Hiking – Page 2 – Valerie's Voice

Lake Superior Venture

We just returned from an amazing time on the north shore of Lake Superior. As I’ve written before, it is one of my all-time favorite places to be. When we arrive at the cabin we rent, I sigh a happy sigh when I walk through the door and see the lake through the floor to ceiling windows. It is a marvelous and breathtaking sight that I never grow tired of. I literally feel a calm come over me. I miss it when I’m not there.

During our time at the cabin, we did what we normally do…we enjoy God’s bountiful creation. We bike and hike, drink our morning coffee on the deck, watch the sunrise, have a bon fire on the rocks, relax, read good books, eat delicious food overlooking the lake, and just sit and look at the lake.

I had good intentions of cleaning up my computer files, or deleting photos off my phone, do a little writing, but none of that happened. The lake is alluring and mesmerizing, and we can just sit and do nothing but enjoy the vista for hours…and so we do, and we do not worry about getting anything accomplished. I believe we are being rejuvenated from the inside out.

We traditionally go up to the north shore in September but this year we had reservations in July. The weather was cooler than normal for July, the sunrise is earlier in July…5:20ish…and different kinds of flowers are blooming in July…like beautiful lupines, perky daisies and bright yellow bird’s-foot trefoil.

A photo exposition follows:

A view outside the cabin. I was pleased to see lupines on the property. We started seeing lupine along Scenic Drive as we were driving up. Lupines are not in bloom in September, when we are usually at the cabin.

One of our hikes…overlooking Oberg Lake in summer, 2023.

This is same overlook of Oberg Lake in autumn, 2019.

Streets lined with gold…Highway 61, back roads and bike trails were lined with bird’s-foot trefoill. It was impressive.

This is a bridge on the new section of the Gitchi-Gami bike trail, which we rode on from Cutface Wayside Park into Grand Marais.

Temperance River…a hike we always enjoy, along the gorges of this wild river.

We enjoy a bon fire on the rocks outside the cabin.

Clear water reveals the rocks underneath the waters of Lake Superior.

Our hike to Caribou Falls…down 156 steps to see this beautiful waterfalls, then back up 156 steps! It’s worth it. It’s gorgeous.

Our son Tim took a photo of lupines and a single daisy years ago…it was fun to recapture a similar posturing.

Lake Superior…some days it’s calm, other days it’s not…somedays it’s gray, other times it’s blue, sometimes it’s somber…sometimes it’s glistening… with everything in-between. And, sometimes it all happens in a day. (I told Gary these are the kind of glistening diamonds I like.)

I’m so grateful for our time on the shore of Lake Superior.

An Unusal Gift

Thank you for all the wonderful happy birthday messages. 
I was delighted to read each one.

The sunrise over Lake Superior, the second day.

We had a very relaxing and refreshing birthday/wedding anniversary trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. Our cozy cabin had a wood-burning fireplace next to patio doors to the deck overlooking the lake.

Enjoying a fire while viewing the lake from the cabin.

We had fires In the morning and fires in the evening…and enjoyed watching the lake with its many moods. On Tuesday the lake was churning with huge waves crashing against the rocky shore. The other days it was much calmer.

Huge waves crashing and spraying high above the rocky shore.

Mesmerizing Lake.
All our attention goes there,
It’s restorative.

A calmer day…photo taken from the deck of the cabin.

However, we did bring along our cross-county skis, snowshoes, and Yaktrax to get out for fresh air and exercise.

We hiked at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

This is the upper falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park, where we hiked.

A old Norwegian fish house on Stoney Point Drive…a nice walk from the cabin.

Our hikes kept us close to the lake, but cross- county skiing took us inland.

We usually ask locals for recommendations. Our resort owner told us about Korkki Nordic.

In the morning, the sun was shining and it was a decent temperature so off we went to ski this trail. Next to the warming house (a nice touch to this trailhead) was a guy standing near a snowmobile with trail grooming apparatus hitched on the back. We started a conversation and found out he is the regular trail groomer. Mark lives on the property and grooms four ski trails.

The ski season is, of course, winding down – it was the first day of spring after all- so he was not planning to groom many more times this year. During our conversation, we mentioned it was my birthday. He was a jovial sort and said, as a gift to me for my birthday, he would go ahead of us and groom the trail. It would make skiing much easier for us.

And so he did, and we followed about three minutes behind him, and the skiing was great.

That is one of the more unusual gifts I’ve received for my birthday. It was a random act of kindness and we were grateful.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We decided to take a road trip from Charlotte to the Atlantic coast over the weekend, just to see the ocean. (I’m always drawn to water!) We left Saturday morning and drove four hours to Myrtle Beach State Park in South Carolina. The state park offered a nice sandy beach on the Atlantic Ocean, with a wooden pier, hiking trails, an activity center and more.

Beautiful clouds and sunshine over the Atlantic Ocean.

We arrived in time to eat our picnic lunch on the sandy beach. The weather was great…77* and sunny. The grandkids enjoyed playing in the water and the sand. Gary and I enjoyed the sunshine, and watching the grandkids have fun.

We walked out on the pier, and later in the afternoon we planned a hike.

A wonderful quote to start off our hike.

As we started our hike, I was excited to read a nature quote on a sign at the beginning of the trail, and I thought to myself…this will be a fun hike. As we walked a little further, I started slapping mosquitoes, as did everyone else. As we continued on, we were attacked by mosquitos…so we turned around and walked back out of the woods. So much for a hike in this state park.

On our drive east to Myrtle Beach on Saturday morning, we noticed fields that looked full of snow clumps…and discovered it was cotton. On our way home the next day, we stopped at one of several cotton fields we passed.

We got out of the car and walked through the rows of cotton and got a good look at this interesting crop!

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium.*

It was a quick trip, but a memorable one.

*Wikipedia

The North Shore 2022

Our trip to the north shore proved to be a lot more colorful than we were expecting.

We had already started seeing pockets of beautiful fall colors on our drive up, so I started to get a little excited…and then the colors began to pop out everywhere…with wonderful contrasts to the evergreen trees.

The weather also turned out better than I had hoped for, with warmer temperatures and some nice sunshine and blue skies (and one cloudy day). We had packed clothes for colder weather.

Looking inland from the Tofte overlook, on a spur trial off the Carlton Peak trail. (1)

Looking inland from the Tofte overlook, on a spur trial off the Carlton Peak trail. (2)

We followed our annual routine of balancing cabin time and lake time with hiking and local drives.

We watched the sun rise over the big lake and had a camp fire on the rocks. We stopped in Hinckley and Duluth on the way up, and stopped in Grand Marais one day. It’s all so familiar, yet all so refreshing, relaxing, and restorative… and so much fun!

A leaf-covered hiking trail through the forest.

The colors were breathtaking…everywhere we went. It was spectacular to see and hard to photograph with my iPhone.

But it was enough to witness the colors and breath in the fresh air, smell the different whiffs of pine scents, lake water, decomposing leaves, feel the crisp air and to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8a).

I stand in awe of the Creator of these incredible autumn colors.

And the colors were not only up north…we saw them driving home, and right here in Northfield, and outside our front and back doors!

Our neighbor’s burning bush, where our mailbox is tucked in.

Hikes on Stord

Our drive to the cottage took us through beautiful countryside across the island of Stord. And once at the cottage, we were able to go on two hikes in the countryside, during our stay.

The start of our hike up to the wind turbine.

On one hike we walked up to one of many wind turbines in a hilly area along the coast, close to the sea.

A view of the wind turbines from the boat.

At the top, the view overlooked 365 islands off the coast of western Norway. Even though it was partly cloudy, we could see for miles, and we could see the North Sea beyond the islands.

Three sheep met us on the way up. They walked toward us, stopped, and then turned around as though they wanted us to follow them. When the sheep turned off the main trail, they turned and looked at us quizzically, while we kept going straight.

We continued to hike to the top, looked around, then headed back. The sheep met us, once again, on the way down. They seemed to be wondering why we didn’t follow them the first time, and they were willing to give us a second chance!

The three sheep, wondering where we were going.

A different hike took us through a forest to a trail that was dotted with interesting characters and trolls along the path.

Signs: The Adventure Road. The Troll Forest.

Apparently, the displays began with one man creating dioramas and placing them in the forest, along the side of the trail.

It turned into several more figures being created, and added, to the trail.

Now it is a fun place for children, or for those of us young-at-heart, to look for these special creatures.

Adventure Road is close to a city so children can visit the forest easily, and walk on the trail to find the treasures.

Our hike took us to this unique Troll Forest. It was a fun adventure.

The fairy tree, where seven different fairies meet, including Tinkerbell.

Tromsø

Here are four things I will remember from Tromsø, the 3rd largest city in the world above the Arctic Circle. Tromsø is a city of 71,000 people in northern Norway, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.

The midnight sun! Photo taken at 2:16 am.

One: We spent two nights in a hotel room that overlooked a harbor. I love the sea and it was so nice to have a great view from our room. Each morning we ate our breakfast overlooking the harbor. And during the night, I would get up and look out to see the midnight sun.

Our our hotel window…always no screens, no air conditioning. This photo was taken at 10:39 pm.

Two: The sun was shining in Tromsø. This is not an everyday occurrence. There are many cool and cloudy and rainy days. However, we were in Tromsø during a record-breaking heat wave. It was 30* Celsius which is 86* F and people kept telling us this was not normal for Tromsø. And the sun shone brightly. We spent one morning at the Telegrafbukta Park and Beach, at the southern tip of Tromsø, and submerged our feet into the sea.

Three: We took the cable car up to the mountain ledge Storsteinen (1400 feet).

After taking in the stunning views overlooking Tromsø, we walked back down the mountain.

We started out on a trail before connecting with the “sherpa steps” the remaining way down (there are 1,300 stone steps in all). We ended up at the Arctic Cathedral, another pretty icon of Tromsø.

We made a cairn to leave our own mark on top.

Beautiful stained glass in the Arctic Cathedral.

And four: we enjoyed the Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden, the world’s northernmost botanic garden. There were plants from the Arctic and from alpine and cool parts of all continents.

We went after dinner, so it was about 8 o’clock, and we walked around for over an hour with no concerns that it would get dark.

Maintenance sheds in the garden…with sod roofs. We saw sod roofs throughout our travels. Photo taken 8:30 pm.

The flowers were so pretty. I used my Picture This app a lot to help me identify flowers. My favorite flower in bloom was the beautiful, blue Iceland Poppy.

Tromsø’s most popular tourist season is in wintertime when you can see stunning Northern Lights. They also offer a lot of winter activities. Of course, in winter it’s dark most of the day.

It’s such an interesting world we live in.

Lake Superior in March

I always thought it would be fun to be at safely tucked into a cabin on Lake Superior during a November gale. At a previous cabin we rented years ago, the owners had recorded, on VHS, a November storm that we could watch while staying at the cabin. It was always intriguing to see how incredibly high those waves came slamming into the cliffs at that resort.

Snow falling on our rented cabin on Lake Superior.

We just came back from a couple days on the north shore, safely tucked into a cabin on Lake Superior during a March snowstorm. The waves came slamming into the rocky shore sending up sprays of water into the air.

The lake was full of white caps and the waves coming to shore were huge. Not like a November gale, but still a memorable snowstorm for us.

We managed to get in a hike that morning before the predicted storm. It was fun to walk along the lake, through trees, and we were delighted to find little gnomes along the trail. Three times we came upon these little trolls, cheering us on.

Once back in our cabin we settled in for the rest of the day, and the storm. It was cozy. The snow started falling and the wind was whipping and churning up the lake as we sat indoors, by a nice crackling fire and watched it unfold through the large patio doors overlooking the lake. The amount of snow that fell was not what was predicted, but the wind was wicked, and the lake turbulent.

Last year when were we up at this same resort on the north shore in March, the temperatures were in the 50’s and 60’s. This year the temps were in the 30’s with wind chill temps even lower. But no matter what, Lake Superior is my happy place and it was great to be on the shore once again.

Snow falling on an old, picturesque, fishing hut along the shore of Lake Superior.

November Prairie

Walking through the prairie, on a cool November morning, was glorious.

The sky was interesting… blue patches in one direction, dark clouds in the other direction, with the sun trying to peek beyond the clouds.

We walked through the quaint cemetery at Valley Grove that leads to the prairie trails. We hiked the mown trails through tall grasses, stunningly gold in color, and as tall as us, in most areas.

We took the trail that leads down to the border of Big Woods State Park. As we walked along the edge of the park, it started to drizzle and I could hear the droplets landing on the dried leaves of the forest floor. It was a lovely sound.

Then the raindrops became heavier and we found ourselves walking in the rain…but only for a little while (and it was quite pleasant walking in the rain). The rain quickly stopped and soon the sun was breaking through in full force, and by afternoon the sky was cloudless.

We were in awe of the beauty of the golden grass on the prairie, with a slight wave in the wind, against different backdrops: two historic churches, the cospe of white birch trees, the state park and surrounding horizon.

We found our way to Hidden Falls 2 (for lack of a better name). The creek bed was dry and the water over the falls had frozen in place, into an immobile cascade. It seemed like time was standing still – until next spring, I guess. But, it too, had it’s own beauty.

We had the area to ourselves…no evidence of people or animals…and we continued to hike this on this splendid property maintained by The Valley Grove Preservation Society. I’m grateful for their work on behalf of this magnificent section of a Minnesota prairie.

A mown path through tall prairie grass, that doesn’t look so tall in the photo.

This is the corner of the Valley Grove cemetery where the beloved Old Oak Tree stood for 200 years, and was blown over during the 2018 tornado.

We were happy to get some fresh air and exercise before heading to downtown Northfield to support “Small Business Saturday”, where we did finish our Christmas shopping that afternoon…in the sunshine.

Cannon Valley Wilderness Park

Fungi. I looked up the definition and still not sure exactly what it is – but I learned there are 144,000 known species.

We saw a few of the species when hiking in the Cannon River Wilderness Area (north end) last week. We saw most of the fungi at the beginning of our hike, in the area where a swath from the 2017 tornado took down many trees. It seems to have created the right conditions for growth of fungi.

We had not hiked this trail since before the tornado came through. There is still evidence of the tornado including many downed trees at the beginning of the trail, and a new parking area.

The steep steps leading down into the park remained intact, but a new rope railing has been put in place, which is a good thing to help get up and down the precarious stairs.

This section of the Cannon River Wilderness Park seems to have been taken care of at one time, but now seems neglected…probably due to lack of funds. There were a few minor repairs to one of the bridges.

There are boardwalks over many swampy areas, but they are rotting away or warped, and sometimes dangerous to walk on. There is one newer bridge over the creek, built by a boy scout troop and installed in 2006 (according to the plaque).

There was a good stretch of boardwalk in the park.

The trail was mostly clear all the way to the Cannon River…then at that point one would have to somehow cross the river to get to the other side, which connects to the Cannon River Wilderness Area on the southwest side of the river. We turned around and retraced our steps.

There were obstacles on the trail…some large branches we had to duck under, and some logs we had to step over, and a few streams to jump over… or carefully step on logs or stones to cross.

We enjoyed this interesting hike with all its intricacies, and its intriguing fungi.

The next day we hiked in the Cannon River Wilderness Area on the south side of the Cannon River. We have wandered the paths in the southern section many times. The trails are tramped on more, and therefore, well-defined. There are many more routes to hike in this section, including one trail along the river, which is always pleasant.

We did not see much fungi in the southern section of the park, but this was a fun one.

Old Frontenac

Glorious fall days…blue skies, sunshine and colorful landscapes… continue to linger on and on. We like to take advantage of them…so not much gets done on the home-front…but those things will wait…we have winter ahead of us.

We headed east in the morning towards Frontenac State park, through beautiful farm country. Along the way, close to the fence, were the unique Dutch Belted cows laying in a field, soaking up the sun. What a pretty sight. I discovered these striking and unusual looking cows (and special breed), on a farm along County Road 9 a few years ago. I look for them whenever we pass their way. When I got out to take a photo, the girls became alarmed and most stood up…I was sorry to disturb them. They were all laying down again as we passed them on our way home several hours later.

Overlooking the Mississippi River from Frontenac State Park.

We continued to the state park and drove up to the Mississippi River overlook in the park. The river was lovely and calm. We hiked along the river for a while,

then we found the recently acquired section of the park and hiked hilly trails. The fall temperatures were climbing and we soon shed our jackets.

A newly acquired section to Frontenac State Park.

After hiking, we wanted to find a place near the water to eat our picnic lunch. We found a beach and boat landing in Old Frontenac, with a picnic table close to the water’s edge.

Perfect. We sat on one side overlooking the river and saw a couple of eagles, lots of gulls and swans, and a few boats. The water was calm and the sun was bright and I wanted to stay there all afternoon, but we had more to explore.

A beautiful mansion overlooking the Mississippi River in Old Frontenac.

An old stone fence surrounding the mansion.

A few years ago, when we camped at Frontenac State Park, we drove through Old Frontenac near-by. It’s a small village along the river….no stores, only unique houses on packed, dirt roads, an old cemetery, and a church.

One of several gated sections in the Frontenac Cemetery, established in 1867.

I have always wanted to walk through this town, or ride a bike, since you can see more than from a car. So we brought our bikes to ride through this quiet town, off the beaten trail. It was fun to ride around and look at unique houses…no cookie cutter houses here. And, riding through the old cemetery garnered thoughts of spooky stories, so close to Halloween.

Halloween decorations on a front porch in Old Frontenac.

Later that afternoon, as we drove back home into Northfield, we commented on how our town was still the most colorful place of all…with a lot of maples still full of red leaves hanging on.