Monday Aug 20, 2007
After our visit to Split
Rock Lighthouse, we headed towards Ely, with our eventual
goal being Soudan. Our maps showed campgrounds along MN 1, so
we figured we'd find a campground along the way.
We didn't see much in the way of campgrounds before Isabella,
and then we were sent on a detour through Superior National
Forest on dirt/gravel roads. This was significantly slower
than MN 1, as going too fast caused us to lose traction, and the
roads themselves were pretty narrow. We saw signs on our detour
pointing towards camping areas, but the detour eventually led us
away from the camping areas and sent us back to MN 1, about
10-15 miles south of Ely.
We stopped at the first campground we saw, a national forest
campground called
South Kawishiwi River. After figuring the campground out
and seeing plenty of sites available, we stopped where the host
was camped and talked to his assistant. We reserved a site and
got a couple of bundles of firewood.
The campground was on the primitive side, is had outhouses and
we had to haul water from the one pump available. This probably
kept out the rowdier folks we some times encounter when camping.
We set up our tent and Karen started dinner. Nick attempted to
start a fire with the fire starting kit he bought at
North West Company Fur Post in Pine City. It was definitely
more difficult than he thought, and he eventually started the
fire using the camp stove lighter. We decided against roasting
marshmallows as it was getting late by the time we finished
dinner. This was a very quiet campground, as we heard very
little going on around us as the evening wore on.
The sun finally disappeared around 10, and we all went to bed.
It often takes me a while to fall asleep in the tent, so I was
listening for animals. I heard loons a few times, and boy, they
are loud! I wonder why they call in the night. Given
how close we were to Ely, I was hoping to hear wolves, but I'm
pretty sure I only heard loons.
After breakfast and tearing down the camp, we decided to hike on
the hiking trail that goes around the camp sites and down by the
lake (although the site was called "South Kawishiwi River" I
later found on maps that we were actually on Birch Lake). We
ended up at a beach for a while, so we all went wading. At a
bulletin board at the beach, I saw a sign that said "Welcome to
the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness" or something similar.
Very cool, as I hadn't been to BWCAW in over 30 years! After
the beach, we hike the trail all the way to the other end, where
we had paid for our campsite and wood. It was a nice hike,
probably about one and a half miles.
We got in the car to leave, and as we pulled around the loop,
discovered that Sam had left his shoes on the ground just
outside the car, so we headed back to the camp site, picked up
Sam's shoes and left for our journey to Soudan.
Wednesday Mar 28, 2007
Previously I wrote about spring break. It was pretty relaxing.
We did make pretty good progress on the chicken coop, but have
since stalled due to other projects and commitments. I'm hoping
we can finish it this coming weekend.
We did visit Crater of
Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, which was interesting. We
got rained on both nights, and the tent held up well, only one
small leak. The second night the rain was a complete surprise,
as the storm blew in after a beautiful sunny day and an
initially clear night. The tent site was interesting, a raised
bed of sand, which worked really well with the rain.
We all mined for diamonds and other gems in the morning, and
Nick and Karen continued for another hour or so in the
afternoon. It's pretty labor intensive, either just looking at
the surface of digging in and sluicing.
We also hiked down to the Little Missouri River, which is
stocked with rainbow trout. I would say if you're not
interested in mining or fishing, there probably isn't a lot to
do at this park. But the campsite was pretty nice, and I wish
Texas would maintain their state parks as well.
Overall, a pretty relaxing week.
Friday Mar 09, 2007
So, I've discovered that my blog isn't worth all that much. And
whose fault is that?! Oh yeah, mine. Gotta post to make it
worth something.
So, the boys' spring break started about an hour ago, so I
thought I'd take a break with them. Here are the plans:
- build a chicken coop
- attend a seminar on chickens
- visit Crater of
Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and find, we hope,
diamonds and other gems.
- get a training ride in for the Red
Poppy Ride. Nick wants to ride the 30 mile loop this
year, and since the longest he's ever ridden is 14 miles (at
last year's Red Poppy Ride) we need to do some training to be
sure we can ride 30 miles. I'm pretty sure I can
ride 30 miles, as I get within a few miles of that riding my bike to
and from work.
- Convert my old mountain bike to a single speed
You may wonder about the first couple of items. Karen suggested
we raise some hens as pets and to have fresh eggs. Once she
convinced herself (and me) she wouldn't get into trouble with
the homeowner's association or the city of Round Rock, I
agreed. I also promised to help build a coop when the chicks
got old enough and large enough so they could be outside.
In the meantime, the chicks have been living in Nick's bedroom,
with occasional forays to an outdoor enclosure where they can
eat anything they think might be interesting :).
Karen and Nick will attend the seminar, while Sam and I do
something else, not sure what. The seminar is at Boggy Creek Farm in
east Austin. We visited there a few weeks back, just before the
regional science festival where Nick and Nate exhibited their
science fair project. The kids really loved the fresh carrots and
the bread we got, which was actually from Sweetish Hill
Bakery and Cafe. It was also interesting to see an organic farm in the middle of an urban
area.
As for the 30 mile loop of the Red Poppy Ride, I hope Nick can
complete it. I will definitely be impressed, since Nick is only
nine years old. I suspect he'll finish it but be tired and
sore. The first big ride I did as a kid was a 50 miler, but I
was 12, and I was pretty sore. We'll see how it goes. Part of
the training is to see what Nick thinks about going beyond 14
miles.
Finally, about converting my mountain bike. I've never been a
big fan of the off road aspect of the mountain bike, I bought it
because it was new and trendy in 1985 and I was sick of bending
the rims on my Schwinn Sprint when I went over railroad tracks.
Since I have another bike with 24 speeds (though some of those
are unusable, really), I don't necessarily need a mountain bike
with 15 speeds, and the single speed idea intrigues me. Looks
like it may be somewhat easy since my 1985 bike has a freewheel
rather than a cassette, so I can replace the freewheel with a
BMX single speed freewheel. Getting the chain right will
probably be the tricky part.
I hope to take pictures of some of these activities, but our
digital camera no longer takes pictures. I can still view the
pictures I've taken, but I get a black screen when I want to
take pictures. Time to get a new camera, since I don't really
want to pay to fix a camera that was free and is now a few years
old.
