Friday, May 27, 2011
I woke up around 7am and started getting things ready. I was just a matter of getting some loose end items packed up and making sure I packed everything I needed. I tend to over pack, but it’s nice to have stuff in reserve just in case I need it. I got everything in the van and took a shower and I was off by 9:30. I said goodbye to my mom earlier when she got up to go to the bathroom.
Over the previous month I had been focused on gearing up. I bought a few new items to try out on this trip. Most significant was the Kelly Kettle, which I planned to boil my water. I called the guy and he said it was okay to use alcohol in the kettle, so that would be a good back up in case there is wet weather and I couldn’t get anything else to burn in it. Basically, it is a kettle with a chimney inside it, where you burn stuff to heat up the water. You can put paper, twigs and other burnables in the chimney and it will work. There are some air holes in the bottom so you can light the fire and give it air to burn.
Another new piece of equipment is the Kelty 20 degree Cosmic Sleeping bag. I really didn’t want to be cold this year. When I was at the Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Adventure Expo in November, they had the sleeping bag on special for $99.
I was clear sailing up the interstate from Madison. I was a little bit worried that the traffic would be bad because of the holiday weekend, but everything was good. I stopped at the Gander Mountain Store in Eau Claire. I wanted an emergency Bivouac Sack for my sleeping bag. I found it and bought it for $40.
I thought it was a little high, but REI and some other stores in Madison had run out of them. I guess it is a little extra piece of mind in case things get bad.
I continued up the four lane Highway 53 with no problems. Once I got into the city of Superior, I bought gas at the Holiday Station. Last fall I had a hard time finding a gas station in Duluth, so I decided to play it safe and get gas in Superior this time. At Superior, Highway 53 ceases being a 4 lane highway and uses city streets. So, you pass many gas stations anyway. Then you cross the big bridge into Minnesota. Over in Duluth, they are working on Highway 35 which is the big 4 lane highway that
I use. But it wasn’t backed up going north, so I was lucky. Then the route goes on city streets for a few miles. That’s when I got to a back up because there was a garage sale on the route. People were crossing the street for the garage sale causing a stoppage. But soon I was on the four lane highway going to Two Harbors.
I stopped at the Superior Hiking Trail Association Office, paid my dues and bought some maps. I put the Spot Messenger out to mark my spot. Then when I left the office I met David and Judy outside. They are from White Bear Lake, Minnesota and will be hiking the SHT near Finland on the Holiday Weekend. I chatted with them, gave them an “I Saw Tman” card and took their photo for the website. They also took a nice photo of me at the Superior Hiking Trail Association sign. After the Messenger sent its message, I was off.
I decided to go to the Two Harbors Culvers. This is almost like a ritual for me. It’s the last Culver’s before Canada, as I call it. After Culvers, I headed back through Two Harbors and the traffic was backed up. The traffic has steadily became heavier while I was in Two Harbors, and now it was a traffic jam, backed up about 3 blocks from the downtown traffic light. But after getting through that, it was pretty clear sailing up to Grand Marais.
At Grand Marais, I stopped at the Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply in Grand Marais. I had met the Store Owners at the Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Adventure Expo and also at Canoecopia. The Owner Jack had invited me to stop by when I talked to him at the Expo. I was impressed with the store, they really did a nice job. Jack says the store is really not a competitor to the Lake Superior Trading Post, but in some cases they may have the same items for sale. But I think Stone Harbor is catering to more of an upscale and serious outdoor enthusiast than the Lake Superior Trading Post. Plus at Stone Harbor they can actually be an outfitter for you canoe or kayaking trip. The canoe trips are for people going to the Boundary Waters and the Kayak trips are for people who want to kayak on Lake Superior.
I continued up the Lake Superior Shoreline on Highway 61 after getting a chocolate dipped cone at Dairy Queen. I stopped at Naniboujou Lodge near Hovland and dropped off a resupply package. I also promised to buy a Naniboujou T Shirt for my coworker Chuck Grafton. Evidently he has the Naniboujou Cookbook which he bought off the internet. So he’s a fan of Naniboujou Lodge, even though he’s never been here. The young man at the hotel had a heck of a time finding a shirt in 2XL. We look though the whole rack, and then he went back to the store room and found one.
After that it was about 15 miles to Grand Portage. I made it up to Grand Portage around 5:30 pm. I decided since I was sitting around in the van all day that I really needed to take a hike. So I drove into Grand Portage and found the Mount Rose Trail. I found a parking spot around two blocks from it. The trail starts across from the Historic Depot and near the start of the Grand Portage Trail.
For Photos of the Mt Rose Hike Click Here
To my surprise, the Mt Rose Trail is all paved with asphalt. You walk for a ways, then there are a bunch of stairs, then you walk for a ways again. You can follow this hike at my photo gallery. click here. Soon you reach the first overlook, which features the depot below, and the Grand Portage Island out in the Grand Portage Bay. They there are more stairs and you start heading back in the other direction in a switchback pattern. There is an interpretive brochure with numbered stops along the way. Most of the stops are about the type of plants, trees and rocks that you see along the trail.
You continue to encounter stairs, overlooks and rock faces as the trail zigzags up the bluff. At one spot there is a little side trail to an overlook with a bench. As you continue on you encounter even more steps. Then the trail has a long flat stretch to walk in one direction, then it switchback going the other direction. Right where the corner of the switchback occurs, there is a bench and an open field. I decided to put my Spot Messenger out on the bench. Then I continued around the switchback headed upward along a slope. The whole trail is paved with asphalt, even way up near the top. The must have had problems with a gravel path washing out.
Finally, after encountering some more stairs, and another long stretch of trail, I made it to the final Overlook. and this is a stunning overlook with a 4 foot high stone wall to protect people from falling. You get a great view of the Historic depot below, and the Grand Portage Bay. I took a bunch of photos here including a self-shot. Then I headed back down the hill, picking up my Spot Messenger along the way. I counted the stairs steps on the way down, and there were over 180 steps. It was quite the workout, and I was getting hungry. But the hike did get me into the mood to do some more hiking. It was a good warm-up for the forthcoming hike the next day.
After the hike, I headed down to the Grand Portage Campground and took a shower. Then I headed Casino and Restaurant. I took a short tour of the Casino, then went down the hall to the bar where there were a bunch of people watching the Playoff Hockey game of Boston versus Tampa Bay. I continued into the hotel to the Restaurant.
I like the restaurant. It has some super deals and it has a good view of the Grand Portage Bay. I bought the Friday Salmon Special which was a complete Salmon Dinner including Salad Bar for $12. While I was in the hotel, I decided to charge one of my camera batteries out in the lobby. Next to a couch in the sitting area was an end table with a table lamp on it. I set my charger under the end table and plugged it into an open outlet. There was a lady sitting out there that was looking at her laptop computer, and she had it plugged into a different outlet.
The Salmon Dinner was great. It was a good meal to help power my backpacking trip which started in the morning. After the dinner I walked around the Casino. I had my Wisconsin hooded sweat shirt on, and that managed to help spark a conversations with two older gentlemen. We started talking about all the injuries and concussions in hockey. One of the men knew a NHL player from Wisconsin who had to retire because of concussions. We started talking about Hockey, and one of the men said to “Bet Everything I own on Vancouver.” he must have thought I was a betting man because I was in a Casino. But I have never gambled at the Casino, I mainly stop by for the food. I wouldn’t mind playing bingo at the Casino. But, like last year, I arrived too late to play bingo, which starts at 7 pm.
I headed for the bar just to kill some time while my battery was charging. The Bar was still fairly full of people who had been watching the hockey game. As I was up at the bar buying a beer, I met a Canadian Indian man named T-Bay. Since there was no room to sit at the bar, T-Bay invited me to sit at his table.
I’d say T-Bay was about 40 years old and he had some great stories about catching fish with his bare hands out of rivers on his reservation in Canada. T-Bay is from the Thunder Bay area, hence the name, but he had been cheering for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the hockey game, which Boston won to make it into the Stanley Cup Finals. At the table was another Native American named Richard. He was originally from the state of Idaho, and has no privileges on this reservation. He is a younger guy, I’d say in his late 20’s and he was fairly heavy set. But he did do a great job of explaining some of the things that a Native American can do that a normal citizen cannot. He also explained that everything depends on the treaty that the tribe signed. His tribe in Idaho has a different treaty than the tribe here in Grand Portage. Meanwhile T-Bay continued with his stories about his different feats back in Canada. I’m not sure if any of those stories were true of if they all were tall tales.
Well, the party was breaking up and my battery had charged for a pretty long while, so I decide to leave. T-Bay and Richard were on their way out, too. I hopped in my van and tried to find a nice dark corner of the parking lot to park and go to sleep. The problem was that they had installed a new lighting system since last year, and there wasn’t a nice dark corner of the parking lot. So I headed down to the campground and just parked near the restroom. I slid into the back of the van and started to rest. I did my daily recording on my voice recorder. At that point I wasn’t too optimistic for the hike. I wondered if it was worth it coming all the way up here to do a hike.