North Shore Camping - Day 6

Our first morning at Tettegouche State Park the boys immediately wanted to go see the waterfalls that they knew were at the park.  The first falls that we would visit, and the closest at about 1/4 mile hike, are called Two Step Falls.

Once we made it to the two waterfalls, of course all the boys wanted to do was throw some rocks.  So they did....for a long time.

In the sumer of 2009, Kieran and I had camped at Tettegouche and visited these falls as well, what I forgot about is the number of stairs.  It's definitely a short hike, but it has a lot of stairs.  It's a one-way trail, meaning the walk to the falls is easy (down the stairs), the hike out is difficult.

The river that flows through the park creating the waterfalls is the Baptism River.  It's like almost all of the other North Shore rivers in that it's rocky, has a high gradient, brown water because of the tanins in the water, etc.

To get to the High Falls of the Baptism River, we needed to go on a much longer hike, approximately a mile or so one way.  We also had to cross the river on a pretty interesting bridge.  Both boys really liked the bridge, it wouldn't sway when you walked across it, but it definitely moved up and down with each step.  Posted signs at the bridge clearly say "5 people on the bridge" at a time, with the amount that the bridge moves up and down, you know why.

Kieran and I had also been to this particular waterfall before, but we had only viewed it from the time on our previous trip.  His little legs couldn't handle any more steps or the stairs needed to go to the base of the waterfall back then.

We made it to the bottom of the waterfall this time and it was worth it, but what did the boys want to do at the bottom?  Throw rocks of course....

We spent a long time at the bottom of this particular waterfall and the boys spent the time throwing their rocks.  Every stop we make they pretty much take a glance at the point of interest and are finished, until they find rocks to throw.

After a quick lunch, we took off on another long hike that none of us had ever done.  We were taking the trail to the end of Shovel Point, this is a high exposure over the lake that rock climbers use and where peregrine falcons nest.  After just a little walk, we were able to look back and see Palisade Head (the peak with a radio tower on top), it is about as high above the lake as you can get on the North Shore.  We had never been to the top of Palisade Head either, that would change.

Here's a picture of Shovel Point from the trail, you might be able to see the columns that formed when felsic lava cooled that formed the point.  Shovel Point, Palisade Head and all the waterfalls along the Baptism River in the Park are comprised of the 1,096.6 million year old Palisade Head Rhyolite.

It was nice that there were a couple of benches at the end of the trail on Shovel Point.  We needed them and took quite a break before hiking back.  Looking north from the end of Shovel Point, we could just make out the Sawtooth Mountains to the north, dipping by about 20 degrees towards the lake.

We then learned that you are able to take a small and winding road to the top of Palisade Head.  I was under the impression that you had to hike to the top.  Since all of our legs were tired and we could drive, we went to the top of Palisade Head.  It was the one time that it rained during the entire week, temperatures ranged between 75-80 degrees for the week as well.  (The weather was perfect, completely different than what we've had since we got home, the high temperature hasn't been below 86 and dew points on most days are at or above 70).  Because it was raining, the boys didn't want to get out of the car, but with the top of Palisade Head in the foreground, you can see Shovel Point far off in the distance.

Eventually the boys got bored of sitting in the car and came out for a few pictures of their own.

As soon as we left Palisade Head, the sun came out and turned into a great day again.  After some time swimming in the river again and a great dinner, we spent our last night relaxing at camp waiting for the first star to come out.

Day 7, the last day of our week-long trip, would mostly be spent driving home.  We did make a few stops though, and those will come in the last post for the trip.
To be continued...

North Shore Camping - Day 5

The morning of Friday, June 29th, was the last few hours at our camp at the Trail's End campground.  The site that we stayed at was huge, could have easily fit multiple tents if we needed.  On the lakeside part of the camp, there was a thirty foot cliff down to the lake, though if we walked a little west of the camp we were able to walk a gentle slope to the lake.  This is a campsite we will probably stay at again sometime.

Before we left for our hour drive back to Grand Marais and Lake Superior, I wanted the boys to have a picture taken by the Superior National Forest sign.  They were extremely upset at me.  When standing by the sign, they had to face directly towards the sun in order for the picture to be taken, which was accompanying by grumpy faces and some whining.

Our plan was to take a limited number of stops along the Gunflint Trail, the boys made sure I remember my promise of ice cream at Sven and Ole's when we got back to Grand Marais.  One short stop that we did make was at the Gunflint Lake scenic overlook.  Gunflint Lake is a border lake, at this stop we were as close to Canada as we got during our week long trip.  Looking at the picture below, you can see the 2,689 million year old, white-colored, granitic, Saganaga Tonalite across the lake.  That's Canada.  This rock also outcrops in the Trail's End campground.

Another quick stop that we had to make was on the Laurentian Divide.  All along this high point of land, water flows downhill one of two directions.  Water either flows south to Lake Superior or water flows north to Hudson Bay.

Just before reaching Grand Marais, we stopped at the scenic overlook to get a quick view of the harbor.  From this vantage point, it is easy to see the tombolo, a curved gravel bar that connects the mainland to what was once an island.  It's this structure that helps to form the harbor and it certainly protects the harbor from strong wind and waves from the north.

After eating our ice cream, the boys had to go down to the harbor.....they of course wanted to throw rocks.

When the boys had finally tired of throwing rocks, we took a short hike to the Coast Guard station to take a look at the ship they had out of the water.  From there, we continued walking past the station on our way to the lighthouse, though the boys gave up that challenge after five minutes and began wandering aimlessly (exploring) the old lava flows that make up this island (before it was connected by a gravel bar to the mainland.  What I thought would be a quick walk to the Coast Guard station, turned into a several hour walk.

While the boys explored what they could, I kept looking to the south for a view of the Sawtooth Mountains as they dip approximately 20 degrees toward the lake.  These 'mountains' are made of more weathering and erosion resistant lava flows.  The more easily weathered and eroded flows in between the mountains have long been removed.

What I also found interesting was the number of carvings we found.  These two signatures are 110 years old.  They were the oldest that we could find, though I wouldn't be surprised if there are older ones present.

After a lunch in Grand Marais, we finally got back on Hwy. 61 for our drive south, the next campground was at Tettegouche State Park.  We were able to drive 10 miles before the boys saw the sign for the Cut Face Creek rest stop.  We had to stop so the boys could continue their quest to dam up the creek before it reached the lake.  Of course they threw rocks into the lake as well.

After finally reaching Tettegouche, it was late afternoon and we needed to get the camp set up and dinner cooking.  The boys ate quick because they wanted to take another hike before it got too dark.  I made them stop at a bench in front of Shovel Point (the large cliffs in the background that we would be standing on top of the next day), which only irritated them because I was slowing them down.  What was the rush?

They wanted to go swimming!  Of course that wasn't too bad of an idea, they needed the washing.  They also found a leech attached to a rock in the river, so we got the opportunity to talk all about leeches (what they are, what they do, are they good/bad, how they were and still are used for medicine, etc.).

The next day would be our last full day camping of the trip.  We'd see several waterfalls, one would be the largest waterfall completely within the borders of Minnesota, and we would stand on two very high cliffs (it's about as high as you can stand directly above Lake Superior along the entire North Shore).
To be continued.

Hamburg Hawk - Town Team Baseball

No, it's not 'Camping on the North Shore'.....Day 5, 6, & 7 are coming in that series, be patient as there is still some great pictures and happenings to come.  Today is all about baseball, we haven't been to a lot of games this year yet (June has been so busy and the usual Sunday games are mostly played when Luke and Lex are napping), but we did get to parts of three games this week.

It's actually nice going to baseball games with Kieran, he understands enough about the game in order to follow along and he's able to tell you about the game when you're watching.  Just like watching football games that we go to each year (one MN Viking game and 8-10 Central Raiders games), he knows enough to be interested in the games and want to go to them.

Well on Sunday, July 8th, the Hambury Hawks (the team Craig still plays for) played against the Cologne Hollanders in Cologne so of course we had to attend, Hamburg ended up winning the game.  While there, Kieran wanted to know when Hamburg would play again, turns out they had games on Wednesday and Friday evenings of this week.  So after T-Ball on Wednesday, we went directly to Hamburg to watch the game against the Green Isle Irish.  Tonight (Friday) we went to Brownton to watch the game against the Bruins, Craig would be pitching.

We started the watching the game behind home plate in the grandstand.  I wanted to see how hard Craig is still throwing at his advanced age (for town team baseball), let's just say that I'm confident I'd hit a homerun off him (with an aluminum bat, not the wood bats they use now).  Kieran did not like the seats because 'you can't catch foul balls here dad'.....

Kieran had captured two foul balls during the game in Cologne (and the $.25 each when he turned them into the concessions) and Craig had handed him a ball to keep when we were in Hamburg.  So his focus was now on 'getting a ball' and he was watching intently trying to make it happen.  His best opportunity came early on, he saw the ball going foul and went charging for it, there were no other kids around and he knew it was his for the taking.  Unfortunately for him it landed on the concrete surrounding the restrooms and bounced over the fence onto the street where he couldn't reach the ball.  If the ball had landed two feet shorter, or two feet longer, it would have landed on rocks or grass and stayed in his field of play.  But it was not to be....after that, the area was filled with many kids, most larger and faster than Kieran.  He did not get any foul balls this night, after one attempt where a kid got to the ball faster than him, Kieran came back with tears in his eyes saying he just wanted to get a ball.....

After Craig came out of the game (the pitcher in all of the pictures above are him by the way), Kieran had to go interupt and say hello again.  Craig had pitched six innings, gave up three runs (all in the first two innings) and left the game with a 3-3 tie.  We left the game in the top of the 8th inning as the game was still tied, it was approaching 9:15 or 9:30 by that point, with another thirty minute drive home.

If I was someone to plan Christmas or Birthday gifts, I would think about a Hamburg Hawk t-shirt, hat, or something along those lines.  Craig....take the hint....you have access....