Northeastern Minnesota Trails

Soon some of Minnesota's most beautiful hiking trails will join the North Country National Scenic Trail. This trail runs more than 4,600 miles from Crown Point in eastern New York to Lake Sakakawea in western North Dakota.

If legislation passes congress to reroute the trail, the Superior Hiking Trail, the Border Route Trail and the Kekekabic Trail all legendary will be incorporated into North Country National Scenic Trail.

The NCNST, longest of the 11 National Scenic Trails authorized by congress passes through seven staints. The National Park Service administers the trail but primarily volunteers maintain the trail.
I'm not of an age when I am likely to hike the entire 4600 miles, but I have hike portions of the Minnesota Arrowhead trails singled out for inclusion.
Inclusion would be a wonderful reward for the many volunteers who have planned, built and maintained these trails.

Highway Memorial

I present another in the series of curious roadside attractions.

A road trip through the Superior National Forest brought me to this unusual roadside memorial. I found it along Forest Highway 7.

The 'memorial' stands close by an abandoned tavern and other building. near Slate Lake. The 'memorial' consists of an authentic old outhouse with a couple of stuffed dummies. She has a beautiful large glove and a yellow hat. He sports blaze orange socks. The old Christmas Wreaths add a festive, creative touch.

The Woods

A Reflection on the Fire

Some call it Brush, others the Bush. I call it the Woods.

I love the woods.

I contemplated this love as I listened to the recent news of a large wildfire at the end of the Gunflint Trail.

I love the Northeastern Minnesota woods. I love its surprises.

Sometimes I enter the official wilderness. Other times I enjoy instead 'the woods'. Sometimes - hiking in a majestic stand of towering pine, these primeval beauties suddenly line up in neat rows. I'm in a Civilian Conservation Corp planting of the 1940s - seemed like a wilderness. I realize these majestic beauties are hardly older than me. Oh yes, a few are older, but they are rare like an elderly man in a Senior Citizen's High-rise.

Other times I will blacken my legs climbing over ancient charcoal stumps. Evidence of fire.

This lonely land can muddle your mind. During time in the Boundary Water Wilderness, I often remind companions this lonely wilderness once served as the superhighway of the North American Continent.

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Originally uploaded by cageyj.

I hiked to the site of Fort Charlotte at the western end of the Grand Portage. Voyageurs travel it longer than our Macadam Roads have existed. It was a busy place. Now it seems untouched.

A newspaper lamented the fire-burned area as a "wilderness largely pristine but wounded." "In some sections the birch, spruce and jack pine stand postcard-perfect." In other places fire has destroyed the land.

Most of our 'ancient' forests are about 100 years - old. Within 5 years the burnt-land will be a tight-knit stand of saplings. After 20 years we will be able to walk under the trees. Thirty years of now, we will see the 'ancient' forest again.

We lost no life. We learned how to better protect human property. We have begun renewal on another section of the woods and wilderness I love.