Posts Tagged With: bald eagle

2019 Trip 6: Voyageurs National Park: Oct. 15-16

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

Tamarack trees on the drive to Bemidji MN

International Falls, MN. Thursday October 17

Two days off and once again the weather has not been advantageous. On the positive side, it should be relatively nice this weekend for visitors and our car’s new battery seems to be working fine.

Tuesday was a true experience although part of the day is still beyond my comprehension. We started off visiting NOvA Far Detector Lab. Say what??? Well, and I quote here: “The NOvA Experiment is a liquid scintillator detector experiment searching for electron neutrino appearance in the NuMI muon neutrino and antineutrino beam. A 300 ton near detector is set up at Fermilab. 500 miles north, the 14,000 ton far detector at NOvA Far Detector Lab is operated by the University of Minnesota at Ash River, Minnesota.” If that does not explain it for you, I am not sure what will. But I will give my short description.

Did you learn this in physics?

Neutrinos are extremely small particles, way smaller than atoms. They do not have electric charge. Neutrinos change into different types. We know very little about them even though supposedly they are the most common particle in the universe. Knowing more about them will help us better understand the universe and matter. A previous experiment ending at Soudan MN tried to measure neutrinos sent in a straight line. This experiment tried to measure neutrinos that diverge from the straight line.

NOvA Far Detector Lab, Ash River MN

Ash River, about 40 miles south of International Falls, was chosen due to its distance from Fermilab in the Chicago area and the fact it has just about the last infrastructure before the Canadian border. It was stunning to drive through forests with few buildings to come upon this massive building. Once inside, the amazement continues. The largest free standing PVC structure in the world is inside, crammed with 10,752 extruded PVC modules. Inside the modules are fiber cables and an oil that reacts with ionizing radiation. When a neutrino hits the module, a series of electronics attached to the fibers records the important data. (Don’t ask me what that data is.)

The site offers tours during the summer. We called and asked for a tour even though it would be just the two of us. Request granted. The building and complex took two years to build, with the first neutrinos detected in 2013. The experiment is due to continue until 2025. A new experiment designed to build on the information discovered here is set to begin in 2021 in Lead SD. For further understanding of NOvA, try watching videos on YouTube.

We left Ash River and had lunch at the Coffee Landing in International Falls. Coffee Landing roasts its own coffee and serves meals until 5 PM. Chris and I both had a breakfast meal which was quite tasty. Coffee Landing is just a block from two museums sharing one space. The Koochiching County Historical Museum relates the history of the area from its earliest formation. The museum is open daily and has wonderful exhibits for a small town. Even the display cases have been hand crafted locally based on the curator’s design. We learned more about the minor gold rush at Rainy Lake, lumbering, and the development of a paper milling empire that continues in a reduced form today.

Painting and model of Virginia, luxury cruiser on Rainy Lake

Lunch baskets from early 1900s on top, Ojibwe baskets on bottom

A few of the notable exhibits included: models of boats used on the lakes from steamers to personal luxury boats to commercial fishing boats; vintage snowmobiles; examples of baskets from the Ojibwe culture and from paper mill lunch boxes. The curator told us a story about the paper mill lunch boxes. The operators of the paper making machines could not leave the machines during their shift. The company sent a person to the operator’s home where the wife would put the husbands’s lunch in a lunch basket woven from birch, etc. The husband would bring the lunch basket home with him. Soon everyone recognized that carrying a lunch basket symbolized a position of importance and the use of a woven lunch basket spread to most workers. Some local people specialized in the creation of the woven baskets for mill employees.

Bronco in retirement

The other half of the museum was devoted to Bronco Nagurski. Young’uns might not recognize his name. He was famous in the 1920s and 1930s as a football player for the Minnesota Gophers and Chicago Bears. Just one indication of his greatness is that he is the only football player named an All American at both defensive and offensive positions in the same year. He was inducted into the Collegiate Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame in their inaugural years.

Nagurski was born in Canada but came to International Falls at an age five. He married his local high school sweetheart and lived out his life in International Falls after retirement. Like many families up here, relatives still live in the area.

Walking around International Falls after the museum, I was struck by two items. First, the town must have made a commitment several years ago to plant new trees with glorious fall color. Along the Main Street, one observes short trees with brilliant red, orange and yellow colors. Colors not noticed in such abundance on the side streets or in the natural forested areas. Second, like numerous downtowns, probably in the name of civic improvement, the sidewalks are not concrete but some form of brick pavers. As seems inevitable to me, the pavers pop out of plumb, creating tripping hazards or deep ponds of water during rainy periods. Haven’t landscape architects figured this out yet??

Wednesday we drove the two hours to Bemidji. Our goal was to pick up two prescriptions and visit a state park or two. Early morning rain caused us to reduce our park visitation to just one, Lake Bemidji State Park. Here we hiked, partially out to a bog on a boardwalk. Big Bog State Park nearby has a longer boardwalk through a more varied terrain but that will have to wait for another trip.

Both in the park and along the highway, we finally observed first hand the autumn presentation of tamarack trees. Over the years we have frequently heard tamarack trees described as the only conifers (pine trees) which have needle like leaves that turn yellow in autumn and fall off, leaving the tree looking dead until spring time. Tamaracks are a northern tree type whose range just barely reaches to the Twin Cities. As green conifers, Chris and I would not be able to distinguish them. Right now, the trees have turned yellow and the needles are starting to fall. Soon they will be bare and again unrecognizable to us.

Recent Animal sightings

In other notable animal sightings, we observed our first sighting of river otters. A group of five otters were frolicking in Rainy Lake. While not unusual for Minnesotans, Chris spotted a bald eagle in a tree along the road to Bemidji. We also saw our first buck. Deer have been plentiful but always does and fawns until Tuesday afternoon.

Big Bog Lake at Lake Bemidji State Park, MN

Ed and Chris. International Falls Thursday Oct. 17 9:30 PM

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2017 Trip Six: Summer Camp for Seniors: Aug. 25-26

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

St. Paul, MN. Saturday Aug. 26

Friday afternoon paddle on Arrowhead Lake

Friday morning camp continued but after breakfast of pancakes and sausage, etc., we skipped morning classes and went for our own walk in the area around the Laurentian Environmental Center. Nothing dramatic, just an opportunity to be on our own, get some exercise, and observe nature. Temperatures were in the low 60s with clear skies.

The first afternoon class was on biomimicry. Biomimicry is the study and use of natural actions to improve human life. Some examples that were given in class included: 1.) the use of the shape of the bill of the kingfisher bill to redesign the engine of the Japanese bullet train to reduce the boom-like noise made when the ultra-fast train exited tunnels along its route: 2.) how the plants with burrs helped imagine the development of Velcro; 3.) the whale fin with ridges helped improve the design of wind turbine blades; and 4.) the German paint company Sto used the features of the lotus plant to design exterior coatings that are highly water and dirt resistant. Another intriguing animal was the wood frog which remains frozen for eight months during the winter and then defrosts over two days and goes back into a normal living cycle.

Bald Eagle perched in tree on Arrowhead Lake MN

After that class we went out for another canoe ride on Arrowhead Lake. We saw a bald eagle perched in a tree, a loon fishing for food, and a family of ducks. I only had my iPhone and not the camera so I was unable to zoom in for a great picture. You will have to endure less than dramatic photos.

Archery class

Archery class was the final afternoon adventure. Ten of us went out to the archery range on the property. The last time I shot a bow and arrow was probably 50 years ago, with a long bow that gave me a burn along the left arm holding the bow. We used compound bows set for 20 pound pull. Result: I am not Robin Hood. I got one bulls-eye in the practice target and three minor touches on a fake deer. I won’t tell you how many arrows in total I shot. P.S. the targets were not set a great distance from the stand. But it was fun.

Friday night’s musical presentation

Our evening entertainment was a two-hour musical presentation put on by one of the staff and a friend of his; one of our participants sat in for a portion of it. The music was usually familiar and the patter of the two musicians was a blast. The group viewed it as a highlight of the week.

Saturday morning while there was a walk with a humorous twist, it was raining and so after brunch, we left for St. Paul.

So what did we think of this adventure? We both enjoyed it. Chris would go back next year in a heart beat; I might prefer to try another new adventure. The instructors were knowledgeable and friendly. The courses were interesting. The food was good and well-balanced. Each day, three to four blocks of time were set up and one was able to pick and choose from numerous classes, hikes, and service projects. One was able to leave the property and explore other area attractions if desired. The participants were friendly and pleasant.

The lodging was great from a camping viewpoint, plenty of hot water, clean, no creepy-crawlies, spacious enough and bunks long enough although somewhat hard. The lodging would not qualify for a AAA star, as long as your expectations are reasonable, you would be comfortable.

Did we tell you the price? $210 per person for five nights lodging, 15 meals, use of equipment, and programming. Can’t beat it.👍

Ed and Chris. St. Paul MN. Aug. 26

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2015 Trip 3, Isle Royale, June 21

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Ed Heimel and Chris Klejbuk, MN travel bloggers; ckeh72@comcast.net

2015 Trip 3, Isle Royale June 21
Hovland, MN

This trip is to visit Isle Royale National Park, an island located in Lake Superior. Technically the park is in the state of Michigan although it is closer to Minnesota and to Ontario. We have never been to this park; it is remote and not heavily visited. One can take a day’s ferry ride over from Michigan or from Minnesota and spend a few hours on the island. We chose a second, longer option of taking the ferry over and spending three nights on the island. If you have read this blog previously, you can probably guess that we are not camping. There is a lodge at Isle Royale and we will be staying at one of their cabins.

The ferry leaves from Grand Portage MN, just a few miles south of the U.S.-Canada border. It departs at 7:30 A.M. (and arrives at our lodge around 3 PM) so we have driven up to the North Shore region of Minnesota on Sunday. These remote areas of the North Shore and Isle Royale itself have little or no Internet and cell coverage (or the cell coverage might be in Canada and extremely expensive) so this post may not see the light of day until Thursday when we return from Isle Royale and are lodging in Grand Marais MN, a little farther south of the border.

We left St. Paul at 8 AM. The first half of the distance brings us to Duluth MN at the SW tip of Lake Superior. The road is all Interstate and other than abundant wildflowers along the edge of the Interstate, nothing too dramatic to report. Duluth is a pleasant town of about 85,000 people and we have visited here often and do not plan to discuss much about it here. Except, this was the weekend for Grandma’s Marathon.

Grandma’s Marathon has been running for 39 years and was originally sponsored by a local Duluth restaurant (Grandma’s) which is still in existence. The marathon has grown dramatically and now large, corporate sponsors provide the primary funding for the marathon. It runs along the shore of Lake Superior and has spectacular scenery. Lucky for us it ran Saturday since our route and the marathon’s route overlap for a number of miles. The only evidence we saw were the hordes of teenagers picking up trash along the route and the list of finishers in the local Duluth newspaper.

Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior

Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior

The second half of the distance is on MN Highway 61 along the North Shore. This road is a scenic route with great vistas of the lake and of the “mountains” along the shoreline. Due to the mountains, there are over 20 waterfalls between Duluth and the Canadian border. As we drive farther past Duluth, the smell of pine trees is noticeable. Chris spotted a bald eagle just sitting in one of the trees. The drive here is slower but more enjoyable.

Bald Eagle along the North Shore

Bald Eagle along the North Shore

We stopped at an overlook north of Duluth and met a marathoner from Toronto. He has been trying to run marathons that are located around the Great Lakes. He has run 13 so far. He was taking pictures of the area and we took one for him with Lake Superior in the background. Another couple at the overlook were from Nebraska and we discussed with them the snow geese and sandhill cranes that throng the Kearney-Grand Island NE area in late March. We are contemplating visiting there next spring if we can figure out how to do that and make it to South Beach.

Brule River in Judge C.R. Magney State Park

Brule River in Judge C.R. Magney State Park

Our return journey starts Thursday and we will spend four more nights along the North Shore. This extended time will allow us to visit several of the waterfalls at that time. Today, we did visit one state park and its waterfall. Judge C.R. Magney state park is located along the Brule River (there also is a Brule River in Wisconsin.) We hiked the trail to Devil’s Kettle. (Atlas Obscura has an interesting video about Devil’s Kettle also. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/devils-kettle)

Brule River falls

Brule River falls

Devil's Kettle; left side water disappears

Devil’s Kettle; left side water disappears

The Devil’s Kettle is a waterfall/rapids that is somewhat unique. As the river heads to Lake Superior, it passes a rapids where the north side of the river creates a water fall but the south half of the river falls into a pothole and the water disappears. Geologists have done various studies to figure out exactly where the water goes but no one has yet definitively answered the question.

Naniboujou Lodge, view from Lake Superior

Naniboujou Lodge, view from Lake Superior

Our lodging for the evening is at Naniboujou Lodge, located across the street from the state park. The lodge was formed in 1929 by a group of wealthy men to create an exclusive hunting lodge. Original founders included Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. As you can imagine, the 1929 October stock market crash put the kibosh on the funding for the club. It changed hands over the years but the current owners have had it since the 1980s.

Naniboujou Lodge Dining Room

Naniboujou Lodge Dining Room


The dining room has the largest, free-standing native stone fireplace in the U.S. The dining room is painted in the Cree Indian style and the paint is as fresh and vibrant today as it was when it was originally painted in 1929-over 85 years ago. The food was excellent also; Lake Superior whitefish for me and spinach lasagna for Chris.

This far north the nights are longer and sunrise comes early. That won’t be a problem tomorrow since we have to be up early to make it to Grand Portage for the early departure of the ferry. There is a good potential for wind and rain-hopefully that won’t stop the ferry ride or make the journey too unpleasant.

Ed and Chris Thursday June 25

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