The Continuing Adventures of Eric, Noelle and Sierra

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Itasca State Park

I Just got back from Itasca State Park for my Naturalist Corps training. The park is big, old (established in 1891), and full of interesting plants and sites of interest. While I didn't have a whole lot of time to explore the park, I did get to check out the Headwaters of the Mississippi River.

In addition I saw many interesting wildflowers in bloom. Trillium,

wild ginger, yellow lady-slipper

and the rarest orchid in Minnesota the Ram's head orchid.

I plan on visiting again, preferably at a time when I can return with Noelle.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Amnicon Falls State Park Revisited

Noelle and I decided to head back over into Wisconsin to revisit the beautiful Amnicon Falls State Park just outside of Superior. Conditions today were once again close to perfect weather-wise. It was about 70 degrees and sunny with dark blue skies. It was a much different scene from our last visit in January with Noelle's mom.

The falls were flowing really good. There's still a lot of water from the rain we got last week. It was nice to stroll around and see, hear, and smell all that the northwoods had to offer.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore: Mainland Seacaves

Today Noelle and I took a pretty, scenic drive over to Bayfield, Wisconsin. We went to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore visitor center in town, which was closed, before having lunch. From there we made the drive along WI-13 back towards the small town of Cornucopia (home of the northernmost post office in Wisconsin). We parked in the parking lot on Myers Road to go check out the mainland sea caves.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. While it was a little bit chilly right at the lake, it was generally warm and sunny. We first checked out Myers Beach, walking along the shore for about a quarter mile. Then we headed back to the parking lot to begin hiking the actual trail. While the trail was a bit muddy, we got to see lots of wildflowers in bloom. After about two miles we started to get some Lake Superior views and then a few views of the famous sea caves.

It was nice to get some views of the caves from the trail, but to truly appreciate them you need a kayak, or a thick, solid layer of ice. Last winter the ice never froze thick enough to allow over ice travel. I'm hoping for a different story this coming winter though.

After our hike we went over to Corny to check out a display of old, decrepit fishing boats.

We then stopped at an intriguing little park called Twin Falls Park. We could hear a large waterfall there but could only see a small one. After our short hike we returned to Duluth.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Walking to Wisconsin

Since I moved to Duluth in October, I've been wanting to walk across the Bong Bridge into Wisconsin. I don't know what it is about walking on these big bridges but there is something that I find really appealing about it. Two Decembers ago Noelle and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. When we lived in Kentucky and would visit Cincinnati we would park in Newport or Covington and walk across one of the bridges, usually the Roebling Bridge or the Purple People Bridge, into town. I've always wanted to walk across the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia as well, but never had the opportunity.

If you're curious about the name of the bridge, it is named (like half the public structures in Superior, Wisconsin) after Richard I. Bong, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII, who was known as the "Ace of Aces" having shot down at least 40 Japanese aircraft during the war. The bridge is 11,800 feet long and was opened on October 25, 1985.

I decided that today was a good day for my bridge walk. It was warm, not very windy, and since I'm not sure what Noelle would think about the idea, she wasn't around to tell me how dumb the idea is. So I set off into West Duluth and parked my car off Michigan Street in the Lighthouse for the Blind parking lot. There were great views from the bridge and I was not the only person crossing it by means other than a car. There was one other pedestrian, a jogger who I passed twice and three people on bicycles making their way across state lines.

After the bridge walk I decided to explore the area around Wade Stadium a bit. I found a weird pedestrian tunnel that led to a pedestrian bridge over the interstate. The bridge led to the CN Railroad yard and the ore docks. There is an old visitor viewing platform there that is now closed to the public, but I walked over to the docks (possibly illegally though no one stopped me) to see them working on the Arthur M. Anderson.