Boundary Waters - Cross Bay Lake

This year's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, BWCAW, trip had special meanings. Last year we were not able to make our annual trek into the Wilderness and this year is the 20th anniversary of our foursome.

Click here for the video recap (the video is best viewed in landscape).

Recapping the trip...on Tuesday, August 22 Brian, Jenny, Julie and I drove up to Jenny and Andrew's cabin at Gust Lake to spend the night and prep for our trip into the BWCAW. The temperature in the Twin Cities was headed into the 90's but before we even hit Duluth it was 30 degrees cooler. Good timing for our trip.

Wednesday, we got up early to drive up the Gunflint trail to Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. Our two canoes were dropped off at Cross River which is where are journey started. You don't actually enter the BWCA until reaching Cross Bay Lake.

I believe we had 7 portages (land between bodies of water) to get through. The weather was overcast and cool, perfect for paddling.

Things went fairly smoothly though we did have trouble finding the portage into Cross Bay Lake and ended up on an old, non-maintained portage (oops). Our destination was Long Island Lake.

We had stayed on Long Island Lake before (2005) but had entered via a different route and with 5 campers instead of the usual 4.

It took us 7 hours to get to Long Island Lake. Whether it was lack of paddle practice or age or directions, that was a LONG paddle. Add that I had a big arthritis flare up as we got to Long Island Lake. We had been given heads up to some available campsites. The first site on the lake was already occupied and didn't really meet our requirements (western facing with a swimmable area). The next one was available, and I had to confess that I could not continue paddling as my arthritis made it nearly impossible to continue.

Turned out the campsite was great, and we proceeded to setup our gear. I wasn't much help due to the previously mentioned arthritis. My flare up also meant that we were destined to have stormy weather...and it proved to be true.

The camp site got set up in no time as usual. To our amazement, there were nearly no bugs! So, we were able to have a campfire and stay up after sundown. This is usually not the case. From this point, the video really shows how the camping went.

We did have rain that first night (Wednesday) but it was not bad and sounded soothing on the tent. Thursday night was another story. We had a severe thunder and lightning storm and very, very heavy rain. So much rain that the base of the tent got soaked and so did pretty much everything on our camp site.

Friday had been forecast to be rainy but another piece of luck, it was sunny and warm. We were able to dry out pretty much everything and most importantly the tent and tarps. We re-assembled the site in time for another rain shower. We retreated to the tent to play cards and let the rest of our gear get all wet again.

We paddled out on Saturday expecting another 7-hour trip. Somehow the paddle out only took 4 hours...we shaved 3 hours off! We really don't know how. The weather conditions were the same and we were never really off course going in or out. We certainly didn't complain that we were more efficient.

Once back at the cabin, we put out everything to dry and ate a very filling meal. We drove back the Twin Cities on Sunday with a stop in Duluth for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel-dipped apples.

And now for the 20th anniversary. I found photos of that trip! Boy were we young!

2003 - Brian, Jeff, Jenny

2003 - Brian, Julie, Jenny

Marlin's Birthday Adventure

Marlin invited me to celebrate his birthday this year by doing a big adventure. Cut to the chase...we skydived!

Click here for the video of my dive. (Marlin's video to come if approved)

It was hazy from the Canada forest fires but it was cool and dry. The skydive is located in Baldwin, Wisconsin which is just 45 minutes from the Twin Cities.

We had kind of a long wait for our turn but we got to watch the take off and return of many types of skydives. It was interesting and kind of comforting at the same time.

I have actually skydived before. Back in 2014 while in Hawaii. That blog post is here.

New York, New York

The trip video is available here. I want to acknowledge that I am fortunate to have the wherewithal to to travel and to also have friends who also have the wherewithal and similar travel adventure bug.

My friend, Bud, needed to use a Delta companion ticket before August and invited me to go to New York City for a long weekend - July 21 to 24. We left early on the 21st and hit the ground running.

Landing at La Guardia, we took the free transfer bus to Subway Line #7 to Grand Central Station, Manhattan. We walked from Grand Central to our hotel for the weekend, the Hilton Millennial United Nations. The hotel is located immediately next to the United Nations building on the East River. Our room was on the 36th floor with amazing views of Manhattan including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Freedom Tower in the distance.

We got an early check-in, dropped off our luggage, and headed out to Times Square and the discount ticket office, TKTS. We were in line for about 1 1/2 hours and decided to purchase tickets to a Friday evening show and a Saturday matinee. We didn't have real plans for shows so were open to whatever was available.

Friday night we went to Grey House at the Lyceum Theater. It is a "straight" (ie. not a musical) play which I wanted to support. It fit its billing as being a creepy, horror story. Very difficult to describe and very thought provoking about what it was or wasn't representing. Laurie Metcalf (of Roseanne show fame) appears in this production.

Starting Friday and throughout the weekend, we hit as many Irish pubs as we could between Times Square and our hotel. The weather was pretty much fantastic the entire time. It did get hot but not humid. We were lucky.

Saturday, we walked nearly completely across the island of Manhattan...from the East Side to the West Side and the High Line near the Hudson River. We walked a good portion of the High Line towards downtown. We got off around 14th Street and jumped on the subway back to Times Square for a matinee of New York, New York at the St. James Theater.

Before the show, we went to my favorite diner, Westway on 9th. It was perfect. New York, New York is a HUGE musical. We had 2nd row seats! We could read the conductor's music score! The show as full of unknown Kander and Ebb songs with additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The 2nd Act is really a block buster. Unfortunately, the closing notice was published after we saw the show. Hopefully it will tour so people get a chance to see it. The lead actor, Colton Ryan, is freakin' amazing.

Bud hasn't been able to get authentic Japanese sukiyaki in the Twin Cities so we went to Jukai for dinner and opted not to see a show Saturday night. I had never had sukiyaki. It was delicious and the staff's attention to detail was impeccable.

We had stopped by TKTS after the Saturday matinee to get tickets to the final preview of The Cottage, another "straight" play. This one a farce/comedy at the Hayes (formerly Helen Hayes) Theater. It was fun and fluffy and full of a lot of sexual references. It was directed by Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame. It opened on the Monday after we saw and, unfortunately did not receive good reviews.

From the play we walked to just off Central Park to eat at Serendipity, a New York institution. We found an interesting beer bar while we waited for our table. I have been to Serendipity before but do not remember it being the crazy, weird place that appears to be now.

I can't remember is we walked back to the hotel or took the subway. We did A LOT of walking!

We had time before our flight on Monday to get in some more touristing. We took the subway to the upper east side to visit The Guggenheim. I had never been. The building was designed by Frank LLoyd Wright. There were 3 very interesting exhibits (check them out on the website). I really enjoyed visiting this museum.

We took the subway back to the hotel to get our luggage then to Grand Central to back track our route to La Guardia. Everything really went really well on weekend.

Another link to the video.

Wisconsin Roadtrip - June

Well, I've been back from a Wisconsin roadtrip over a week and finally edited the photos and put together the trip video. You can see the video by clicking here. A lot was packed into the 10 days.

First of all this was a trip with my dear friend Jill. She flew to Minneapolis where we started our driving adventure.

First stop - Madison, Wisconsin. Jill is from Madison. We visited the house she was raised in. The current owners had just sold the house and by chance, the lady of the house was there when we stopped. She graciously let us walk through the house so Jill could see it. Turns out she and her husband had bought the house from Jill's parents!

We went to the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus and met an old friend of Jill's and hung at the student Union. We spent the night in Madison. In the morning I took a run along Lake Mendota and through the campus. After that we went to the huge farmer's market that surrounds the Wisconsin capitol building. We went in the building briefly. It was a very hot day.

From Madison, we drove to Milwaukee. There we met friends that Jill knew from 35 years ago, Shannon and Will! Destination was the James Taylor concert at Summer Fest. Sheryl Crow opened for James in the ginormous American Insurance venue...23,000 James Taylor fans.

Spent the night in Milwaukee. Left for Door County, Wisconsin in the morning and stopped at another childhood friend of Jill's who has a house on the lake (Lake Michigan). Made it to Sister Bay in Door County for a week's stay at the Liberty Lodge.

The video covers the Door County portion of the adventure pretty well. But in brief and in no particular order we ... 1) took the ferry to Washington Island where we saw lavender fields, a really weird building that someone told us was a Scandinavian church?, and visited a rock beach. 2) sat out at Newton State Park (a dark sky location) to see the stars, however, the moon was so bright the stars weren't all that visible. 3) went to Cave Point County Park to see the waves (not too wavy) but saw what turned out to be a duck with all its baby ducks tucked under her wings...you had to see it. It was cool. 4) strolled in Ellison Bluff County Park where Jill and I had been a winter ago. 5) ate and drank a lot 6) went to the world premiere of a play at Peninsula Players Theater 7) listened to steel pan music at Birch Creek Conservatory 7) ate and drank a lot 8) it was crazy smoky (Canadian fires) most of the time but had a few days of clear air 9) hung out at a beach on the Lake Michigan side (beautiful) 9) drove across Door County (it is the peninsula between Green Bay and Lake Michigan) every which way you possibly could. 10) saw some beautiful sunsets. 11) and have a mentioned that we ate and drank a lot?!

After we dropped Shannon and Will off at the Green Bay airport, Jill and I drove straight back to Minneapolis. I've basically been sleeping ever since.

The weird building. It has serpents and scary things.

It also has these strange goad gargoyles.

May Biking and Camping Trip - North Central Minnesota

Quick link to trip video

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from a 4-day biking and camping trip with my friend Bud. I've been trying to get a video edited and this blog post completed.

A quick summary of the trip. We drove up to Akeley, MN on Wednesday, May 24 (the Wednesday before Memorial Weekend) where we spent 2 nights at a private campground, Akeley City Campground on the 11th Crow Wing Lake. It is a really nice site with RV and tent camping. We were the only tent for the first night.

The campground is next to the Heartland Trail, one of the first in the country rails-to-trails. It is a really well maintained trail and like our previous experience on rails-to-trails, it was relatively flat and straight.

We jumped on our bikes as soon as we got our campsite set up. It was a cold first ride.

Wednesday night we ate in Nevis, the town just west of Akeley. Had some good barbecue. Back at camp, Bud tried some fishing off the public fishing pier next to our campground.

The second day was warm and sunny. We had breakfast in camp and then biked to Walker, MN. We stopped at a coffee shop in Walker and headed back via the "scenic" route...which meant lots of hills and turns. This took us onto the Paul Bunyan Trail.

Bud has an electric bike...I do not! I did a pretty good job of keeping up. I think I gained an inch on my quads. We finally encountered some other bikers.

We drove back to Walker for dinner as there were more options.

Friday, we drove to Cass Lake to get a tent site at the Chippewa National Forest park outside of Cass Lake. We found a beautiful site but there were LOTS of mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes brought out LOTS of dragonflies. It was fascinating and we really appreciated the work dragonflies do. There were also LOTS of ticks...horror movie LOTS!!

We were expecting the campsites to be busy (Memorial Weekend) but there was only one other person there when we arrived. By the time we left on Saturday, there were 3 other families camping.

We took the Mizigi Trail around the lower portion of Cass Lake. It passes through a section of the Chippewa National Forest that has mostly been harvested and re-planted with pine trees. The bike path is completely covered with pine needles and cones. And there were millions of dragonflies!!!

We ate dinner at Stoney Point Resort, the only place close by.

We returned to the Twin Cities on Saturday. We drove back through Federal Dam, Emily, Crosby, and Mille Lacs. It was a great adventure.

Click here for a video (best viewed landscape). The "music" you will hear is a recording of the many songbirds that serenaded us in Cass Lake.

A simple update - office

Before (stock photo)

For years I've been using a bungee office chair. It was pretty comfortable to begin with. I don't know if it is age -- the chair or mine -- but it was causing my right leg and butt cheek to become very sore.

I took the office chair to Goodwill and found this dining chair. I removed the seat covering of batting and fabric to reveal a rattan seat in perfect condition.

After

After

North Shore and Lake Superior

Lake Superior was angry but we were happy

Had the opportunity to travel up to the North Shore of Minnesota and Lake Superior. The purpose of the trip was to attend the Cook County Commission hearing regarding a permit to build a gravel pit and temporary asphalt manufacturing facility off the Caribou Trail near a friend's north country cabin.

The Commission hearing was to determine if an Environmental Assessment Worksheet should be requried for the project. The hearing was on a Tuesday morning.

Jenny and I drove up Sunday to Schroeder to stay a few days at a home on Lake Superior. There happened to be a Winter Storm Warning for the North Shore that Sunday. We decided to go any way, take our time, and, if necessary, stop until the storm eased. Turned out it was bad with snow blowing across the roads but we were careful and made it just fine.

Since the hearing was on Tuesday, we had Monday to "play" in the snow...and there was lots of it everywhere.

Lake Superior was churning with big waves and lots of ice on the shore when we arrived. By Monday it was clear and sunny and gorgeous.

Snowshoeing into Gust Lake

The snow up at the Gust Lake cabin was beautiful. Someone had plowed a good portion of the road so we were able to drive in and park. We put on snowshoes and trekked the rest of the way to the cabin.

Everything at the cabin was in good order. From the cabin we drove down to Grand Marais. Jenny did some shopping and we ate a hardy meal at My Sister's Place.

The house we stayed at in Schroeder was amazing. Right on Lake Superior and with all the comforts. There is a fantastic view of the Lake. We saw deer and I saw an otter (briefly). The sound of the waves is so relaxing.

The house faces mostly east so the sunrises were spectacular but the sunsets were equally beautiful as the entire horizon filled with all the colors of the rainbow.

The Cook County Commissioners agreed to a petition asking for the Environmental Assessment Worksheet...a victory for the cabin and homeowners along the Caribou Trail and Grade.

View from the house in Schroeder

The house in Schroeder is near Temperance River State Park. We were able to walk over and hike the upper and lower gorges of the Temperance River. So incredible with snow and ice and how the river has carved through what was once lava!

We made our way back to the house for a peaceful night before heading back to Minneapolis with much calmer weather.

To see a video of the trip click here.