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.