Really on the Road with Maya and Back to Odessa

Our last night 'On the Road with Maya' in Enid, Oklahoma
(at least until next spring)

Just driving is not much fun.  But that is pretty much what we have been doing.  Normally a big drive day is 300 miles and we really like them to be less than 200.  For the past month we had been staying in one place for two to five days and then maybe moving down the road 50 or 100 miles tops.  It is a lot more than that now.  We have been feeling like truckers lately.  Maya is a great traveler but she does get worn out with the road and thinks more than 6 hours a day isn’t fun.  We concur.  However we have had a couple of fun stops along the way. 

 

Back to the flat lands and searing heat
We are missing Minnesota...

 

We spent two nights in St. Louis, Missouri and got to visit with one of my long-time friends.  Brenda and I met when we were both brand new teachers, I won’t say how many years ago.  We both taught photography at the same high school and fast became best friends.  Our lives have kept us living in the same towns several times.  We both started out in Odessa then several years later we were both living in the DFW area.  Then both of our husbands were transferred to St. Louis.  She has remained there and I have moved without her several times since then.  But we’ve stayed good friends.  It was really great to see her!

 

And back to the land of oil
Our campground in Enid, Oklahoma

 

Then we spent a night in Enid, Oklahoma and visited David’s cousin, Donna and her husband Larry in Drummond.  They took us out to a local Mexican Food Café and we had a great meal.  We visited for hours while their dachshund, Charlie Brown and Maya had a great time playing.  (Maya definitely had the advantage.)  Donna made us ‘coffee cup cake,’ which was exactly that, a cake cooked in a coffee cup.  It was delicious and topped with good vanilla ice cream, how could it be anything else?

 

Larry, David and Cousin Donna

 

While we were in Wisconsin we received a call from my mom that my dad had gone to the hospital and was getting a pacemaker.  My brother was with my parents and no complications were anticipated so the plan was for us to stay on our driving schedule and be home in about 5 days.  All went well and my dad was moved from Intensive Care to a regular room so he could go home the next day.  But as all too often happens in hospitals, my dad had a fall that night and broke three ribs and hurt his hand and injured his elbow and shoulder making him unable to do much more than raise his head without help.  Another call from mom came just as we were leaving St. Louis.

 

People no longer mow lawns in Odessa, they vacuum them
Fake green lawn 'carpet' is installed if you want a green lawn

 

So we really started driving at this point and made it back to Odessa as fast as we could.  Dad is still in the hospital but he is in the therapy wing now.  He is doing pretty well although I can see first-hand that broken ribs are very, very painful.  Dad is in a world of hurt and there isn’t too much that can be done for that.  The hospital food isn’t making him very happy either.  We are trying to keep him cheerful while he goes through all this and sneaking him in something good to eat every so often.

 

Visiting Dad in the hospital
My mom with my cousins Byron and Dale, wife Cathy
and the kids Reed, Brailyn, Taite and dad's foot

 

Our plans are still to be in Nacogdoches by August 31 and dad is coming along so that should happen.  I’ll keep you posted…

 

David’s Stats:

Hours of Boring Driving:  40+ hours

Days Hiking Hospital Floors:  8 and counting

Days near or over 100 degrees: every day south of Madison, WI

Times we’ve said it’s too ****ing hot:  Beyond count    

 

 

"The Shack" -- Paying Tribute

The Leopold Family 'Shack' built from a collapsing chicken coop in the 1930s

One of our first stops in our travels last spring was the Gila Wilderness.  2014 was the 50^th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act and the Gila was the country’s first wilderness.  During our 3-plus years of travel we have greatly enjoyed visiting wildernesses all over our beautiful country.  Since we started our journey, we have hiked in over 35 wilderness areas, 25 of them during last year alone!

 

 

Conservationist, ecologist and wildlife management pioneer, Aldo Leopold was instrumental in the protection of wilderness.  It was Leopold’s influence on the forest service that caused the first 500,000 acres of the Gila to be set aside for wilderness protection.  Leopold lived and taught for most of his life in Wisconsin and as we were traveling right through Madison on our way back to Texas, we wanted to stop and visit his farm and the Leopold Education Center.

 

The Leopold Education Center near Baraboo, WI 
Built with native materials and a LEED certified building

 

Marker where Aldo Leopold died on his farm fighting a grass fire

 



In 1933 Aldo Leopold accepted a new professorship in game management at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Shortly after the depression he initially bought 80 acres of worn-out farmland bordering the Wisconsin River as a retreat from the city for his family. He paid roughly $8 an acre for this land that had been ‘farmed-out’ – reduced to sand and the only structure left standing was the chicken coop. 

 

Some of the mature pines on the Leopold Family farm

Prairie Flowers

Leopold, his wife and five children spent weekends and holidays first building a small shack from the collapsing remains of the chicken coop and then the family painstakingly went about the task of restoring the land.  “The Shack,” as it came to be known, became a metaphor for living lightly on the land.  From 1935 to 1946 the family planted over 3,000 pine trees a year by hand.  Pine trees were chosen because they stabilized the rapidly eroding soil and were inexpensive.  Leopold also planted one of the very first prairie restoration projects in North America.  During the years that the family stayed in the Shack and restored and enjoyed their land, Leopold observed nature at work. These observations were kept in journals that became the basis for many of his papers and books, A Sand County Almanac, being the most well-known.

 

The sandy soils on the Leopold farm 
The Wisconsin River is just a few hundred feet away

We spent parts of two days visiting the farm and shack and exploring the trails around the Leopold Education Center.  The Leopold Family has a foundation that preserves the family farm and does some outstanding outdoor educational training for teachers.  David and I both took one of these workshops several years ago in Texas as part of our Master Naturalist Training.

 

Estella Leopold
photo credit Leopold Foundation

There was a workshop being held at the Center one day and David and I were so very fortunate to get to see and speak with Leopold’s youngest daughter and only surviving child, Estella.  All of Leopold’s five children were scientists or environmentalists and Estella is a University of Washington professor emeritus of botany and forest resources, having conducted research for more than 60 years. Estella pioneered the use of fossilized pollen and spores to understand how plants and ecosystems respond over eons to climate change.  Getting to meet Estella was such an unexpected pleasure and made our time at the Leopold Education Center extra special.

 

 



 

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  1  
Total Miles Hiked:  3.20     
Total Elevation Gain:  281  
 

 

Three Last Stops in Minnesota

Aerial Lift Bridge in fog
Duluth, Minnesota

From Two Harbors we had a short drive of 60 miles to Duluth, the place where we started our North Shore adventure almost a month ago.  On that first visit to Duluth we had a filthy RV full of dirty laundry (not to mention the two people and a dog) and it was pretty much the same picture this time around.  But besides cleaning everything and everybody up a bit, we took a little time to explore Duluth on this trip.

 

Walking in a puddle by the bridge

 

There is so much to see and do in Duluth and on our one day to see and do it we had very foggy conditions.  It drizzled off and on and the fog went from bad to worse and back again all day long; such a surprise after a month of almost perfect weather.  Oh, well, we soldiered on and saw what we could through the banks of fog.  One of Duluth’s most famous sites, the Aerial Lift Bridge, had practically disappeared.  If we hadn’t been standing next to it we wouldn’t have known there was even a bridge there.  Eventually the sides reappeared and then, voila, we saw the whole bridge.  The city skyline was much the same, winking in and out of existence through the fog.

 

The blue drawbridge into Minnesota Slip
with Duluth skyline trying to peak through the fog

 

We strolled around Canal Park, the area encompassing the ship canal, bridge and other waterfront attractions.  A section of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) goes through Canal Park and we ‘hiked’ our last section of this North Shore trail that runs from Jay Cooke State Park just south of Duluth all the way to the Canadian Border. Along Canal Park and this section of the SHT we visited the US Army Corps of Engineers Lake Superior Maritime Museum and crossed Minnesota Slip via the blue drawbridge to see the iron ore ship, William A. Irvin.  Park Point, Duluth’s seven-mile sand peninsula starts right there at Canal Park and if it had been a nicer day we would have walked more and enjoyed the sandy beach.

 

The William A. Irvin in Minnesota Slip

 

After our short time in Duluth we headed for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Our new friends, Tom, Sandi and Nikki (their dog) that we met in Ontonagon, Michigan over the Fourth of July weekend, had invited us to visit them if we came their way.  We needed to get our 50,000 mile service for our RV, and the nearest place that could do it was Rochester, Minnesota.  (Wow, three and a half years and 50,000 miles later David, Maya and I are all still traveling together in Silver, none of us too worse for the wear…)  Anyway, Tom and Sandi live in Maple Plains, a suburb of Minneapolis, so stopping for a night fit right in with our plans to go to Rochester.

 

Walking in the fog on the Superior Hiking Trail in Canal Park

 

What a great time we had!  Nikki heard us walking to the door and she and Maya were greeting each other with excited barks before the front door was opened.  The dogs romped a bit and then settled down to watch dinner being cooked.  Tom and Sandi have a beautiful home on several acres and they know how to put on a spread.  We had grilled steaks with sautéed mushrooms and onions, fresh asparagus, baked potatoes, some of the best sweet corn on the cob I have ever tasted and then grilled pineapple for desert.  It was the best meal we had in Minnesota.  Full and happy, the dogs slept and we all talked for hours.

 

Maya and Nikki 'chillin' after breakfast

 

We ‘plugged’ in to their electric power and stayed in our RV in the driveway.  The weather was warming up so once we headed for bed, the air-conditioner felt good for a few hours until we turned it off and opened windows a little later in the night.  The next morning, Sandi served quiche and fresh berries and melon for breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice and some most excellent coffee.  It was such a wonderful time with such delicious food; it was hard to make ourselves leave.  If we hadn’t had to be in Rochester the next morning, we might still be there.  We were also tempted to steal Nikki and take her with us, but didn’t have the heart to do that after Tom and Sandi had been so good to us.  (Besides we really only have room for one speed bump in our small RV and Maya has claimed that honor.)

 

The Aerial Lift Bridge has huge counterweights that slowly descend
raising the 900-ton span of the bridge as much as 140 feet in the air
when the big ore boats pass into the harbor

 

Our time in Rochester was short, really only one full day and most of that was spent dealing with the RV service.  But all went well and Silver checked out fine although she will need a little brake work once we get back to Texas.  We did tour the town a little and saw the Mayo Clinic buildings.  The Mayo Clinic is the reason most people visit Rochester and I did talk to several people in our RV park that were patients at the Mayo.  They all had wonderful things to say about the doctors and other health care workers.  One lady and her husband had driven all the way from Florida so she could be treated at the Mayo Clinic.  They drove their RV so that they could have their dog with them while she was receiving her month long care.  David and I were both so very grateful that it was only our RV needing care and not us.  

David’s Stats:

 

Days Hiked:  1  
Total Miles Hiked:   2.0  
Total Elevation Gain:   20 
 

 

 

 

A few last photos from the North Shore

Upper Gooseberry Falls

The North Shore Scenic Drive, an All-American Road from Duluth to the international border at Grand Portage, has taken us on quite an adventure this past month.  From the ten hikes we made on the Superior Hiking Trail to the seven state parks we visited to the amazing Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the fascinating history we discovered all along the way, it has been a fantastic ‘ride’ on Minnesota’s North Shore.

I made so many photographs so I thought I’d share a few more…

 

 

Grand Portage Island seen from the Rose Mountain Trail
The waters of Lake Superior were so still in the early morning light

 

 

A multi-branched paper birch

 

 

Daisies after a storm, Grand Portage
The daisies were pretty and plentiful this summer

 

Cascade River at Cascade River State Park
There were so many falls or cascades along this river gorge

More cascades on the Cascade River

The quiet beauty of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was stunning

Camouflaged Toad

Baneberry





Two gorgeous skies over Lake Superior

 

Two Days at Two Harbors

Historic Lighthouse at Two Harbors
It is a Bed and Breakfast now and another lighthouse has been built on the break wall

Nestled right next to each other, Burlington Bay and Agate Bay are the two bays that give the town of Two Harbors its name.  Burlington Bay has a very nice municipal campground and public beach where we camped for our “two days in Two Harbors.”  We had a campsite overlooking the bay and Lake Superior with the beach just a short walk down a staircase behind our RV.  It was a very nice way to end our two month tour of Lake Superior.

 

Our campsite on Burlington Bay

 

Agate Bay is the working harbor and it is where the gigantic “lakers,” or ships that sail the Great Lakes, come into port.  These huge lakers are guided into Agate Bay by the lighthouse and then they maneuver into one of three massive steel docks.  Just how big are those docks?  Dock #1 is over 1,300 feet long and seven stories tall.  Each side of each of the three docks has 112 pockets.  Trains full of taconite or iron ore move along the top of the dock and down load the ore into hoppers.  When a laker comes into dock, the chutes along the side will drop down into the hull of the boat to load the iron ore. 

 

The steam tugboat, Edna G. next to the iron ore docks
The Edna G. was the last steam tug in operation on the Great Lakes

 

Agate Bay was the site of the first shipment of iron ore from Minnesota in 1884.  Since then iron ore has been the foundation of the city of Two Harbors.  In fact, Lake Superior’s first iron ore dock and the largest in the world at the time was built in 1883 in Agate Bay.  Every year over 10,000,000 tons are shipped from Two Harbors!

 

Watching the Lee A. Tregurtha come in to dock



We were fortunate to see one of the lakers come into Agate Bay and dock at Dock #2.  It was a brisk and windy morning on the break wall and there was a little group of onlookers watching the big freighter come in.  We were all amazed at the smoothness and agility of such a large ship.  One of the women near us said she couldn’t parallel park her car that well.  I might have to agree.  It was an impressive sight.  

 

Pulling alongside the dock
One of the men watching this laker come in told us the ship was a
converted WWII transport that served in the Pacific and was
 attacked three times by the Japanese.  Wow!

 

While we were in Two Harbors, we toured the town and both bays.  We visited the lighthouse and strolled along the lakeshore.  We saw the Edna G., one of the first, and it was the last steam tugboat in operation on the Great Lakes.  And of course we worked in one more hike.  It was sad to think we wouldn’t be waking up with sunrises over Lake Superior anymore.  Our time on the North Shore has been about as close to perfection as you can get. (If it hadn’t been for those horseflies, it might have scored an A+)  But we do have a quick stay in Duluth before we have to absolutely say goodbye to our Lake Superior adventure.  Then we really have to get serious about traveling back to Texas.

 

 The working lighthouse on Agate Bay
Men watching the laker dock

 

David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  2  
Total Miles Hiked:  8.04
Ave. Miles per Day:   4.02     
Total Elevation Gain:  1,424  
Ave. Elevation Gain per day:  712 

 

 

North Shore State Parks

'Family' Portrait at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park 

Our time on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota has been an unexpected treat.  Not that we thought it wouldn’t be nice, I guess we just didn’t expect it to be this nice.  Beautiful, cool weather and the absence of pests have had a lot to do with it I suspect.  But even without those things the North Shore is amazing – cascades and waterfalls on almost every river or stream, hiking trails galore weaving in and around the Sawtooth Mountains plus thousands of lakes dotting the landscape and to the east dominating it all, glittering blue Lake Superior.

 

High Falls at Tettegouche State Park

 

Still not ready for our summer fun to end, we decided we would spend our last days on the North Shore visiting every state park that we hadn’t seen yet.  We stayed at Gooseberry Falls, the southernmost park on our way north and visited Grand Portage near the Canadian Border and Judge C.R. Magney and Cascade Falls State Parks near Grand Marais.  That left only three to see along the coast – Temperance River, Tettegouche and Split Rock Lighthouse State Parks.

 

Mouth of the Temperance River at Lake Superior

Sunset from the campground at Temperance River State Park

As I have mentioned, it isn’t always easy to get a camping spot up here during the summer months especially near the weekends.  We left Grand Marais on a Thursday and were so lucky to get the last non-reservable campsite at Temperance River State Park.  In the summer, reservable spots are usually booked months in advance but most every park has a few non-reservable (first come, first serve) campsites available.  The good thing about the non-reservable ones is that once you have one you can stay in it up to 14 days.  Rather than testing our luck in the other state parks, we made Temperance River our ‘home base’ and visited nearby Tettegouche and Split Rock Lighthouse State Parks from there.

 

Temperance River Gorge

Our hike along the Temperance River Gorge

 

Staying at Temperance River turned out to be a very good decision.  For one thing, our campsite was surrounded by a thicket of ripe raspberries – no extra charge!  Also we were just a short walk from the mouth of the Temperance River and its cobblestone beaches at Lake Superior.  Nearby trails also led to the upstream gorges and plunging waterfalls.  The river had some deep swimming pools that were much warmer than the average 42 degrees of Lake Superior.  (Maya is the only one of us that ever managed to brave a Lake Superior swim.)

 

View of Lake Superior
from Oberg Mountain near Temperance River State Park

 

But the reason we were the most grateful that we were staying at Temperance River was – no horseflies!  Yes, Mother Nature decided we needed one last plague (at least, I hope it is the last one) to motivate us to go home.  The day we visited Tettegouche State Park and hiked to Shovel Point we were inundated with biting horseflies.  Thank goodness it was only a mile-long trail.  By the time we were back to the car we were covered in flies.  They followed us to the car and we were swatting them in the parking lot.  Maya was rolling on the ground to get them off.  We got as many as we could off us and jumped in the car quickly then put the windows down and shooed them out.  Even Maya was groaning with relief as we sped out of the parking lot.  Although the trails away from the lake were not plagued by flies, we were still glad we weren’t camped at Tettegouche.

 

Horseflies on David's back, OMG!



 

Poor Maya!



Split Rock Lighthouse State Park was fly-free as well and we had a lovely walk to the lighthouse along the steep cliffs of Lake Superior.  The Gitchi-Gami State Trail, a biking and hiking trail along the North Shore that is under construction, has its longest completed segment passing through Split Rock.  We haven’t taken our bikes on our travels since it is easier to hike with Maya than bike.  But the Gitchi-Gami State Trail would be a great trail to bike.  Just putting that out there for those of you so inclined…

 

 

Shovel Point overlooking Lake Superior at Tettegouche State Park
(where we got into all those horseflies -- I guess it was worth it)

 

With our North Shore State Park ‘tour’ complete we will camp by Lake Superior for the last time this trip in Two Harbors.  Then it is on to Duluth and points farther south.

 

 David’s Stats:

Days Hiked:  4  
Total Miles Hiked:  21.56   
Ave. Miles per Day:    4.31 
Total Elevation Gain:   3,779 
Ave. Elevation Gain per day:  945 

Another beautiful cascading waterfall, Caribou Falls

Maya climbs down from Carleton Peak in Temperance River State Park