the Gunflint Trail. I mean, I will drive twenty minutes to a store around here. Maybe because we're surrounded by TREES, twenty minutes away feels so much further when we're up north. Half of what we're bringing is food. Almost none of which will be returning with us. 

Despite all this, I'm really looking forwrard to the vacation. There is limited wireless, but I usually get up early and make the hike to the Lodge with my computer and spend an hour or so making sure I'm not missing out on any earth-shattering news. So, I'm still reachable, just... only once a day. I'm going to try to post pictures and such--you know, actually keep up with this blog for once!