Adventures in review: 2010

2010 has been a good year for me when it comes to going new places and having fun experiences, both outdoors and indoors.

In the beginning of the year, I volunteered at a beer festival in Saint Paul. It was a very accomodating volunteer activity, as I was able to sample a few beers from local and regional breweries. This experience led to a group of my friends going on a brewery tour at Summit Brewing a couple months later.

Before it got too warm in Minnesota, I went on a trip with friends to Las Vegas. I had never been there, and it seems everyone has a wild story that starts "When I was in Vegas...It was fun to see the city, as we walked around quite a bit each day. There really is a lot to see there, although some of it is best not seen. We spent a significant amount of our time laying out by the pool at our hotel, which was nice as it was always hot and sunny. My favorite experience was seeing a cirque de soleil show.

As the seasons changed, I started running more often, competing in an 8k in June. This was also the time of year when I visited Minnesota's highest point, Eagle Mountain. This started what I hope will be a hobby that will bring me all over the country.

I also went on many runs over the summer, often times going from my apartment to the Mississippi river road. I ran an 8k for Grand ole day on Grand avenue, which went well, except for the final quarter mile, where there was some serious fair food cooking up, and the smell was not pleasing as I was finishing the race.

Later in the summer I made my way to Colorado, first passing through South Dakota. I had a great experience hiking to Conundrum Hot springs with some friends. In addition to the hike, we also went whitewater rafting, headed to Pike's Peak, and had a fun night out in Denver. A few weeks later, I traveled to the highest points in Wisconsin and Michigan, which less than thrilling, still made for a nice drive, and helped to solidify the goal of making it to other high points.

Since it has gotten cooler, I've still been able to make it outside, checking out Interstate State Park and continuing to run, even during a very cold turkey trot. I joined a broomball team, and used my snowshoes three times in December!

All in all, I think this year has been pretty good when it comes to being active. I look forward to continue sharing experiences and learning from other bloggers in 2011. Have a great New Year!

Broomball: slippery fun

It may surprise some people out there, but today was my first time ever playing broomball. I joined a non- competitive team that a coworker started. It turned out to be a bit awkward, but pretty fun.

I have absolutely no experience playing (and very little experience watching) hockey, so when I signed up for broomball, I told the team captain I would probably stink at it. Fortunately, we are in the least competitive mens league in town. A little background: (and I didn't know this before today) Broomball is played similar to hockey, but it uses a small ball and sticks that look like large ice scrapers. Also, you wear a special shoe on the ice so that you can actually run around.

I was easily the worst player on the ice, but it was my first game, and besides, I'm a runner, not a broomballer. The running skills didn't help much, as even though the special shoes made it possible to pick up some speed on ice, it's still ice, a surface I'm used to treating with extreme care to avoid injury.

All in all, broomball is a fun way to get outside, even if you are sliding all over the place.

A legendary Blizzard

When I created this blog, I didn't intend to have weather-related posts. The storm that hit the twin cities last weekend, though, was not typical. We got hit with about 18 inches of snow between late Friday night and Saturday evening. On top of that, the temperatures were very low, going well below zero on Sunday and Monday. Now, almost a week later, many roads are still messy.

I didn't try to spend much time outside last weekend, but I was getting a little bored sitting inside all day, so I got out the snowshoes and went for a little walk. This was definitely one of the highlights, as I could see that I was the first person to set foot on much of the snow: it was terrain created overnight, and I was conquering it. Ok, that's a little dramatic, but it felt good to get some fresh air and make some fresh tracks.

Everything on Saturday was a bit of an adventure. I rode the bus, which gave me a great view of many cars stuck, others covered in huge drifts of snow. The bus driver told me that he had been stuck in Saint Paul for a couple hours prior to picking me up. Fortunately, he only got stuck once when on my route, which was only quite brief. Regardless, bus service was cancelled in the afternoon, so I was fortunate to have gotten on when I did.

Looking forward, I'm excited that I'll be be able to go snowshoeing more because of the snow, and I've been thinking about Nordic skiing. We have the makings of a long winter, so I'll need to do something!

Snowshoeing: From one beginner to another

I bought a pair of snowshoes about two years ago, not actually knowing if I would enjoy the activity. While I wouldn't recommend this approach to most sports, I had some friends who had snowshoes, so I decided to spend the money to get some quality snowshoes. I think it turned out to be a good decision, as snowshoeing happens to be a fun and inexpensive outdoor activity.

There are many types of snowshoes out there, and also many places to buy them. It isn't all the same: if you want to race and run on trails, you will likely buy a completely different (look, shape, and size) than if you are doing backcountry trekking. I recommend that you search for experts online or at a sporting goods store to make an educated decision.

I've never competed in a snowshoe race, but there are several out there. I have done most of my snowshoeing at parks where there is enough space to go a little off the trail and not get lost. I find this to be the most enjoyable, especially with a variety of terrain.

Before you set foot outside, though, it is always important to wear the right clothing. Obviously, it depends on just how cold it is. Remember, it is a workout, so it might not be best to wear your winter coat. You want something that you can move in and that breathes a little.

I hope to have future posts about snowshoeing as the winter progresses.

The turkey trot

Along with thousands of others in minneapolis, and I suspect millions nationwide, I paricipated in a thanksgiving day race. Mine was a very cold 5k through the warehouse district in downtown minneapolis.

Normally, I don't run if its below 40 degrees outside, but I already paid for the race, and just wouldn't feel right wearing a shirt from a race that I didn't actually participate in. It was about 15 degrees out, with winds up to 15 mph, so easily not in my normal range of tolerance. To add more fun to the event, there were some patches of ice on the road. I bundled up, though, and ended up finishing under 20 minutes. Not my goal time, but all things considered, not too bad for the conditions.

The Black Hills of South Dakota

This past summer I was fortunate enough to spend a day in the Black Hills of South Dakota. While this wasn't nearly enough time to see everything, I was still able to take in some great views.

The last time I was in the area was to see Mt. Rushmore as a pre-teen, so it's been quite a while. My friends and I decided to head out there because one of us hadn't taken this common road trip from Minnesota as a kid. When he finally saw Mt. Rushmore, he made sure to text his mom!

Waking up in Rapid City (yes, we stopped at Wall Drug the previous day), we quickly made our way towards Mt. Rushmore. When we finally got to the park, we didn't really want to pay, so we continued to drive around.

We ended up finding a winding road with some bridges and tunnels that continued to climb up the hill. It was exciting as we looked through one of the tunnels, you could see Mt. Rushmore in the distance. We hiked around a bit and took plenty of pictures. It was much more scenic than I remember as a kid. I think all of us would have loved to spend more time there, but we had to make our way to Colorado for the rest of our trip (see post: Hiking to Conundrum Hot Springs). I know I'll go back there sometime, and will probably blog about it then as well.

Treadmill time!

I enjoy spending time outside, and ideally, I would only run outside. I don't enjoy freezing my butt off, though, so in the winter I tend to find myself working out indoors.

Even though running is one of my favorite outdoor activities, the treadmill seems to take some of the fun out of it. My advice to all those reading is to make your treadmill days short and fast. I like to use them to do speed tests, such as a one or two mile. Another great thing to use is the incline function. It makes the workout more challenging and once you begin to decline, you begin to feel stronger.

If you absolutely cannot stand the treadmill, but want a great cardio workout, give the rowing machine a try. It will hurt, but will also get your heart rate going if you put some effort in.

North Shore of Lake Superior (Eagle Mountain trip pt 2)

After leaving Eagle Mountain (our first highpoint, see earlier post), we continued to explore. It was early and we decided to head north.

The first place we checked out was Grand Marais. In Grand Marais, there is a nice harbor, where we walked out on some rock to a place called “Artists’ Point”. It was clear why this spot had such a name. The breeze off the lake made it quite cool, out on the rocks, even though only 20 miles away on Eagle Mountain it was a hot day.

As we continued north, we thought we might as well go to Canada. Only a few miles from the border, there is a nice scenic overlook, situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior (surprise, surprise). It was cool to know that if you were looking in one direction, it was Ontario, the other direction, Minnesota. We took a few pictures and arrived at the border. As we were about to get it, the border patrol man asked me for my latest insurance card, which of course I didn’t have! I had the one that expired a week earlier, and he turned us down. This was a bit of a bummer, as we were loosely planning on camping in Canada.

So we were now forced to head south. We still had a few hours of sunlight at this point and decided that our best option was to make our way south and check out a couple places along the way. After a quick fill up in Grand Portage (there is a gas station/casino/ice cream shop all in one right off the road) we began our trip back.

We made our way to Cascade Falls state park. There is a large wooden arrowhead in a parking lot just off the road marking where to find the falls. It appeared that there was nowhere to pay to enter this park, so we walked right onto the trail. We walked up the trail and quickly found some nice waterfalls. It was definitely a picture-worthy spot, and a great spot to do a little bit of exploring, especially since it was free to check out.

We continued south and parked on the side of the road near the Temperance river. I’d been there about 5 years earlier, and remembered that it was pretty neat. This river is very rapid, as it crashes into the Temperance River gorge on its way into Lake Superior.

After we did all of this, it started to get dark outside, and it was too late to check out Tettegouche State Park, one of my favorite places along the North Shore. Believe me, this won’t be the only post about the north shore of Lake Superior.

Timm’s Hill and Mount Arvon (Highpoints #2 &3)

On a nice September weekend, a friend of mine and I set out to reach the high points of Wisconsin (Timm’s Hill) and Michigan (Mt. Arvon). Our motivation was high for such low summits. The elevation of Timm's hill is 1951 feet, and Mount Arvon's is 1979 feet. Regardless, it was nice to reach two highpoints in one day.

We woke up early so that we could get to both of these high points on the same day. Since they are a few hours apart, and we absolutely wanted daylight while we were in Michigan (crucial due to the sketchiness of the roads leading up to the summit).

Once we parked in Timm’s Hill county park, just outside of Ogema, it was only ¼ mile uphill to the summit. Before making the long trek up, we looked at the sign-in log. Someone who was there earlier than us signed “Highpoint #14”. This sounded like a good idea to us, as we signed “Highpoint #2”.

After a short walk up a trail, we were at the summit, where we saw two lookouts. One of them is a nice wooden structure with stairs, and goes up about 45 feet. The other structure is an old metal lookout tower that happens to be about 20 feet taller, but the only way up is to climb a metal ladder. While I wouldn’t quite say this is extreme, it was probably the most dangerous thing we did all day. The worst part was while on the ladder worrying about your hands slipping (see picture). From the top of the metal tower, there was a nice view of a nearby lake and woods. Nothing too spectacular, but it was pleasant.

From Ogema, we made our way north through Wisconsin. Along the way there are several “Cabin towns”, where many people were enjoy weekends in the summer, but fewer people live during the rest of the year. We stopped to eat in one of them, and eventually crossed the border into Upper Michigan.

We entered L’Anse Michigan, and took a road to go east of town, and once we saw a church outside of town, took a right onto a gravel road that had signs pointing us toward the summit of Mt. Arvon. This gravel road continued, going over a small bridge with the sign “Hundred Dollar Bridge” and wound through the woods. Fortunately, there were occasional signs pointing us in the right direction. This road became somewhat rough, and was fun to drive on with the constant bumps.

We arrived at a spot with a couple of large rocks blocking the road, and we saw a truck parked there. We knew we were close to the summit. We started to walk up a trail and sure enough, there was a sign and a bench marking the summit. We chatted with a few people who were up there, one of them a boy scout earning a badge. They pointed us in the direction of a scenic overlook, which was nice, though it was somewhat blocked by trees. We could see Lake Superior, though, which was a nice bonus. One interesting thing about Mount Arvon is that it wasn’t considered Michigan’s highest point until quite recently, as there is a nearby hill, Mount Curwood, that is about a foot lower that was long considered the high point.

It was late afternoon by the time we left Mount Arvon, and took a quick break in L’Anse to check out the Lake Superior waterfront. There wasn’t a lot going on in the town, but we took the time to learn a little more about the area and then moved on.

The views weren’t amazing, and we spent much more time in the car than we did on any hiking trails, but we accomplished our goal of reaching the highpoints of Wisconsin and Michigan in the same day.

Checking out Interstate State Park (MN)

I've always been a fan of State parks, and recently I checked out the Minnesota side of Interstate State Park in Taylor's Falls. Located about an hour northeast of the Twin cities, it was a short drive for a scenic park. The fall is a great time to visit, especially when the colors are in full swing in early October.

We arrived in the morning, and quickly made our way around the Pothole trails, which happened to be very crowded. These glacially-made potholes ranged widely in size, and one of them was a huge pit, roughly 60 feet deep! This made for an interesting geology lesson, as Interstate State Park is home to more glacially formed potholes in such a small area than anywhere else in the world.

Our next destination was the River trail, a 1.25 mile trail that runs parallel to the river, essentially from the visitor center on the North end of the park to the office on the South end.  Heading south, the trail starts with a highway overlook, but quickly drops into the woods, and offers some nice views of the St. Croix River and of the landscape across the river in Wisconsin. The trail is definitely well-used, and due to the pleasant fall weather, we saw several other groups along this trail.

Naturally, 1.25 of hiking wasn’t enough to make me (or the other members in my group) satisfied, so we continued our hike on the Sandstone bluffs trail, which starts after going through a tunnel near the south office. This trail was a bit more extreme. There were many stairs and some narrow passageways where if you lost balance you could get seriously injured. In addition, we saw two small snakes slithering around on the trail, daring us to continue. I took the opportunity to play some tunes off the “Rocky” Soundtrack and our group got pumped (Ok, I got pumped) as we continued to ascend the stairs. The Sandstone bluff trail showcases a spot where many years ago, a waterfall existed, and offers a couple of scenic overlooks.

The last trail we went on was the Railroad trail, which was basically a walk through the woods, relatively flat, except at the very beginning, where there was another stairwell. This trail led us into town, and back to the Park's north Entrance.

In addition to hiking, the Minnesota side of Interstate State park also offers camping, rock climbing, and boat tours. While not mentioned in this blog, the Wisconsin side of the park has a lot to offer as well. Here is an article that has some more info: Things-to-do-in-Interstate-State-Park. I definitely recommend visiting!

Trip to Eagle Mountain, MN (High Point #1)

This is my first in what I hope will be many posts about traveling to the highest point in each of the US states. I think it is a great way to see the country, and in many cases, a rewarding workout!

Eagle Mountain is the highest point in Minnesota with an elevation of 2301 feet. No, this isn’t exactly worthy of being called a mountain, but it is still worth the hike. Situated in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, not far from the North Shore of Lake Superior, the scenic stops along the way on the drive north are just as special as the views from the summit of Eagle Mountain, making this a fun trip.
A friend and I left Minneapolis in the evening and stayed in Duluth for the night before we made our way up the north shore of Lake Superior. It was the early summer, so it was still a little cold in there, but we were excited to be there nonetheless. We left Duluth in the early morning with a strong desire to make it an eventful day. As we cruised along Highway 61 and enjoyed some nice Lake Superior vistas we made note of the interesting stops along the way and decided to go to a few of them on the trip back to Minneapolis. Since our principal goal was to make it to Eagle Mountain (our first state highpoint), we wanted to do that first.

We weren’t able to Take Highway 61 the whole way there, of course, as Eagle Mountain is about 15 miles inland from the lake. We eventually turned onto a gravel road leading us to Eagle Mountain, and also one of the other great sights on our trip: A moose! We got out of the car and began to take pictures of the moose that was only a couple hundred feet away in a small lake.

After we got enough of looking at the moose (and making funny noises to see if it would respond in any way-it didn’t) we made our way towards Eagle Mountain. Shortly after, we made it to the trailhead and quickly began our hike. We decided that it would be more fun to make it a trail run. This wasn’t easy, as the terrain is a little rough, with many large rocks sticking up. Occasionally we slowed it down to take a picture, but we wanted to be the first to get to the summit that day (We were, as there was only one other car in the parking lot when we arrived, and we passed them on the trail.) so we ran whenever we could.

We reached the summit and were awarded with a nice view of some surrounding lakes and the forest that dominates Northern Minnesota. The view was definitely worth the hike. On the way down we passed many groups of people on their way up, which slowed us down a bit as we were running, but that was just fine. We had the summit all to ourselves for at least half an hour, a luxury that none of these groups would get. Note: If you decide to go, make it an early trip like we did. Besides not being as busy, it also gives you the rest of the day to do some exploring on the North Shore.

Once we were back to the car, we got back on the gravel road, but this time headed towards Grand Marais. We were excited that we had already accomplished our goal of “summiting” Eagle Mountain, and it was around noon. With the rest of the day to explore, we checked out anything that looked interesting. I’ll save the rest of the trip for another post, as this could get long.

Running on Mississippi River Boulevard in Saint Paul

The Mississippi River Boulevard is definitely one of my favorite places to run in the twin cities. The trail stretches along the shore of the Mississippi river on both sides through Minneapolis and Saint Paul, making for an entertaining run with scenic views of the Mississippi and impressive homes and parks along the way.
Most of the time, I start the run near where Summit ave. meets Mississippi river road. There is a small parking lot there, but there is also plenty of free parking on Summit and other nearby streets, so that has never been an issue. Making it an even more ideal spot to start is a great view of the Downtown Minneapolis skyline, a drinking fountain, and a porta-potty (though I’ve never had to use it).
From the fountain, the toughest choice is whether to go left or right (North towards Minneapolis or south through Saint Paul. On the way towards Minneapolis, you quickly begin to run on what is part of the Twin Cities Marathon course in reverse. There is a hill that is one of the largest challenges in the marathon, as it occurs somewhere around 21 miles into the marathon-a time when many people (including myself in 2008) hit the wall. This hill can be a pain, so just remember that if you take a long out and back route along this trail. If you run far enough, you’ll run into the Uof M Campus, though there are options to take bridges to the other side of the river, where there are trails as well.
If you decide to go south, you will continue to run through a nice neighborhood, with a few small parks and some more great views. The terrain is pretty flat, but there are a couple of small hills. Eventually, you pass the Ford Plant and approach Hidden Falls Regional Park. I’ve never been on the trail south of Hwy 5, but at that point, you are across the river from Fort Snelling.
Whichever direction you go, you can decide how far you want to go, and the trail is accommodating to that, as you can make it a loop (by crossing bridges) or an out and back run. If you’re running 2 miles, it’s great, and if you’re running 12, it’s even better. Take a break from Lake Calhoun and come over to Saint Paul for a run!

Hike to Conundrum Hot Springs

The trip to Conundrum hot springs was hard work, but also well worth it, both along the way and when you reach the springs. The route I took with my friends in August was from Aspen.

The Hot springs are about 8 ½ miles out, so we had to plan ahead in order to stay the night. We packed our large backpacks with all sorts of items: garbage bags, spare clothing, towels, food, matches, Swiss army knife, water purification drops, sleeping bags, poop bags (provided at the trailhead), water bottles, and one of us had to carry a tent. The weight of our packs got to us quite quickly, especially as it was raining out when we began our trip. The thought of walking almost nine miles sounded much less fun than we had planned, but after half a mile or so, we began to get used to the load.

The rain cleared up, and we took the time to take photos of the gorgeous scenery. There were wildflowers galore on either side of the trail, a stream, and of course the mountains that surrounded the trail all made for great photos. In addition to the photo breaks, we took many other general breaks so we could eat and rest. We were all a little scared that we wouldn’t be acclimated to the elevation and that one or more of us would get altitude sickness. We all drank a lot of fluids, ate a lot of food and didn’t over exert ourselves to help minimize this risk. Taking those precautions worked well for us.

Naturally, the rain didn’t hold off forever, and it started to come down again after we were a couple hours into our hike. We had no idea how far we had gone, but knew we had a long way to go. Then we started to fell hail coming down so we all rushed under a tree. We were safe from the hail, but still miles from the campsites, and as the day was moving on we were getting tired. The hail subsided, and we continued our march.

Now there are several stream crossings along this trail, and most of them are quite simple. Step on a couple of large rocks and avoid the water flowing past. Done. There was one crossing that wasn’t quite as accommodating. This one was a very shallow creek of extremely cold water. It couldn’t be crossed by just stepping on the largest rocks, so off went our shoes, and on came the pain. It was wide enough so that you could really feel the cold throughout your body while you were crossing. It was definitely one of the least comfortable parts of the trip.

As we made our way further up the trail, we continued to get rained on and took breaks underneath trees more often. We were not making good time at all. By the time we got to the campsite area (still ¾ mile to the hot springs) it had been 6 hours. We set up our tent quickly in the rain, as we were all in survival mode. We were wet, cold and getting weak. We had no way of starting a fire as everything around us was soaked.

Our tent wasn’t warm, but it felt great compared to being outside. We ate, enjoyed one beer each, and then put our extra food into a bag that I would eventually hang about 100 feet away from our tent. I wasn’t looking forward to going back outside with the rain still coming down, but thought getting wet wouldn’t be nearly as bad as waking up with a bear next to you. While I was hanging the “Bear bag”, there was a woman a short distance away who was laughing. Then I started laughing, and so did one of my friends. I don’t know if it was the mix of beer and high elevation, but in a situation that wasn’t exactly funny, we had a pretty good time. We eventually walked over to a fire they had started and continued our laughter-fest while cooking a can of beans and drying off. They had been camping nearby for a couple of days, so they put a tarp over some wood early in the day, anticipating rain.

As we walked away from their fire and back to our tent we really realized how cold it was outside. This reality really came to life for us when we got into our sleeping bags in our tent and we were all still cold. None of us got good sleep that night.

We woke up in the morning ready to start a fire, but still didn’t see anything dry, so we gave up after about 10 minutes and started our walk to the springs. It didn’t take long for us to get there, as we just followed the trail past the tree line and then saw some signs for the springs. We saw steam coming up from a small stream and knew we were there.

There were a few people inside the large pool, and we quickly joined them. They were all in their early 20s, and had a lot to talk about. The story I enjoyed most was how one of guys in the pool them shat himself during a skiing accident. I didn’t expect such an honest story to be revealed, but I suppose he had nothing to lose by telling us. It felt amazing to be in the warm water, especially after spending the night in the cold. The warmest part of the pool was toward the center as it was a little cooler towards the edges. We stayed in for about an hour, watched the sun rise over the mountains, and said our goodbyes.

We walked back to our campsite, packed everything up, and made our way down to the trailhead. The weather was much better today, as I was shirtless for a while as it was getting kind of hot. We didn’t feel the need to stop quite as often and we made the trek down in less than four hours.

By the time we set foot into the car we were exhausted, but couldn’t stop talking about how cool it was to be in such a beautiful, remote area. I would love to hear stories from any others who have gone to conundrum hot springs, or questions from those who would like to go.

Jon's Conquests: What to expect

This blog has been started to share experiences, whether it be a wilderness adventure or a night out on the town. I'll try to make most of them action packed, even if they aren't by nature.

Some of my current conquests (as of 9/2010) include: Reaching U.S. State highpoints, Finding the best ice cream in the Twin Cities, Starting this blog (Ha!), Making good use out of my snowshoes, etc...

There are a few things from my recent past I'll likely blog about as well, such as trips I've taken and events I've attended.

Hope you enjoy!