North Shore fall colors...the end is near

Drove up to Grand Marais and back on Friday, from Duluth. In classic North Shore style, the maples on the ridges have all turned and gone, but right along the shoreline there were a lot of gorgeous aspens. Since aspens grow in large clones, you could really see how one group of trees (one clone) turned colors and dropped leaves ahead of or after another. Smeared right up on the west side of Palisade Head, for example, was one thick patch of glimmering yellow aspen leaves, surrounded by a forest of bare trees.

The Cascade River was rocking, with water sloshing up over its banks. At the river mouth, you could see the current shooting out into the lake. The rivers were carrying a lot of foam; by Temperance, the foam was rolling along the shoreline east of the river mouth. The Temperance...no bar at the mouth, but a lot of beer foam. Actually, there has been a bar at the mouth of the Temperance for the last few years, but maybe these last few gully-washers washed it away...

SKIING THE NORTH SHORE is in almost every Holiday Station Store along Hwy 61...