Campfire – Valerie's Voice

The North Shore

The colors up on the north shore last week were just starting to turn so we didn’t see much fall color, but that’s ok. We hope to see color in Vermont when we go there to visit friends in a couple of weeks. What we did see up north was a lot of the big, beautiful lake…and we were excited to be there…my happy place.

View of Oberg Lake from Oberg Mountain Loop Trail.

We checked into a new place for us, Bluefin Bay Resort, known to many. We walked out the door of our unit and took in the beautiful view of Lake Superior from the deck.

View of Lake Superior from Bluefin Bay Resort.

We settled in for our quiet get away, hoping to be nourished and refreshed. The weather was cooperative…seasonal temps, great cloud art, sunny weather – it rained only once and that was at night.

Our unit had a good view to see the morning sunrise. It rises later these days so I didn’t need to set an alarm to get up to see it.

Wednesday, 9/16/26, 6:50 am, sunrise through low clouds.

Our unit had a wood-burning fireplace with unlimited wood supply to create a lovely atmosphere indoors (although we did set off the smoke alarm once). For our outdoor campfire, the resort lights a bonfire each night in a large fire pit by the lake.

Firepit along the lake shore at Bluefin Bay.

Guests gather there to visit and make s’mores. Individual s’more packages are made up to hand out to all who want them. (We did.) It was an interesting, but nice, change to sit around the campfire with friendly strangers.

We brought our bikes along and took in a nice bike ride on the Gitchi-Gami State Trail. And, we took several hikes; including a new trail to us, the Kadunce River.

The steep rock ledges on the Kadunce River were hard to capture in a photo.

It had rained the night before so the water was rushing down the many cascades of falls and through steep rock ledges, creating a slot canyon of sorts. It was a fun hike.

Although we didn’t feel the wind while hiking, it was a very windy day. At the end of the hike, we went to the shore to watch three guys surfing the waves on the big lake.

A snap shot from a video of surfers on the waves of Lake Superior.

Time goes too fast these days, and seems even faster when one is on a trip, away from home and from daily routines. But I’m always grateful for any time we can be on the shores of Lake Superior.

This view is from Tettegouche State Park.

Color and Light, Morning to Night

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  
                                                                                                Psalm 118:24

7:03 am on 10/1/24… the moment of sunrise.

A couple hours later we trekked up Oberg Mountain and saw more beautiful colors of a different kind. Once again, I was grateful to be able to hike this trail, and was thankful to have the opportunity to do so.

10:15 am on 10/1/24…a view out to Lake Superior on the Oberg Trail.

10:30 am on 10/1/24… one of seven outlooks on the Oberg Trail.

And back at the cabin…the lovely, wispy clouds.

The sky was constantly changing, but the waves continue to roll in, year after year, reminding me of God’s faithfulness.

7:43 pm on 10/1/24… the cabin backlit by the early evening light.

8:30 pm on 10/1/24 …the end of our day, fire light on the rocks and a stunning display of stars overhead in the night sky.

Amen.

July 2024

The month of July was a very unusual, emotional month for us – dramatic negatives interspersed with unique positives…

A Negative:
A family member has been very sick.
A Positive:
My second cousin and his wife from Norway stayed with us for five days and we enjoyed our time together.
A Positive:
Our youngest son and his wife and two children, Zoey & Ezra, came for a three-week visit. 
A Negative:
I tested positive for COVID, and needed to curtail some activities. Thankfully I didn’t get very sick, it didn’t linger, and no one else caught it.

A stand-out activity with our two grandchildren from North Carolina, was a camping trip. We made plans to go camping with Zoey and Ezra when we knew they would be visiting us in Minnesota. Their parents had planned a getaway by themselves to celebrate special birthdays, so we made reservations for a camping cabin in a state park, about an hour away.

Camping never disappoints to create unforgettable memories. And we created memories. The biggest problem we encountered were the mosquitos, of course, and it also rained a couple of times. But we were able to do all we wanted to. We ate well (and outside)…blueberry pancakes, roasted hot dogs, s’mores, hobo meals… and we sat around the campfire, relaxed and read in the screen porch, had ice cream for lunch…we had fun.

We made hobo meals to cook over the open fire.

One of my favorite activities with Zoey and Ezra was writing and creating a book about our camping experience after we returned home. Zoey took notes as we all sat together and made suggestions as to what to write about our two-night camping trip and all the mishaps…much like The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Vacation. Both Ezra and Zoey got into this activity and we spent several hours on it. And I must say, it turned out well.

Ezra dictated as Zoey typed it up in a Word document. Then I edited the six chapters, and it “went to press”. We printed copies to present to the parents when they arrived home from their mini-get away.

The book, The Very Crazy Camping Trip, became an instant success!