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.

Overlooking beautiful Lake Superior.

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. 

Monday, 9/14/26, 6:39 am sunrise.
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. 

View of lake from Tofte Park.
Cloud shadow art.
More clouds – Grand Marais Harbor.

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.

Kadunce River trail.

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.

The North Shore

We went up to the north shore to celebrate my birthday last week.

3/20/25, 7:17 am

There was a beautiful sunrise the morning of my birthday, and the sun continued to shine all day long.

We wanted to do a little hiking. We had tried hiking at Gooseberry Falls the day before, but we had to turn back due to a very icy trail. Although there was no snow on the ground anywhere, the shaded trails in the woods still had ice cover making it difficult to hike on them.

When we stopped for a specialty coffee at Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors, another customer joined our conversation with the waitress about places to hike in the area that might not be icy. The stranger asked us about the Gitchi-Gami bike trail. And it was one of those ah-ha moments; “I can’t believe we didn’t think about the wonderful paved bike trail with sections all along the north shore.”

An portion of the Gitchi-Gami Bike trail along Lake Superior.

So we found our safe place to hike along Lake Superior, and it was lovely.

Glistening waters.

Besides the sparkling lake, we saw different images on two different hikes. Do you see what I see?

A bat…a sheet of ice still clinging to a large rock in Lake Superior, facing south (no sun to melt it).

The head of a wolf (right), and a deer lying down looking out (left) in the hollow of a tree.

Several little bear cubs climbing up the tree.

It was a fun birthday; with hiking, cabin time, and watching the waves roll in. A great beginning to another trip around the sun.