Minnesota – North Shore

Birthday weekend.

Time for a little getaway.  Now for my birthday I like to travel, and typically that involves me using my passport. This year though I was unable to head out like I normally would as I need to save my vacation time for some trips I have planned later in the year and a pretty big trip early next year.  So to not lose out on a travel opportunity I decided to stay in state but head up north for the weekend.

I have recently been on a bunch of group trips and my soul has been itching for a solo trip and this seemed like the perfect time as not too many people are interested in heading to the North Shore in early April.  I was thinking I may get some good photography opportunities as the lake has some intense and rough waters during the winter time and moody skies so I packed away all my cold weather gear and got in the car and drove north.

Now initially I just wanted to stay up there Friday night, go hiking and whatnot on Saturday and then return home but most of the places up there, not sure if this because it was off season, would only show availability if you booked for a minimum of 2 nights. Frustrating but oh well. I rented my little cabinesque place and thought I would play the weekend out by ear.

I arrived around 4:30ish, checked in, dropped off some of my stuff and immediately went back out to start exploring.  Just north of my place for the weekend was Gooseberry Falls State Park.  My welcome committee was waiting as I stepped out of my car a little chipmunk and I exchanged pleasantries in the parking lot before he found a more interesting conversationalist.

People really need to get out and explore more in winter, this is the time to go to places without the crowds. There were only 2 other cars in the parking lot and it was serenely quiet.  While I did head north, we actually had more snow on the ground in the cities than we had further north so we had patches of open grass and the deer were enjoying some of the ruffage not that they cared too much that I was there.

Getting closer and closer to the falls the trails were getting slick and iced over, I popped on my YakTracks to ensure better grip and continued on, however I should have brought some crampons as there was a moment when I turned around but was on a bit of a hill that I wasn’t too confident I wouldn’t slip so I cautiously sat down to get my bearings and then started to slide down the hill closer and closer to the frozen waterfalls that were just starting to break, and had visible water.

Just how I need my life to end, sucked into frozen water on my birthday, now I have done a polar bear plunge in the past and now some of the basic survival items, but that doesn’t stop your lungs and body from screaming when it hits cold water and this time I was laden down with camera gear and all of the layers.  Thankfully none of that knowledge of what to do was necessary as I slowed down and stopped a foot or so before the edge of the icy path. Ooh heart racing fun.  Continuing down the trail on the lower falls led me to scramble under fallen trees and I was treated to a lovely view of the falls with the setting sunlight.

But what goes up must come down and vice versa, I could have backtracked up the path but I decided to loop forward which lead me to a steep set of stairs but due to the proximity of the falls were just shear ice so climbing up them proved to be a fun little challenge but the views at the top of the stairs were worth it. It was dark now so I head back to my cabin and had a nice meal at the lodge and had a quiet night in front of the fire.

Saturday

So my cabin had views that looked out directly over Lake Superior. Now I find I prefer sunrises over sunsets (not that I don’t love sunsets too) but you have to commit to see a sunrise and I find this is more of a private event as not as many people venture out for a good sunrise.  Going to bed the night before I contemplated setting my alarm to get up for sunrise but I decided against it. I get up early everyday for work why not sleep in for once (if I can). So I let the internal body clock decide when it was time to get up, but as I do, I was up before sunrise and sat initially from the comfort of bed enjoying the view. Thoughts of I should go out there and shoot it, but no just enjoy this here nice and warm.

The pull of the sunrise was far too great, out of bed I popped, pulled on all of the warm layers and went outside. Prior to going outside thought I thought this might be the best time to go for a little drone run. I get a drone a little while back and haven’t had a lot of opportunities to fly it yet. It makes me nervous to fly it yet but why not now?  Of course the moment I turn it on, I am being prompted to do a firmware update (which takes FOREVER), I was missing sunrise for this?

I did mention that I was up before sunrise so in actuality I didn’t miss that much of it and had a chance to take the drone out and get some good footage, calling it back home always makes me nervous as it flies so much higher up than I had it before it comes back in and of course it never thinks the spot it took off from is flat enough for it to land so you kind of just have to force it.

Remember how I said I was hoping for those intense waters and crashing waves. Not this morning, the lake was pure glass and only occasionally would you get a minimal wave coming into the shoreline.  When all of my fingers and face felt sufficiently chilled I decided it was time to head in and warm back up and have some quiet time before the day needed to officially get off to a start.

First official stop for the day was Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, I turned south initially and enjoyed some quiet time at Pebble beach and just sat on a section of ice that seemed to have carved out a seat just for me and enjoyed the view then pushed on for a look out at the lighthouse. Again I have seen scenes of dramatic waves and wind providing some dramatic views of this lighthouse but I had a nice calm clear blue sky and enjoyed watching some of the ice melt away.

Continuing north my next stop was Tettegouche State Park, this is the first time I have been to this park but I have seen some beautiful shots out on the lake but I decided to head inland to enjoy the weather and go on a hike. I went up to the main trailhead and stumbled upon some snowshoe hares scampering back and forth along the trail.

The trail was at first very muddy, then very deep packed with snow but those who had foraged before had provided a path. However, with the warm/cold on/off temperatures that path on the trail was as slick as one could imagine which is fine on the flat trail but coming up to one of the waterfalls where the steps lead down to the overlook one look at those stairs it was a hard no from me. I would land on my ass faster than anything so I decided to try going around and go through the trees down. While I was dodging and weaving my way down I got to a point that there didn’t seem to be a good spot to go and here I was lapped by another couple who found what appeared to be an ideal route.  Ideal was not the name of the game when I heard a little yelp and a thump, the lady had slipped and twisted her knee a bit. That was enough for me to decide maybe this hike is not for me today. Using the trees as my guide I returned back up to the flat trail and continued back to the trailhead, even though I didn’t make it to the end any hike is a good hike and I enjoyed the views along the way.

Well it was a long day and it was time to wind back to the cabin. Looking ahead to the forecast they were predicting some significant snow on Sunday, so to not be caught in a slow drive back home I decided to head back to the cities even though I didn’t get any of my moody skies and intense lake moments.

Of course wouldn’t you know it the very next weekend is when we got our freak very late in the season blizzard and those who were brave enough to head out to the lake were greeted to ice cased gear and body parts but some dramatic shots.