Migizi Trail -- Part Five

The hardest part of writing about the Migizi Trail is deciding which pictures to leave out. I have deleted quite a few near duplicates and still have 26 photos, several taken from my bike as I rode along the forested trail.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Monday morning the truck's thermometer said 47 degrees as we left Jill's cabin.  It was 45 when we got to the Cass Lake trailhead.  Not exactly the direction we wanted the temperature to go.  We had plenty of cold weather gear with us, fortunately, and we were wearing just about all of it.  The Migizi Trail loops around Pike Bay for about 16 miles, and we rode that loop plus an extra little jog into the Norway Beach campgrounds on Cass Lake, directly across Highway 2 north of Pike Bay.  The trail is very pretty, forested, curvy, hilly -- just so very nice.  Here are a dozen of the photos from that (cold) ride.  (Migizi is an Ojibway word for eagle, I've been told.)

In the third photo you can see some of the damage this woods sustained from straight line winds a few years ago.  The trail had to be closed for a year to get it cleared of the downed trees.  Most of these pics were taken as I was riding.  I know, too many photos.

The Allez (currently called Ellie for short) was my bike of choice for this trip, and she performed well, including a few short strips of gravel, grass and a variety of surfaces.  We loaded the bikes back on the truck (we were getting pretty good at it by this time) and drove back to Jill's cabin in the woods.  She had some things to arrange to get their place closed up for the winter, and we had been invited to a fish fry at the home of the couple who would be pulling out their shore station for them.  We brought the rest of the food from her fridge and it made a pretty good meal altogether.  Before we ate we took a pontoon ride on Boy Lake, courtesy of the couple -- neighbors of Jill and her husband.  It was really, really cold on the lake, especially on the outbound leg into the wind.  The views were worth it, though -- we saw an eagle perched at the top of a tree on an island mid lake, for example.  And the maple trees were a blaze of color in the low angle of the sun.  I'd forgotten to take my camera with me, sadly.  It was a nice way to spend our last evening in that neck of the woods.  Tomorrow we would begin the long road home.  (Just one more post and I'm done.)  Thanks for reading along!  Two more photos with pine trees for Mrs. Smith and Wireless.

A Tale of Two Trails -- Part Four

Sunday -- September 28th.  This would turn out to be our last really warm day in a string of beautiful weather for this trip, with a high between 75 and 80 degrees by the time we finished biking.  We started in Walker, about a half hour drive or so from Jill's cabin.  It's a pretty little town of about 941 people settled along the edge of Leech Lake south of Highway 2 about half way between Grand Rapids, MN and Bemidji.  We unloaded our bikes from Jill's truck and headed south on the trail.

The Paul Bunyan Trail and the Heartland Trail run together here along a gorgeous stretch of fairly flat rail to trail, through woods, along lakes and marshlands, with a horse trail running alongside it.  About 7 miles into our ride we reached the split point of the two trails and we stopped to decide which fork to take.

As you can see, it was a warm, sunny day and the tree colors were beautiful. Which way, Kelly and Jill?  Here are the choices -- the first one is the Heartland Trail, the second the Paul Bunyan.

We'd just ridden to this point from Walker.  We could ride to Akely for another 5 miles on the Heartland Trail.  Total mileage of 24 -- 7+5 times 2 for the round trip.  Or we could ride to Hackensack ( Jill's favorite trail) on the Paul Bunyan.  Let's do the math on that one -- 7 plus 17 times two.  Hmmm.  I get 48 miles.  That was Jill's choice, a bit to my surprise.  Then I looked closely at the sign that described that alternative, and saw warnings of "slopes" of up to 8%.  Ouch.  Kelly and I voted for Akely -- majority ruled.  Sorry Jill.

We stopped at this park in Akely, a town of 432 and this big guy.  It also has a pretty funky local museum at the same park.  We poked around there some, ate some trail snacks, and headed back to Walker the way we had come -- through many, many leaf and needle showers.

Sweet trail!  I rode past our starting point to round up my mileage, getting a "light at the end of the tunnel" photo op as a bonus.

Back to the truck, where we loaded up the bikes for the trip back to the cabin in the woods.  The truck was a big part of this trip, so it should be included in at least a couple of photos.  Here are Kelly and Jill waiting at the truck for me to arrive.

Groceries were acquired for breakfast, then a quick supper of left-overs from our dinner at the Sawmill, and a visit to one of the neighbors at an old resort on Boy Lake.  Lots of stories were told before heading back to the cabin.  The single TV channel was of limited interest to me, and with no internet, I chose an early bedtime.  A cold front arrived overnight, and that's where I'll pick this up next time.  (Real time update:  I am home, and there's no place like home.)

The Iron Range and Beyond -- Part Three

Saturday was our last day on the Range.  The three of us drove to Annabella's, an antique shop in Bovey.  It was another warm and sunny day!  I think it hit 77 or so by mid afternoon.  Jill found a few things to buy for her antique shop back in Michigan, then we took a short walking tour of Coleraine.  We were back in Swan Lake in time for lunch -- some Iron Range sloppy Joes on rye buns, leftover pizza and some lefse we'd found in Nashwauk, I think.  One of us suggested a swim in cold, cold Swan Lake.  It felt like a frozen death by inches.  No photos that we're willing to make public were taken of any of this.  We warmed ourselves on another fire that TT stirred up in the fire pit, then a group of us took a pretty long hike (our third for this trip) on a section of the Mesabi Trail north of Nashwauk.  It was a nice woodsy rail-to-trail section of the Mesabi, so not as horribly hilly as the first section we hiked earlier in the week.  A few photos from that walk did survive, and here's a couple of them.

Yep, that's what I've got.  A photo of a rock and another of my brother standing next to a big pile of rocks at our turn around point.  It was a nice way to round out the afternoon before we went to the Sawmill in Grand Rapids for an excellent dinner.  I said goodbye to the best host and hostess in the world and "Charlie's Angels" headed south and west to Jill's cabin in the woods.  It's both charming and rustic.

We played cards for a while then headed to bed.  We woke to gunfire -- hunting season was apparently underway.  The morning was cool and sunny, and we took a walk down the gravel road to get a feel for the area -- it was dark when we arrived, and I had no idea where we were.

Their 110 acre woods is pretty secluded, backing up to National Forest land and surrounded by Indian Reservations.  It felt like we'd stepped back in time a few decades -- especially the part with no phone reception, no internet and only one TV channel.  Oh, and no neighbors.  After breakfast we drove to Walker to get an early start on the planned bike ride for the day -- and I'll pick up with that next time.  (Real time update -- we're in Mackinac City, just south of the bridge, and have yet to eat a pasty.  We expect to be home tomorrow evening.)

Back on the Grid -- Part Two

I've been without internet access for a few days, so I have some catching up to do with this blog.  I've taken plenty of photos, so my plan is to blog about this trip until I run out of pictures and/or things to say.  When last I blogged, I was in Swan Lake with NCW and TT, enjoying some spectacular fall weather and color.  The next morning -- Friday -- the three of us drove TT's car around Swan Lake to check out the road and traffic conditions.  The ride looked like it could, and even should, be done -- though there were a few more hills than this flatlands rider is used to.

 While I waited for my bicycle to arrive, we took another hike on the Mesabi trail, this time from the Pengilly access point.  TT has some good stuff on his blog about the visit to the baseball field, which was the high point of that little trek, I think.  Eventually the rest of the group (that has apparently taken the name of Charlie's Angels) arrived -- bringing along my bicycle.  Left to right are Kelly, Sabrina and Jill.  For those of you too young to remember the TV show, Sabrina was the smart one and Jill was the pretty one.  We can't remember what Kelly was supposed to do.

We set off around Swan Lake, and at about mile five, Kelly yelled at Sabrina, using her middle name.  Something like, "Sabrina Louise!!!"  She was looking at a hill that looked bigger on a bike than it had in the car.  (Pretty much true for most hills.)

It never did flatten out much, but the last stretch along the west side of Swan Lake was really pretty, and mostly worth a climb up and over couple of big rollers.  And at 12 miles, it was within everyone's ability, really.  We all rallied for a trip into Hibbing for supper.

Kelly and Jill in front of Bob Dylan's childhood home.  Jill's husband is a big Dylan fan, apparently.  From there we went to Sammy's for salad and pizza then back to the lake for an evening sitting around a big fire at the lake front, telling tall stories about growing up on the Iron Range.  The Milky Way was clearly visible across the sky -- something I haven't seen for quite a while.  If that isn't nice, what is?

Destination -- Part One of Several

It's not a short trip, but it was definitely worth it to get here.  The leaves got more colorful the further north we drove, not too surprisingly.  This is how they looked when we got here.

It was early afternoon when we arrived, and after settling in we decided to take a hike down the Mesabi trail for a ways.  It skirts the edge of a really big hole in the ground, which was closed to visitors from now until forever.  We did not climb through this fence.

And we did not walk to the edge of the old mine.

We did walk a mile and a half or so down the trail, which has a pretty big/steep hill or two on this section.

We shared the trail with some wildlife.  At first glance we thought this might be a bear cub, though it isn't the season for cubs.  It turned out to be just a porcupine, though I don't want to get close to one of these, either.

We stopped at the market on our way back to the lake and scored some regional food not available in Michigan.  Smoked Cisco, Sarma (a Finnish stuffed cabbage) and some lefse.  And a bag of good wild rice to take home.  After supper we headed down to the lake to watch the sun make one last attempt to break through the clouds while TT built a fire in the firepit.

In the end the sun won out, and we had both a sunset and a blazing fire.

The only missing piece was the loons, who may have headed south before we got here.  Pretty much all of the things I came here to see cooperated, and it just doesn't get much better than that.

Barnum, MN

This place, right off highway 35, has a good breakfast.  And really good wild rice and cranberry bread.  (With TT and NCW).

Early Autumn Beach, Almost Sunset

My walking group is out of town this week, but I walked anyway.  My spouse and I had some errands to run this morning, and it was after supper before I got to it.  For a change of pace I walked the beach -- and I wanted to see what the big winds on Sunday had done to it.

I had it all to myself, pretty much.  That speck in the distance is my neighbor Tammy, though I didn't know it at the time.

I considered turning around at the Big New House, but it didn't seem like enough exercise and I continued on.

There weren't many boats out either, just a sailboat entering the harbor.  You can tell that the wind kicked up some pretty good waves by the amount of sand that's been carved out of the fore-dune.  Though some of that has been going on all summer.

I walked as far as Spyglass then turned around.

There were plenty of signs that we've lost dune grass, including clumps of it on the beach.

I do like a colorful tree, but one of my favorite signs of fall is fully headed out seed heads on the sea grass.

This thing used to set a lot further north than this, but it has a long way to go before it's done heading south.

Still Learning Stuff

It wasn't a very nice weekend here. Yesterday was an especially nasty day, with strong gusty winds and off and on rain. The Grandson was spending the weekend with his Uncle for youth hunting weekend, though no deer were sighted by anyone they knew. The College Girl had a paper to write, and kept her nose to the grindstone. Even my walking group had other things to do and other places to be.  I risked death by falling acorns to get this photo.

On a completely different topic, I want to know what's the deal with secrets, anyway?  And why am I always the last to know?  A recent example:  last week I rode down to the bike shop and bought myself a cool bike cap, for no good reason except that I don't have one and I wanted one.  Since I rode -- code for biked -- I had my bike with me.  And my bicycle didn't come with a kick stand.  (And just so you know, I took the kick stand off the only bike I have that did come with one.)  It's hard to try on caps while holding up a bicycle, so Bike Laura backed the Allez into a corner, and VOILA it stood up, all by itself.  I was shocked and amazed.  "Why didn't you show me that trick years ago?"  I asked.  Bike Laura replied, "Then you won't have bought all those bike stands from me."  "But surely other people know about this.  Why didn't anyone tell me?"   Her response, "It's a secret."  And since I'm not all that good at keeping secrets (though to be clear, I can if I must), I am sharing this secret with all of you who read my blog.  Here's proof --

This photo was taken outside of the PSPS this afternoon.  There was no trick photography involved, or for that matter, tricks of any sort.  Bike Laura gave me some long winded explanation involving pivot points and such, but I'm pretty sure it's just magic.  Granted, the bike fell over about a minute after I took this, while I was drinking my diet Code Red, but I think that is because I didn't lean it in towards the wall enough.  It takes a little practice to get it just right, but it really does work.  Why didn't somebody tell me?  (And for you bike geek out there, yes that's Ruby.  And that's a whole other story.)