Out for exercise? Then why drive to the Munger Trail in Carlton. Get off I35 in Cloquet and start your ride immediately. Take exit 349 at Scanlon. There you will find the beautiful new bike trail into Carlton. The Saint
Louis River was completed late last Fall.
The Scanlon Park and Ride provides ample parking. The old Northern Pacific right-of-way makes a beautiful corridor to the Munger Trail access in Carlton. The trail has a remote feeling most of the way. In Carlton it safely guides you to the Munger Trail Access
From the 'Northern Pacific Junction' you can cycle north into Duluth or south to Barnum. You can also access the Alex Leveaux trail through Wrenshall and beyond.
Enjoy the Saint Louis River Trail.
The trail parallels the Saint Louis River which you never see during the Carlton to I 35 Segment! When the trail is extended to Scanlon, you will enjoy some fantastic views of the River. Phase two of construction will extend the Saint Louis River Trail into Scanlon.
The St. Louis River Trail follows a railroad spur built by the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad in 1878
The Northern Pacific Railroad started building westward from Carlton (then ca
lled Northern Pacific Junction) on February 15, 1870 the same year the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad completed the link from St. Paul to Duluth on August 1, 1870.
The St. Paul & Duluth constructed the Knife Falls branch in 1879 north from the North Pacific Junction (later renamed Carlton) rail crossroads into Knife Falls (later named Cloquet) to service a new sawmill built in 1878.
Obstacles in the river south of Knife Falls prevented the easy log driving south of this point into Duluth.
With rail transportation established, the local lumber industry boomed.
In 1888, the Duluth & Winnipeg RR began building northwestward from Knife Falls / Cloquet along the St. Louis River. Traffic from this new line was routed into Duluth over this St. Paul & Duluth spur.
Later the Duluth & Winnipeg built tracks eastward out of Cloquet through Esko and into Duluth via the Becks Road corridor. This project left the railroad short of cash and open to takeover by James J. Hill.
Finally, in 1898, Mr. Hill and the Duluth & Winnipeg built a line parallel to this road bed out of Cloquet slightly to the West into Northern Pacific Junction/Carlton, through Wrenshall looping eventually into Superior Wisconsin. The Burlington, Northern & Santa Fe continue to use that trackage.
On June 15, 1900, the Norther
n Pacific Railroad purchased the St. Paul & Duluth Rail which originally build this spur into Cloquet.
In addition to the St. Louis River, two logging railroads fed pine to the many lumber mills in Cloquet.
The Minnesota & North Wisconsin built west out of Scanlon beginning in 1899 as the Mitchel & McClure passing near Adolph, Wild Rice Lake, north of Duluth, to Alden Lake, Northwest of Knife River.
In 1904 low water levels in the St. Louis River during spring log drives spurred building of the Duluth & Northeastern Railroad out of Cloquet to Island Lake and later to Rush Lake, Harris Junction and Hornby, north of Two Harbors. The Saint Louis River and two logging railroads brought pine into Cloquet. The Northern Pacific Railroad, over this railroad grade, together with the Great Northern a few blocks to the west, hauled the lumber to market.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
St. Louis River Trail
Sunday, February 21, 2010
To Dust We Shall Return
I was my time in the rotation to preach at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Cloquet this morning
A bit of graffiti under the Highway 33 Bridge sparked my meditation for Lent this year. Above and beneath the graphics the artist wrote: "Make a name; life is short!"
Someone young, I suspect, produced this piece of art. I doubt any of us older folk, sitting here this morning, go around town with a can of black spray paint doing art under bridges.
You can see this street art. You will find it on the way to the bar at the old Northeastern Hotel for a glass of beer or wine. By the way it's said the bar at the Northeastern has the longest bar in Northeastern Minnesota made 
of one solid piece of wood. Of course, I cannot verify that since I have not visited all of the bars in Northeastern Minnesota. Yet! Also I believe the establishment a bit more positive cache than it once possessed.
"Make a name; life is short."
Lent speaks to this advice given in black spray paint.
A phrase from the Old Testament book of Genesis echoes over the beginning of Lent:
Sometimes the King James version seems to give these admonitions more heft:
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
As the church imposes ashes on us at the beginning of Lent, we hear these words proclaimed to us: "You are dust and dust you shall return".
The natural question in every human heart: How do we rise above this dust?
"Make a name; life is short."
Rather than this message, Lent and Jesus would suggest something else.
"Make a friend life is short."
"For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
We hear this phrase of Genesis just after Adam and Eve have messed up. However, in the spirit of Jesus, I suggest this phrase is more than a condemnation of misdeeds or a warning against sin. We must always read Scripture in the spirit of Jesus: Heal the sick, feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, visit the imprisoned, give drink to the thirsty and shelter the homeless.
"Make a name; life is short."
Rather Jesus would say: do good while you can, life is short. Our genes, I suspect, drive us look after ourselves and those who would cover our backs. However, the spirit of Jesus calls us look after others. Science tells us evolution programs a bit of altruism into to us to assure our survival. But the generosity to which Jesus calls us requires, as Genesis suggests, the "sweat of your face".
Just as we hear of Jesus in the Gospel lesson this morning, we must withdraw from the noise of our days and the anxiety of our lives and sit for a time in quiet and reflection. Goodness takes work, needs strength, demands courage, requires character. The call of Jesus does not automatically grace us with courage and character.
We can throw seed on ground and some will grow. But to feed our families and our poor neighbors we must till the soil to prepare it. We must pull the weeks, fend off insects, outfox the rabbits, water when dry, and carefully preserved the harvest for winter. Growth may be automatic; harvest requires sweat.
"Make a name; life is short."
Life is short! Fate limits our time for doing good, for comforting the weary, for feeding the hungry, for sheltering the homeless, for healing the sick, for reconciling the estranged, for visiting the isolated, for making peace.
"Make a name; life is short."
Perhaps someone young painted this phrase but what might this young person's parents have painted? Make a killing; life is short. Make money; life is short. Make a fortune; life is short. Guard your own; life is short. Or as bumper stickers once proclaimed: "He who dies with the most toys wins."
We do reach a point where we have enough. But amazingly we find it difficult to give away some of the rest. So from time to time we must review our character and strength so we can practice goodness. In this season of Lent, review your strength for doing good.
The gospel teaches Jesus went to the desert to wrestle with the temptation of greed and selfish. Yes, even Jesus battled acquisitiveness and the lust for power.
Build the pile; life is short.
The news, our radios, our television, our newspapers and magazines, have given us many examples of greed and the problems it causes. Our leaders seek to regulate our lust to accumulate with laws and regulations. Laws may lessen greed but law cannot assure generosity. Character and principle enable generosity. We must cultivate our character and nourish our principles. Do that this Lent!
Paul, a learned lawyer, knew laws can only make men and women honest; it cannot make them generous, kind, compassionate, in short good! Regulations can only control greed; they cannot force generosity.
St. Paul teaches us of this difference. He presents the image in his letters of a child who has not yet developed his character or strengthened the principles which will keep him from evil, from greed. During the time of his youth, a child is protected by parents, by guardians, by teachers. He is controlled by the law. When mature strength of character and the power principle develop, he is no longer under the law. He walks Jesus. This walking with Jesus, Paul calls Faith.
This Lent, renew and deepen your faith.
2 He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time by his father.
3 So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
We are heirs of God when we do the goodness of God. We are children of God when we display the compassion of God. We are daughters of God when we delight in feeding the hungry, healing the sick and comforting the afflicted. We are sons of God when we promote peace, give water to the thirsty, open doors to the blessings of our society for those we once shut out.
"Make a name; life is short."
"Do good; life is short."
Expressed more plainly, we rise above the dust not by building piles money or mounds of things, not by building piles but by bringing smiles to others.
"Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." The words call us not just to avoid evil but to turn toward good.
"Make a name; life short!"
Lent suggests requests and enables us to rewrite the graffiti under the bridge on our hearts: "do good; life is short!"
Monday, January 21, 2008
Mothball Sunday
Mothball Sunday fell in Epiphany-tide this year. At least, it might have fallen last Sunday here in Cloquet, Minnesota.
Mothball Sunday is a moveable feast. It might be celebrated in Advent, during December. This special Sunday might add to the Twelve Days of Christmas. Most likely it will fall during the season of Epiphany. Rarely do we celebrate this Sunday during Lent. Some few years, we do not have this Sunday at all.
The date of celebration varied from year to year and even place to place. I doubt the Bible Belt ever experienced this Sunday in their churches.
You will not find Mothball Sunday determined by the Solar Calendar like Christmas. We don't calculate its place in our lives according to the Lunar Calendar like Easter. Meteorology governs the date of Mothball Sunday.
I considered it a big feast in the 1950's. On this Sunday a different incense wafted through the congregation. This feast, however, has slipped from our awareness and consciousness.
People would get out their rarely-used, really heavy, warm winter garments. When I was young these garments were very often made of wool. Taken from storage, they smelled of the mothballs used to protect them from the insects that feasted on wool. Church on Mothball Sunday smelled of mothballs. By the next week, if folks still needed these really warm clothes the smell disappeared as the heavy coat, wool pants or sweater aired.
For some years, I served as an altar boy. As we moved from one kneeling person to another at communion time, I would catch the whiff of Mothballs. Mostly the old people smelled (who who were then the age that I am now.) I thought of these woolen garments as quaint and old fashioned like the people who wore them.
People who were then the age I am now: Yes! I have my favorite cherished woolen garment. The 'long pants' I pack when outfitting myself for a canoe trip. Long pants is that garment warn on a cold, windy, damp day. I wear long pants when the evening chill has replaced the warm day and mosquitoes swam. I wear old army surplus woolen dress pants. Wood sheds water, seems warm even when wet, dries quicker than blue jeans, fends off the wind - especially when they have not been washed for a couple of seasons. When properly 'seasoned' - unwashed - a pair of woolen pants seems to keep mosquitoes at bay.
I know people on the trail smile at the old-fashioned quaintness of my outdoor gear. However, I don't smell - of mothballs at least.
New synthetic winter fabrics and hi-tech textiles and have driven most wool from our wardrobes, so Mothball Sunday has disappeared. Maybe folks today are more conscious of how they smell, and air out their clothes (10 minutes in the clothes drier) before they wear them. After all, when I was 8 we only bathed once a week. We usually bathed on Saturday before going to church. (Until a teenager, I though the maxim "cleanliness is next to Godliness" referred to the Saturday Evening bath before we when to Church on Sunday.
Last Sunday should have been Mothball Sunday in Church, but the air smelled clean like Irish Spring or Life Boy.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Winter Morning Sunrise
Combined I had just enough light to see where I must tread carefully but not enough clearly see the contours of the trails. I avoided trails and walked atop the hard crusted snow. In night snowshoe-light, daylight trails ambush a walker.
Turning southeast toward home, the light wind blew the 18 degree air enough to cause my eyes to water. I drew my parka close and pull my hat closer to my head.
Certainly this was a beautiful night.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Wild Back Yard
I mentioned the date to my boss (unofficially, of course) to help as he contemplate budgets and staffing levels over the next months. The time could be advanced if I found something interesting to do part time.
These decisions and activities move me from considering retirement as an abstract concept to something that will really happen.
This 'wild forest' stands in the lot right next to my yard. I captured this photo during a warm day of our January thaw.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Sunrise
The sun rises about 5:15. During June both the Sun and I struggle out bed about the same time.
Our paths out of bed cross most often in June.
So Lila and meet the sun near the river on our morning walk.
Lila Resting During Walk
During the few minutes I have before catching the bus to work I search out a new frame for the sunrise.
