North Shore: Waterfalls, Smoked Fish, Never Too Many Breweries

I was set on writing this entry at the end of today’s day of errands in Duluth, Minnesota (it’s Thursday); I like having an entry to end the ”blog week,” with my email going out on Fridays. But damn did we have a busy day out. We left the campsite before 9 am, and now at 5 pm we’re driving the hour back from Duluth. I am overheated, over-beered, and over-erranded. I already uploaded these photos though, so the least I can do is describe them as Tracy drives us back to the trailer, with the truck full of groceries, clean laundry, and one tired dog.

Gooseberry Falls

I posted previously about hiking Baptism River from our campsite at Tettegouche State Park; Gooseberry River is another close one that feeds into Lake Superior with much drama.

Gooseberry has its own state park, also with money poured into smart boardwalks to protect the delicate forest and cliff-sides. I caught Tracy thoughtfully feeling the bark of several large cedars.

I may have mentioned this already: the water here is dark thanks to iron ore in the ground. Tracy, smart-aleck even when he’s asleep, responded during a huge lightning storm one night that had me up, ”It’s the iron ore,” and then went back to sleep. I don’t think that has anything to do with lightning here, but it definitely stains the river water, along with tannin.

Terrible picture because the sun was behind us, but this guy represents the Civilian Conservation Corps that we’ve benefitted from all across the country. It’s nice to see a statue of an anonymous hard-working guy. I can’t remember what poet I read who proposed we swap out the guns in a the hands of lot of the statues across this country and replace them with books, compasses, microscopes. This young, nameless man has an ax I wanted to show my appreciation for.

Tettegouche Morning Walks

With two weeks at this park and only one route for easy morning walks for Banjo and me, we’ve had to look carefully for our sunrise excitement.

Banjo did tree a large skunk, and since that morning she’s been looking/smelling for it in the same spot.

I’m sure the skunk is too smart to return while Banjo and I walk our route at 6 am day after day.

It’s Been 30 Years

We ended our second errand day in Duluth with a family reunion: Tracy hadn’t seen his mother’s brother, Dale, and Dale’s wife, Chong Yol (I hope to get corrected there as needed) in 30 years. I believe Tracy was on his motorcycle touring around Lake Superior last and looked up while at a brewery, and there Dale was. In the 1980s?

This time we made the meeting deliberate (although also at a brewery). They do a lot of camping and going on cruises; they’re getting ready to go on a river cruise next week, so we had lots of travel stories to trade, as well as warm feelings you get only from family.

We have packed in the hiking and breweries and driving around looking at Lake Superior, and we still have five days remaining at Tettegouche. I chose this long stop to catch our breath, but we’re going to have to slow down with the fun to catch anything. We have time! Labor Day weekend approaches, and although our campground is very small, I’m sure it’ll be packed with children and dogs and people sightseeing, so we’ll enjoy catching our breath then.

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