Dry Lake day hike: Easier in Ely

Dry Lake sits a few miles north of Ely, just off the Echo Trail. A Superior National Forest trail circles the lake. The Dry Lake Trail shares the same parking lot and some of the same trail as the popular Bass Lake Trail, a six-plus mile circumnavigation of Bass Lake. In comparison, the three-mile Dry Lake Trail packs more scenery per mile and yet has fewer hikers.

In the last year, the Superior National Forest has significantly improved the signage for the Dry Lake and Bass Lake trails, with accurate new maps at virtually every trail junction. The trail itself is fairly well maintained, with bridges over the creeks. There does always seem to be at least one tree down across the trail when I'm there, though.

The hike starts with a short approach to the loop. Watch for signage as the trail turns off a wide snowmobile trail onto a more rugged hiking trail, then climbs to the top of a high bluff. I always hike this trail clockwise, taking the left fork at what is now Junction 2. No particular reason for that, just habit.

The trail soon reaches Little Dry Lake. The most rugged part of the hike is along the north shore of Little Dry Lake, where the glaciers left a big rugged pile of cobblestone. A thick crop of poison ivy grows alongside the trail.

One of the scenic highlight is the high rocky bluff above the west shore of Dry Lake. There is no development on Dry Lake, just wild open public land, so stop for a nice long break at the bluff, marked on the maps as a scenic spot.

Another scenic highlight is Dry Falls. This is where the water from Dry Lake empties into Bass Lake.

From Dry Falls, it's a dramatic one-mile hike back to the parking area on the Echo Trail, along a pine-studded ridgeline with great views above and small patches of wintergreen below.

If you're in Ely and looking for an moderate half-day hike, you can't go wrong with the Dry Lake Trail.

Hiking Ely's Secret-Blackstone trail

I had four days of just me and the poodle and the wild woods of Ely, Minnesota. I don't think she'd like a solo canoe ride. The steam bath was not going to work. We had to go to the Secret-Blackstone trail.

Daphne is the second standard poodle hiking partner I've had, and at 20 months old she's still learning the joys and triumphs of good trail hiking. Secret-Blackstone is a small trail system east of Ely. Since it's a Superior National Forest trail, dogs can run off leash. Hiking with any dog on a leash is a hassle, but with a strong, agile poodle with psychotic tendencies on the leash, it's nearly impossible.

The Secret-Blackstone trail winds around three lakes strung in the hilly country between Moose Lake and Snowbank Lake, two popular BWCA entry points off the Fernberg Road. The trail is well-maintained and well-marked. If you're out for an easy hike, just stick to the two-mile loop around Blackstone Lake. But the dog had shown she could stick to the trail and not attract bears or wolves. We were ready for more hiking, so we headed past Blackstone Lake to the cliffs of Ennis Lake. 

Here I am at a highpoint over a pond near Ennis Lake. Longtime Superior Hiking Trail supporters might just notice that my t-shirt reads, "I'd rather be hiking the Superior Hiking Trail." But on this day, that would be a lie. This is a great little set of loop trails and I was delighted to be there. 

After sniffing up a LOT of bushes and waiting patiently behind me on the narrow trail, Daphne was pretty happy to be on this trail, too. 

If you go
Download the map and driving directions from the Superior National Forest. There really isn't a better map out there. The trailhead is very near the canoe launch for Moose Lake, and you'll find restrooms at the canoe launch. 

The hike just around Blackstone Lake is very scenic and is pretty easy going, through some lovely red pines and past two backcountry campsites where you can sit by the lake. It's just under two miles and most hikers can complete it in about an hour. 

Past Blackstone Lake, the trail gets much rougher and narrower. It's just over a three mile hike on the long loop to Ennis Lake and back, but it will take at least two hours to complete the hike, plus you'll want to hang out on top of the Ennis Lake cliffs.

North Shore colors: Remember the Superior National Forest

Oberg Lake and the Superior National Forest from the Oberg Mountain Trail, September 2009

This weekend will be one of the busiest and most beautiful of the year on the North Shore, as the autumn color show is at its peak and the weather forecast is fine. While thousands will head for the state parks, those in the know will head for the Superior National Forest...whether they know it or not.

Most of the Superior Hiking Trail east of Tofte is in the Superior National Forest. Favorite fall color hikes like Oberg and Leveaux mountains are in the National Forest, and so is most of the Lutsen gondola hike. 

The Superior National Forest promotes great automobile tours for fall colors, including this guide for the North Shore. They have four different drives to recommend, including the Moose Drive up toward the Cramer Road and the Maple Leaf Drive that loops behind Carlton Peak through the heartbreakingly beautiful maples of Heartbreak Ridge. 

The forest also maintains a whimsical fall color conditions report . In the latest edition, they let Winnie the Pooh suggest:

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, 

listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

If you can't make it up the shore and are stuck at your computer, tap into the National Forest's  Flickr photostream of current fall colors.

Minnesota state parks are closed: alternate North Shore campgrounds

Yes, the terrific North Shore state parks are closed due to the Minnesota government shutdown. Even if you made reservations for that prime campsite a year ago for this holiday weekend, you can't use it. Plan A has gone down the drain.

Where else do you camp? You need a Plan B. For campsites right on Lake Superior, the only options left are private campgrounds and municipal campgrounds. They have already absorbed the overflow from the state parks and are full.

I recommend hitching up your sense of adventure and heading inland for a campsite in the Superior National Forest. To camp the North Shore this is the weekend you need a copy of my book, Camping the North Shore: A Guide to the 23 best campgrounds in Minnesota's spectacular Lake Superior region. You'll find detailed directions and descriptions for lovely campgrounds such as Crescent Lake, Two Island Lake, and Temperance River. If you're willing to go off the beaten path, you'll find free rustic campgrounds along trout streams, on the edge of the BWCA.

As you head through Duluth to the North Shore, pick up a copy of this book at Duluth Pack Store, the Bookstore at Fitgers, or any Holiday Store. 

Plan B: Head up the Cramer Road
The lucky folks already camped at lovely Ninemile Lake won't like me for telling you this, but I'd recommend heading to that campground first. From Finland, head east and north on the Cramer Road (County Road 7). The Ninemile Lake campground is about ten miles out of Finland. If all 24 sites are full there, keep heading inland on County Road 7 to check out the rustic campgrounds at Harriet Lake and Hogback Lake. You might end up all the way inland at Kawishiwi Lake, but it will be lovely, quiet, and free.

Get thee to the Gunflint

This weekend is the Gunflint Green-Up. Head on up into the canoe country from Grand Marais and help this scenic and wild area recover from the Ham Lake fire of May, 2007. 

The Gunflint Green-up started as a large-scale tree planting program after the wildfire, but has turned into a full-scale celebration of spring and renewal on the Gunflint Trail.

Events this year include an interpretive walk, a presentation on the history of the PADW railroad and the Paulson Mine, music and dancing under the Big Top, and of course tree planting.

Preregistration is requested. While tree planting is free, you'll want to join the food and festivities and even get a t-shirt for the full package cost of $35. The wonderful lodges and resorts on the Gunflint Trail have great overnight packages as well. 

If only moose could vote

 

 Announcing the US government's new program!  Money for Moose! Cash for Cows! Bucks for Bulls!

A crowd of scientists, environmentalists and state agency folks gathered by Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge yesterday morning to hear the good news: Money is rolling into Duluth and the North Shore...for moose habitat! Congressman Oberstar, in the tightest race in his career, was there to share the good news.

After surviving a cantankerous debate at 8:00 AM, in which supporters of Oberstar and his opponent Chip Cravaak got loud and rowdy, drowning out the actual debate, Oberstar was probably delighted to be back among supporters. And what was not to like? The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is funding $200,000 for moose habitat and research in the forests above the North Shore. Plus $600,000 to plant trees and restore streamsides in Duluth's western neightborhoods. Another 200K for the PCA to strategize its work in the St. Louis River. 

 

 The moose project will "(a) restore 200 acres of moose foraging habitat near wetlands; (b) evaluate use of about 800 acres of previously restored moose foraging habitat; and (c) monitor how GPS-
radiocollared moose utilize the restored sites. This project will improve physical, chemical, and biological processes and ecosystem functions, and will help maintain or improve conditions for native fish and wildlife." All for $193,432.00.

If only moose and trees could vote...

Capturing the essence of fall

It's the peak of fall colors on the North Shore. I am so glad photographers like Travis Novitsky (above) are out there capturing the ephemeral season. This is his fantastic picture from the Superior Hiking Trail west of the Caribou Trail.

Fall colors can seldom be wrapped up into a single frame. It's an experience, not an image. Fall is turning the corner on the Cramer Road and passing through a glowing tunnel of firelit maple. It's the smell in the woods of rot and renewal in the forest astride Leveaux Mountain.



Fall is a cool drink of water during a long and scenic hike in Crosby Manitou State Park.

To find some fall colors for yourself, check out the Superior National Forest's fall color page. There's a link from there to their fall color tour map, which shows the Cramer Road route (they call it "Mt. View Drive," and it's lovely).

It takes a real talent and a firm grasp of photography to create an image that "gets" the North Shore fall color experience. Thanks, Travis, for applying your talent to this cause.

Best time for the trees

"The best time to plant trees was twenty years ago.
The second best time is now."

That's wisdom from the Minnesota Tree Planting Handbook. It's especially true the next two weeks on the North Shore. Community groups and resorts are all ready for a busy tree planting season, and they really want your help. Earn a very cheap stay at a Gunflint lodge, or just help out the neighbors in Hovland.



The Gunflint GreenUp has become a huge event. After the 2007 Ham Lake fire,Gunflint residents and businesses turned crisis into opportunity. It's not just a tree-planting event, it's also a half-marathon and live music with dancing. It's May 7-8. They've had so much success planting trees that they aren't planting anymore, instead doing the VERY important work of clearing grass away from the trees that were already planted. That's called "releasing," and there's lots of work to do.

If you really want to plant trees on the Gunflint, get in touch with Boundary Country Trekking. They're planting trees along the Banadad Trail. Stay at Poplar Creek Guesthouse for cheap and help out. Their dates are April 30-May 2, May 7-9, and May 14-16. Volunteers eat well and stay two nights double occupancy for $89. Call Barb or Ted at (800) 322-8327 or write bct@boundarycountry.com.



On the North Shore proper, head for Hovland on May 1 or May 8. The good folks of the Flute Reed Partnership are planting 1300 white pine, black spruce and white spruce. Meet at 9:00 AM at the Hovland Town Hall...free box lunches will be provided! Contact Rick Schubert if you have any questions, rschub@centurytel.net.

Plant trees...good for you, and good for the North Shore.

Big news for biffies

When you gotta go, you gotta go, right? So I was thrown off by this sign at the Crescent Lake Campground, off the North Shore up the Sawbill Trail, a few weeks back.

How exactly do you close an outhouse? The door was literally screwed shut. Someone meant business; I wasn't doing my business there.

A few days later, a friend told me he saw a huge outhouse doing 60 mph on Highway 61, headed up the shore. Smelling a story, I wrote to the Superior National Forest and received a courteous, detailed response.

It turns out that the RFA had identified the needs, and the LWCF funded the forest through the REA.

In regular language, they had to go. Bad.

The good folks at the Superior National Forest realized that their old outhouses were both falling apart and not ADA accessible. 25 new outhouses (excuse me, "toilets") are being installed in the western part of the Forest, including Crescent Lake and Sawbill Lake campgrounds.

We're getting the single-seater Gunnison...



And the two-holer Tioga...



Plus, you'll be pleased to know that these models have "Sweet Smelling Technology."

According to the manufacturer, CXT Concete Buildings,

The building is designed with sweet smelling technology in mind. A black plastic vent pipe, located on the back side of the building, always faces south. When heated by the sun, the pipe creates a continual air flow through louvered vents located in the building near the floor. The air flows down the riser, through the vault, and finally, up and out of the vent pipe. The positive continual air flow carries the vault air out through the vent pipe, not through the building.

These puppies can survive a category E earthquake, a 150-mph wind or a 350-pound per square foot snow load.

Check out the inside:



25 new outhouses (oops, "toilets"), installed and inspected, total cost about $750,000. That's 30K per pooper. It's money well spent. The toilets were manufactured in Texas, I think, but local contractors did the dirty work (imagine all the crap they had to deal with). The old outhouses were dark, full of flies, and you couldn't turn around without brushing elbows with some questionable mold-like substance on the walls. And I'm sure they had no sweet smelling technology.

So the deed is done. Wash your hands of the old, in with the new.

Oh, LeVeaux

If the North Shore does in fact have "mountains," LeVeaux Mountain is a classic. It rises almost 1000 feet above Lake Superior in the rugged terrain near Lutsen. The Superior Hiking Trail has a great three-mile loop that scampers to the top and takes in great views both inland and out on the vast blue of Lake Superior.

LeVeaux is a classic North Shore "sawtooth" mountain. It rises gradually from the shore, but drops off steeply on the back. Put six or eight of these mountains in a row and you get a pattern like the teeth along the edge of a saw.

I hiked the trail yesterday with a friend, doing research for next year's book, Hiking the North Shore. Here I am, all geeked out at the Onion River bridge, taking notes:



The hike to LeVeaux gets all sorts of great North Shore natural history examples. The trail starts with almost a mile of spruce, birch and fir forest. Then the trail starts to climb and the forest changes to sugar maple. The view from the top yesterday shows this same pattern. The dark green band in the middle is the spruces, while the light green with the oranges and reds are maples, etc. on the ridges.



The trail climbs right up the steep edge of the sawtooth and runs along the ridgeline. This hike is best described as a double lollipop trail, with a one-mile stick and a loop connected to a shorter stick and a shorter loop. The second, shorter lollipop leads to a great view of Lake Superior and Carlton Peak. You do have to figure out what to do at this unmarked intersection:



Either way works fine because it's a quarter-mile loop back onto itself, but it would be nice to have a sign here explaining the options.

I love the view from this last loop:



You can see forever down the shore toward Silver Bay. Taconite Harbor is obvious on the lakeshore, and Carlton Peak is the big dark lump on the right.

LeVeaux is right next to Oberg Mountain, and the same parking lot serves the trails to both landmarks. There are always far fewer people on LeVeaux than on Oberg. The trail is a bit longer and definitely more challenging physically. If you're up the North Shore this fall color season, do yourself a favor and hike LeVeaux.

In my father's footsteps

My father and I hiked from the Caribou Trail to Lutsen on the Superior Hiking Trail on Sunday. Dick has hiked nearly every section of the SHT, so I've asked him about his favorites as I plan what hikes to include in Hiking the North Shore. This was one of his recommendations.

It's a great hike and I'm sure it will be in the book. There's no grind up to the ridgeline like on many other sections; the trail starts high, at about 1300', and ends just a bit lower.

Dick also was quite clear about which direction to hike: east to west. Well alright then. Dick is sort of the Ur-Hiker. He marched us kids along on expeditions down sketchy trails along the Manitou River, seven miles with only a few lemon drops to keep us going.

Back in the 1970s he took my sister and I to the top of Eagle Mountain the easy way, then hiked us out to Brule Lake along the rough wilderness trail. He's crossed all of Britain, part of New Zealand, and half of Italy by trail. From his father he inherited a tendency to snap off branches over the trail, a trait learned back when wilderness trails weren't maintained like they are today.



The trail follows a high ridge overlooking the Poplar River. Above is Dick's picture of me at our lunch break stop.

Dick is 78. He hikes with a walking stick now, straight down at his side like the third leg of a stool. It was a perfect pace for me as I stopped to take notes and snap pictures.



My favorite parts of the route were near the beginning: the view of Caribou Lake from White Sky Rock, this cool section where the trail winds around talus and cedar and climbs a whole log with steps cut in, and scenic wild Lake Agnes. Here's the view of Agnes from the trail register at Hunters Overlook:



Past Lake Agnes, the trail follows the maple-rich ridgeline over the Poplar River, which winds very scenically down below. The trail drops down into the valley and goes through spruce, fir and birch for a mile or so before coming out on the banks of the Poplar. Then you go past two SHT campsites and up and over one last hump before the last descent into Lutsen Mountains chalet area.

Dick plugged along for the whole hike. We talked about the SHT and hiking and Minnesota land conservation issues.

My father showed me how to hike way back when. Our adventures on buggy endless mystery trails set an early standard for me, how to plug away on a backcountry trail and make it through to the end. I learned stoicism and resolve.

Though he showed me how to hike, I learned to love to hike all my own.

As I drag my own sons through the woods down buggy endless mystery trails, that's the best I can hope for. Get them out there, get through the woods alive. Hans now enjoys the challenge of hiking; Noah probably hates to hike. Later they may come to enjoy hiking and seek it out.

Amazing Maples of Mystery Mountain

After the very European first half of my Lutsen gondola hike, the second half of my hike was very Minnesotan. The trail cuts through one of the North Shore's most amazing sugar maple forests.

The sugar maples of the North Shore ridgeline are a fascinating story of forest ecology, of survival and persistence. The maples came to the North Shore 7000 years ago during a warm dry period, and when the warm climate moved back south, the maples found refuge along the North Shore as the big lake kept the air from getting too cold for them.

The Superior Hiking Trail route goes up and over Mystery Mountain, the least-used of Lutsen's ski hills. I first hiked this section of trail 17 years ago, field checking for The Guide to the Superior Hiking Trail. I noticed then that it was sugar maples everywhere. The big trees were sugar maples. The little trees were sugar maples. The shrubs were sugar maples. Even the ground cover was sugar maple. It's really really unusual to have one species of tree or flower dominant all levels of the forest like that.

17 years later, and I've had three jobs, two kids, and one wife. 17 years later in the maples of Mystery Mountain, nothing has changed. It's still maples everywhere.



I could see "baby" maples, biding their time, waiting for the opportunity to spring up. They don't get enough sunshine during the summer to grow much. I could also hear some of the big old maples creaking in the wind. And here and there in maple-land, one of those big maples had come down. Guess what happens next?



With the new sunshine breaking through the canopy, more maple trees grow up. The little trees make their mamas and papas proud as they grow up into the holes the old trees left when they died.

Ecologists might call this a climax forest. The maples are so perfectly suited to this environment that they replace themselves. One maple tree might not live more than a century, but the forest lives for millenia.

I'm sure there's a life lesson in there somewhere, about finding out what you're good at, being comfortable in your environment, something like that. Maybe as a father of two "sprouting" young men finding their places in the world, I saw some of my family in the forest.

Roughing it on the Border Route Trail

Is the Superior Hiking Trail too cushy for you? Too many bridges over streams? Too many handrails on those steps? Just can't stand seeing other PEOPLE every 20 minutes?

Man up. Get out on the Border Route Trail. It's rough out there!

I've been looking for trails to include in the forthcoming Hiking the North Shore. For me to include a trail in a book, the trail needs to be fairly easy to find and not too difficult to follow. The BRT can be hard to find and hard to follow.

If you're accustomed to the Superior Hiking Trail, you'll find the BRT less maintained and less accessible. You'll also find it equally dramatic in its scenery and far more wild and uncrowded.

The BRT is 65 miles long and connects the Superior Hiking Trail with the Kekekabic Trail, cutting across the BWCA Wilderness. It's accessed off the Arrowhead Trail and the Gunflint Trail.

The BRT is known for its dramatic scenery. The border lakes area in the tip of the Arrowhead has a geologic story unique to Minnesota, the result of which are long narrow lakes edged by steep cliffs. The picture above is from the BRT looking east across South Fowl Lake past the Pigeon Cliffs area.

But, ooh, it's rough out there.

Just for example, the main indicator of the trail is blue flagging, like this:



The trail doesn't get enough foot traffic to grind in a treadway (the bare dirt place where your boots hit), nor do the trail builders create a treadway as they do on the Superior Hiking Trail.

The BRT was built by volunteers and the Superior National Forest back in the 1970s. It predates the SHT by a decade. Yet it still feels fresh and wild and under construction, like the first draft of a trail.

Did I find a trail to include in the book? I think so. The access off the Arrowhead Road up by Macfarland Lake is easy to find, and the trail east of there is fairly easy to follow. And the views are gorgeous.



Is it rough? It's rough AND tough. But if you're accustomed to the Superior Hiking Trail, with its wide and frequent clearing and consistent signage, be careful. Get a map at the Lake Superior Trading Post and bring a compass.

Yeah, baby.

North Shore campsites already full

This great sign was up for about a week last May just east of Tettegouche on Highway 61. It has a lesson well worth learning.

If you have a favorite Lake Superior North Shore campsite, in a favorite North Shore campground, you should be making plans NOW to ensure you get that campsite again this summer. With the state parks replacing a 90-day advance reservation with 365-day advance registration, people are already reserving well into the fall.

A quick browse of www.stayatmnparks.com for weekend openings at North Shore state park campgrounds reveals that about 90% of the campsites that can be reserved are already reserved for weekends, all through August. Ouch.

Even the Superior National Forest campgrounds take reservations. Since our book Camping the North Shore came out a year ago, at least three of the campgrounds featured there are now taking reservations. Plan ahead if you're headed to Sawbill Lake, Crescent Lake, or Temperance River campgrounds.

If at all possible, make a reservation for your North Shore camping experience. It will let you slow down, as the sign suggest, but you are the one who "already took your campsite."

If you just can't shed that need to be spontaneous, try to be spontaneous on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, when there are the most vacancies in the campgrounds.

If you show up on the Shore on a Friday evening and still don't have a reservation, there are a few places you could try. No promises, but Ninemile Lake campground up the Cramer Road from Finland and Two Island Lake campground north and west from Grand Marais almost always have some sites open. Also, it seems like Lambs Resort in Schroeder nearly always has someplace they can fit another camper, especially if you're in a tent.



Plan your day and your vacation just enough, and you can fully enjoy your North Shore vacation.

Volks Ski Fest, Part I: Ah, go to "L"

Volks Ski Fest kicked off this weekend up in Cook County, the gravitational center of North Shore skiing. While some folks were snowshoeing up the Kadunce River or adding up the K in their special passbooks, a small group of us did an interpretive ski trip on the Sugarbush trail system. And I'll tell you, we went to 'Ell and back!

Actually, it was a very nice group of intermediate skiers, including a Greek/German book publisher from Minneapolis and a medical couple (doctor and nurse) from Winona. It's amazing how slow you can go on a speedy ski trail, when you're enjoying the conversation and looking for patterns in the woods. But the real adventure started on the little cross trail at the top of the 3K loop.

If you ski up the Onion River Road, which is relatively flat as most roads are, then connect back on a little part of the famed Picnic Loop, your whole route is marked in green ink or with a comforting "easy" green circle. The trail designers that put in this hill and junction at the top of the loop had other ideas, possibly nefarious.

The downhill runs pretty easy for a few hundred meters, then BANG! At the same time, the trail gets way steeper and hits a "T" junction...the wrong way. Fortunately, our group knew about the danger zone. Above is Carin, the guide from Lutsen Resort, showing her best snowplow and racing technique.

Everyone made it down the hill and past the junction, though the book publisher took her time and took her skis off. It wasn't the only time that day I would recall the saying, "Discretion is the better part of valor."

Not all skiers that day were forewarned, and even in the day's fresh snow you could see tracks of people who missed the turn and headed into the woods.

But the trail designers weren't done yet. Having made it down the hill, a simple blue diamond tells you off:



What is this, the Bronx?

Coming soon: Discretion and valor at Cascade

Virtual skiing stinks...

...but it's better than spreadsheets if you're stuck on your computer.

If you're dying to get up the shore and do some skiing, but you're stuck at your desk, check out this video from Greg Fangel and the Sugarbush Trail Association. This is the same trailhead I visited December 11.

The video lasts about five minutes and takes you around the Homestead loop. The downhill run down Bridge Run is the best skiing part, but a mid-trail chat with North Shore skiing legend Jan Horak of Cobblestone Cabins is just a hoot.

There's another video from Greg that shows skiing the Onion River Road. Not quite as fun, but it has a nice chat with Charlie Nelson, another local skiing legend.

Whose woods these were

The second most famous line in one of the most famous English language poems, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, runs:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow

These lines came to my mind as I hiked around Scarp Lake on the Hogback Lake trail a week or two ago (on Election Day, actually).

As far as I could tell, it was an old surveyor's post, marking a section or township corner perhaps. An odd feeling hit me, when I saw that it might be a property line. Whose woods these are? Whose woods these were? Well, they're Superior National Forest now, but back then maybe it was a timber company, marking the edge of its property before clearing it, leaving the white pine stumps I'd seen all around. Maybe a homesteader paced off his 40 acres from this post, dreaming of a potato harvest next year.

I've hiked through a lot of forest, on public and private land, but had never seen a post like this.

Here is the post a bit closer up:



I am so glad for open wild places, where property lines disappear in the magnitude of forest, where I can imagine rolling on across esker and swamp near forever.

Frost's poem goes on a bit about horses and farmhouses, then ends with the poem's most famous lines:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Can't wrap it up any better than that!

On the road

We drove from Ely to Duluth along Highway 1 the other day. There's some woozy curves along the way, especially woozy for kids in the back seat. I guess Noah wanted some fresh air, or he'd been inspired by the poodle, but he seemed to be enjoying the cool fall air and the breeze as we passed near Isabella.

When Noah grins like this, my whole world lights up.

My favorite ski trails...once

Back when I was a hippy...

When I lived out of the back of my car and made just enough money for new wool socks...

When I owned just one pair of skis, some Rossignol Randonees with metal edges I could use for downhill, cross country and everywhere in between...

Way back then, the North Arm Ski Trails north of Ely were my favorite ski trails. I loved the wild forests and hairy turns and the pride and work of packing my own trails. Tall pines marked the trail.


We hiked those trails this weekend, one last bit of fall colors in the woods as the tamarack and a few aspen were hanging in there with their season's best.

The trails in summer are nice for hiking, except a few low wet areas that had been filled in with logs. Perfect for winter, treacherous in summer. Hard to believe the open, lichen-covered rocks could make a good ski trail, but with decent snow cover the trails are great. Bring your shortest ski poles with the biggest baskets, however; the skier-tracked tracks are deep in the snow.

Now I'm hopeless addicted to wider groomed ski trails. I can't get the speed I'd like on these North Arm trails, and if I did, I'd probably crash into the big pines or over the Troll's Bridge.

But wow, are they sweet on a quiet winter wilderness day!

Where the lost hikers were found

Last week, two hikers from Duluth were lost on the Kekekabic Trail. The "Kek" is a wilderness giant that connects the Ely area with the Gunflint Trail through the heart of the BWCA. It's a rough and rugged trail, hard to find anytime but especially difficult after the blowdown and fires that have rearranged the whole region.

The two hikers that had been missing this weekend were found yesterday just north of Bingshik Lake. This spring I hiked in to Bingshik Lake (picture below) on the Kekekabic Trail. It was just a day hike, but I was still struck by how rugged and unforgiving the terrain is. The trailbed itself was basically fine, but the "woods" were a jumble of blown-down and burned-down tree trunks (picture above).


I am not at all surprised that they got off the trail. I was there before the grass grew in; with full grass cover, it could have made the trail impossible to find or follow.

This first (or last) section of the Kek receives, I imagine, better maintenance than the rest of the trail. What a challenge those two hikers had! I am so glad they were found and are okay. The Kek is deserving of all the press it gets for being over-the-top challenging.