North Shore Camping Trip - Day 1

Lukie and Lex had been wanting to do something this summer, Lex really wanted to go to the Black Hills and so did I...but when I said that a trip to the Black Hills should include Kieran, both Lukie and Lex understood and said it should wait...so we went north Sunday morning...

On the way north, Lukie and Lex had to stop at a familiar place...Gooseberry Falls...the 'tadpole place' since we're usually there in late June when there are a lot of tadpoles in pools on the picnic lava flow near the lake...

I told Lukie and Lex not to expect tadpoles (they were really disappointed years ago that there were no tadpoles in September)...

But, apparently...I was wrong...there were tadpoles, some were even sporting legs...

They can literally spend hours searching the pools...

But our goal that night was to get to Temperance River State Park.  Lex had never been farther north that Silver Bay, this was a bit step...

It was also stamp #25 for us (of course we were missing #22)...

Lex's big concern going 'so far north' were bears...so what do we see upon getting to the park...signs about bears...

That didn't help, but she got over it...she actually scanned the trees with a light for about 30 minutes before going to bed (the only night she did)...no bears...

Once camp was set up, it was time to start moving...the hiking club trail would be scenic along the river gorge...

If you look closely, you might see 'hidden falls' in the shadow that Lukie and Lex were learning about...

Lex was impressed with the steepness of the gorge...

But, ultimately, a thunderstorm shut our hike down...we got down slope and found shelter under a tree for about 15 minutes until it passed...you'll see the drops on Lex's shirt...then we went back to camp...

You can see the video of our abortive hike below...

After the storm passed, we started hiking again, but this time we headed for the lake first...you have to throw rocks in the lake right...

The lower gorge wasn't part of the hiking club trail, but they both enjoyed it greatly...

Essentially, it's a series of potholes that were connected together via erosion...great views...

But then we started the hiking club trail again...

And we actually made it farther than we did the first time...

So far that if there is a bench available, you should sit on the rocks instead...

Lukie has the idea that we need to go backwards against all the suggested hiking club routes...we did this time and he wanted to point that out...

Of course we found the password...

And coming back downriver, we had some great view of the gorge...

Near the highway, we got a good look at the hidden falls, look close...

You can see our completed hike below...(I'll update the Hiking Club mileage later)...

All-in-all it was a great first day...it rained some, but we hiked a great deal.  Lukie went to bed at the first star (not a planet, Venus doesn't count) and Lex and I talked constellations until we went to bed later than I hoped...

But Temperance River wasn't our end goal...we'd go farther the next day...