MN and MI (09-05-12)

We are now on our way to a Mobile Suites Rally in Michigan. It’s quite a drive from where we are to where we’re going, so some of our days are spent in the truck for hours at a time, trying to put some serious miles behind us. Of course, everything is relative- we don’t like traveling more than 200 miles in a day, so 275 miles sure seems like a lot!  Just ask the cat! We did stop in Duluth for two nights, partly because we couldn't fathom when we would ever come back this way again, so we figured we'd better check it out now!  We actually thought the town was really nice and had a lot to offer, and we packed a lot of adventure into the one day we had there. We started by driving down to the waterfront. Situated on Lake Superior, Duluth is the most inland seaport in the U.S.   Many freighters still come through this way, picking up raw materials.
 

We enjoyed watching the lift bridge open for the sailboats and freighters to go underneath, and were impressed that as the freighter cruised through, someone over a PA system explained to the watching crowds how the lift bridge works and gave the history of the ship that was currently coming through. 

The crew of each vessel gives one long and two short blasts of their massive horn,  as a courtesy salute to the bridge tender.  The bridge tender then blasts his horn in response,  tooting the same message.  Paul grinned as he said that as impressive as they were, he didn't have horn envy (well, actually, we both thought the freighter horn sounded really cool!).

Along the waterfront there are the usual shops, hotels, boat excursions, and a museum of the Army Corp of Engineers.  We headed to that (free) museum to read about the local history of the COE.  This is where I love modern technology.  After the first 20 minutes, I started playing on my cell phone while Paul took his time exploring the exhibits.  


a walking boardwalk right next to the bike path!



Duluth also has several bike trails so we got out the bikes and realized it had been almost a year since we'd ridden them!  That will have to change, although to be fair, it was partly  because of my broken wrist.   After riding the 12 mile round trip trail that follows along Lake Superior for a while we decided that was enough for our first day back at it.

               

On the way back to the trailer, we drove up the local scenic drive, Skyline Drive which gave us a great view of the seaport, then stopped at Walmart to pick up some diesel oil.  Paul chatted with someone the other day who changes his own oil on his F350, so Paul has decided to change ours from now on too.  We'll save about $150-250 a year by doing it ourselves, plus he'll change  the fuel filter too, which will save us even more.

Boreal/Borealis (Minnesota, 09-01-12)

Sometimes I'm a little slow to connect the dots.  Several times in our travels we've heard the term Boreal forest.  I just figured it referred to the types of trees that grew in that particular kind of woods, but then we came to northern Minnesota, and I began checking daily to see if we had any chance of fulfilling a long time ambition of mine- to see the Northern lights. Northern MN is one of the better places in the lower 48 to actually catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights.  It finally clicked with me that a Boreal Forest is" a forest located in a Northern region".  Much to my disappointment, solar activity is very low right now, which means I probably won't see them, but I found a great website for  checking the activity level  (http://www.softservenews.com/Aurora.htm) , so I will continue to check it every day while we are here in the “Boreal states”.

We've spent the last few days in the awesome little town of Grand Marais MN.  It's right on Lake Superior, and has a small harbor and a cool little waterfront area with shops and restaurants, all within walking distance our RV park. We were extremely tempted to put the boat in the water, but didn’t.

The other night we went to one of the seafood restaurants right on the water, although our plan of eating outside on the deck was foiled by the wind and the sudden temperature drop.

We spent one afternoon hiking to two waterfalls in nearby Grand Portage state park.  The falls were ok, but nothing spectacular.  The hike, although not too long- 4 miles- was difficult due to the heat  and high humidity.

While exploring the area,  we stopped at the Grand Portage Heritage Center, even though I thought I had learned enough about the Voyageurs at Voyageurs National Park.  I was so glad we stopped though- turns out there was a lot more interesting information to be had about that time in history.

In the 1700s, Grand Portage, MN was at the center of the fur trade. This is the spot where the Voyageurs left the water and had to carry their goods along a 9 mile stretch of land. It was here that the Montreal Voyageurs would rendezvous with the western Voyageurs and swap goods. At the Living History exhibit several of the North West Company buildings have been reconstructed. 

We chatted with a fellow making a birch bark canoe in the same manner they were made hundreds of years ago.  While showing us how they were put together, he taught us about how amazing the birch tree is and why it is uniquely perfect for building a canoe.

So, here are some interesting facts:
Birch bark can be peeled from the tree without causing damage to the tree, if done correctly (and he explained how to do that).
Birch bark will rot in the sun but will not rot in water, in fact, water makes it stronger. If a canoe is stored in the dark or used in the water regularly, it will last for hundreds of years.
The bark is used "inside out" for the canoe because the outside, white bark is dead, rotted by the sun, and the orange bark is fresh and waterproof.  A birch bark canoe can carry much heavier loads than it’s aluminum counterpart. The wood of a birch tree is digestible by humans, and is non-toxic.  It is used to make popsicle sticks and tooth picks.

Voyageurs National Park, MN (08-25-12)

First of all, what the heck is this?  It’s still August, people! The locals do tell us that the leaves start to change in late August around here, and the mornings now have that crispness in the air, just like we used to have on the first day of school when we were kids. I love the summer, but it is kind of nice when autumn starts to roll in.  

Voyageurs National Park was named a national park in the 1970s and is unique in that 40% of the park is water. It’s located in Minnesota, on the Canadian border. It is named for the French Canadian boatmen (called Voyageurs)  who, in the 1700-1800s,  were hired to paddle through these waters carrying beaver pelts and other goods for trading.  They traveled 3000 miles every summer in canoes, rowing an average of 15 hours a day.  There were several places where they had no choice but to port the boats over rough terrain, or around dangerous rapids.  Each man was required to carry over 500 lbs of goods, (100-300 lbs at a time) so these guys would do just about anything, and take any risk to avoid a portage.  So, one of the requirements for becoming a Voyageur is that you can’t know how to swim.  Say what??  The theory behind that was that the Voyageurs hated portage so much they would take unnecessary risks with the cargo, as long as they felt they themselves would survive and be able to swim ashore.  Without the ability to swim, they were more cautious about riding the more dangerous rapids, thereby keeping the cargo safe. 

After hearing horror stories of people getting lost in the hundreds of lakes here, we had pretty much decided to leave the boat piloting to someone else, and booked a 5 hour ranger led tour on Lakes Kabetogama,and Namakan to Kettle Falls Hotel, where we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant.   Before we left the dock, the ranger gave us pointers on searching for Bald Eagles. Basically she said that pine trees branches look like this:

And Pine tree branches with a Bald Eagle sitting on them look like this:



young bald eagle



It turns out that’s a very simple, but effective way of spotting eagles sitting in the trees.



adolescent bald eagle soaring



On the way to lunch, we stopped at 5 eagles nests, and zigzagged all over the lake every time someone spotted a bird.  It was a fun two hours, and we saw well over a dozen eagles, including some adolescent ones.  The head and tail of a bald eagle don’t turn white until the bird is about 5 years old.

We learned that many of the eaglets are banded for tracking purposes, when they are still in the nest, before they are able to fly.  Scientists wait until the talons have reached their full size, so the bird won’t be injured by the tag. The researchers literally climb up the tree, and into the nest, which is no mean feat. Eagles nests are 5-9 feet wide and can weigh up to two tons.

 

Once there, they put the baby birds in a bag to carry them down the tree.  What are the parents doing right about now?  They take off. Literally.  After all, you can always have more chicks, so they abandon the babies to fend for themselves.  After the birds are weighed, measured, and have had some blood tests, they are returned to the nest-no harm done.

30 years ago there were only 5 nesting pairs of eagles in the park and now there are over 50- that’s quite a comeback!  We were lucky enough to find one pair of eagles while they were sitting in the nest:



mature eagles on the nest

  
I was very happy with how the pictures came out, given that we were in a moving boat the whole time I was taking them!

 
If you look at the background on the pictures, you’ll be able to tell easily which ones were taken on the way to the hotel, and which ones were taken on the way back, when the weather took a turn for the worse.  The wind picked up and the clouds came in.  The water was a little rough, but we enjoyed it.  I also enjoyed my new Puma jacket (thanks Ray!)

I’ve been looking for a wind breaker type jacket, but one with a lining, and I finally found it at Puma (my brother works for Puma). The cuffs are a great elastic and it has an awesome hood, which was a bonus.  It is perfect!

The hiking in Voyageurs National Park leaves much to be desired.  People come here to be on the water, not to hike, so the trails are few, and the maintenance non-existent. Oh, and if the trail name is “Beaver Pond overlook” or “Kabetogama Lake Overlook” it does NOT mean there will actually be an overlook.  Maybe there was at one time, but not anymore.  We had planned a unique hike, but weren’t able to do it.  We were going to boat out to a remote peninsula, hike two miles, pick up a canoe that we rented from the Park, then canoe on one of the smaller lakes, before turning around and heading back.  It sounded like a lot of fun, but we were stumped. We needed a water taxi to get us to the peninsula, and they are all too busy to commit to such a small request.  So instead, we hiked a few miles, then went back to the RV park.  It’s on a river and has canoes that are free for us to use.  We canoed 3 miles down the river to a waterfall, then canoed back.  No pictures.  The canoe was tippy (ask Paul) and I didn’t want to risk any electronics.