Sunday, August 22, 2021

Day #28

Sunday morning dawned with clear skies, 48 degrees and cozy warm rays of sun. We packed, got on the road and soon discovered that one bar of cell service would not allow us to watch Grace CC services on Facebook. So gospel music via Sirus XM would be our worship this morning and we would watch service tonight on Wi-Fi.

We are heading north to International Falls and hopefully the Waters of the Dancing Sky Scenic Byway. I would love to see the aurora borealis tonight. The most northern part of Minnesota is supposed to be able to see the northern lights.

I’m writing today’s blog as we head out, maybe I can get caught up soon and be able to do this every day! The lack of internet service early in the trip for a week or longer put me way behind. I continued to write daily blogs, but uploading the pictures is lengthy process.

Traveling in the Chippewa National Forest, Minnesota is not called “Land of a ten thousand Lakes” for nothing – cattails line the road on both sides, lakes appear every few miles. In this part of northern Minnesota there are more stands of Aspen than pines and hardwoods. The aspens are yellowing now, making us think Fall will be arriving anytime now to this part of the country. We found out the brush that lines the roads in bogy areas – quaking aspen as a bush. 

There is not a shoulder to the road that I would trust. One wheel off would slide into the marshy areas of the landscape. As Doug says, “One step and you are knee deep in mud.”

Canadian Border in
International Falls, Minnesota

The road took us to International Falls, Minnesota on the Canadian Border. International Falls are now under the International Bridge and were originally named Koochiching Falls. 

Paul Bunyan

Driving into and through International Falls, we came across Paul Bunyan and Smokey

          

Then we motored up to Voyageurs National Park, named by Travel & Leisure as the #15 least visited National Park.  Voyageurs, named after the French-Canadians in the late 1700 and early 1800, who braved the waters of the Canadian and American waterways in birchbark canoes hauling tons of beaver and other pelts from the trappers in the North Woods. Touring the visitor center for Rainy Lake, we encounter several species of wildlife.

Only Moose we encounter on the trip.

Huge Wolf

           

Moonshine jugs flown
out during prohibition

Canadian shore across the Rainy River

Hwy 11, the “Waters of the Dancing Sky” was not like we expected, but similar to the landscapes we had already traveled, except after leaving International Falls on Hwy. 71, then 11, we were following the Rainy River and the Canadian border.  

Canadian Shore

Willie Walleye of Baudete, Minnesota

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Moving through the towns of Pelland, Birchdale, Baudette, Loman, Roosevelt, Swift and now Warroad, Minnesota.  

Loman City Park
 Pit Toilet resident!

We stopped at the city park in Loman for a picnic lunch.  Nice park with picnic shelter with tables and other picnic tables spread around the park.  It has an interesting history  and is currently maintained by the Koochiching County Land and Forestry.

From 1910 - 1944, the General Store was on the spot, then 1944 - 1965 was Dahl's Fairway Store. The old buildings were removed and the Loman Park was established in 1965.

A Being built in 1944 by "Erickson Brothers" to a depth of 200 feet with a three inch casing. In the 1950's, the Flowing Well was tested and was providing 16 gallons of water per minute. 

As with all the parks in Minnesota, a vault toilet was installed in the park. I went over to the toilet and meet up the resident garter snake. I left his residence to him.

Doug is enjoyed golf on cable TV and now the movie – Ford vs Ferrari at the Hampton Inn!

Supper was from a Lao and Thai restaurant, who assured us that it was not spicy unless it was requested. Even Doug commented on how spicy his beef Pad Thai was after he had requested only a “little spice”. I ask for “no hot” on my chicken Pad Thai. Red pepper flakes were abundant.

The rain started while picking up supper, along with the lightening and thunder - crashing any hopes of the Aurora Borealis. 

Saturday August 21, 2021

Day #27

Transition day! From Ashland, Minnesota to Deer River Minnesota. Every time we drove into Ashland, this one particular spot gave us a view of Lake Superior on the horizon, not to mention the length of straight roads we drove. The states out west have miles of straight roads, well so does the Michigan and Minnesota.

Then the cities have curves, we traveled through Superior, Wisconsin today passing the largest train yard, I had ever seen in the U.S. Passenger Train Depots in Europe were huge.

Winds blow the US Flag

From the beginning of our trip today, Doug has battled the wind, sometimes up to 18 mph. Wind puts a huge sway into the groove of pulling the camper.

After passing into Minnesota, we see the Mississippi River at Grand Rapids. The Mississippi is probably 30 yards wide and not very deep. It appeared that I could wade across it.

Minnesota

We had a few drops of rain, but not for long.

We arrived at Blueberry Hill Campground and Golf Course! Yep, camping at a golf course. The campground has about 30 sites with water, electric hookup, sewer, new bathrooms, showers and laundry!

The sites are huge and grassy with table and fire ring. As I stepped out of the truck to guide Doug as he backed into the site, the 18mph wind was back with a chill. The temperature was 63 degrees at 2:15 p.m. Once we got used to the temperature and wind, shorts and sleeveless shirt didn’t feel bad.

Doug took off for the golf course and I worked on blogs and finding hotel rooms further north.

This close to the Canadian border and supposedly being able to see the aurora borealis or moose or bear or fox or elk or big foot, we had to go! We didn’t want to pull the camper, so we’ll do one overnight.

The campfire was great in the chilly night air. As we enjoyed the campfire, a young man came back to his camper. We are guessing that he is working local and living here at the campground. He let his dog out and began throwing a toy for the dog to work off being in the camper all day. It was amazing to watch the obedience of the dog – he had been trained well. He immediately shot from a sitting position, retrieved the toy at a flat out run, returned to his master and held the toy in his mouth with expectation in his stance for his master. When his master took the toy, the dog took a sitting position next to his master. Sometimes his master would wait a couple of minutes after throwing the toy before releasing the dog to retrieve. The dog would sit with patience waiting for the command.  A lot of work was placed in teaching the dog.

Snuggling down into the sheets for a warm sleep, it was great to have the camper window’s open and AC off.

Friday, August 20, 2021

Day #26

Today was a slow day. At 10:39 a.m. we returned to Verizon to get our personal hotspots working on our phones – not open. Hours listed as 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. - who knows when they open the store.

We spent the morning, swimming and sunning on the beach of Lake Superior at Ashland City park. Again, the clear water, provided a sandy walk for a couple hundred yards and even then, it was only waist deep. This lake was slightly cooler than the others, but still comfortable.

Doug walks forever, never reaching waist high.

The sandy beach was dotted with a few, who were spending the morning on the beach, around lunch time it began to become populated. A guy drove through on his Harley, the radio blaring Johnny Cash and old rock music. He was polite and ask several of us close by if the music bothered us. He had a Pepsi in his hand and continued to walk into the lake, then when he got waist deep, took a plunge holding his Pepsi above water while he was under!

I forgot to pack bread for sandwiches, so we did a snack lunch on graham crackers, peanut butter and trail mix.

We drove back through Ashland capturing more of the murals and historical buildings.

More of the downtown murals.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Day #25

Taking Hwy 13 out of Ashland, skirting Whittlesey Creek National Wildlife Refuge and Houghton Falls State Natural Area, we followed the Lake Superior shoreline up to Bayfield. Bayfield is a small town on the shore of Lake Superior with several streets with shops, inns and other businesses. Doug had researched and found the Bayfield Inn with a deck top restaurant with a view of the lake and docks.

Bayfield Inn Deck Restaurant

Street into Bayfield

       

Bay view from Deck of Restaurant

      

Beautiful signage

Before leaving home, I had found the small Native America Reservation of Red Cliff Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa that advertised sightseeing of red cliffs and Native American shops, something I though similar to Cherokee. Continuing up Hwy 13 toward Red Cliff to find…a fish market and a road that look rougher than the seasonal roads in Michigan. What a disappointment! The road lead to Frog Bay, but we didn’t want to ride rough roads, so we continued on Hwy 13 toward Port Wing.

When planning our trip, looking for campgrounds, we found the Bark n Beaver’s Wilderness Campground and seriously considered camping there. We were close and had to go see it in person and glad we did. Be sure to read the hours listed on the website and website photos before checking out the pictures that we took posted below.

Campground Entrance

   

 

Road into Bark n Beavers

Bath house, Laundry

Camp sites

                     

Thanks for Visiting the Bark n Beaver

    

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Day #24

Asheland, Wisconsin is located on Chequmegon Bay of Lake Superior.

The campground is located between Ironton and Asheland. The road construction into Asheland is interesting. We had named it “toilet paper row”. The cracks are being filled with white strips of stuff that looks just like toilet paper! See the video at the end of blog

Toilet Paper Row

Roaming the countryside around Asheland, several waterfalls dotted the area. We visited Superior Falls on the Wisconsin-Michigan border near Saxon. The walk down to what we through was the falls was really steep, the pictures just don’t do the slope justice. We decided not to hike it! The sunset was a beautiful on the Lake, but because of the trees was hard to get a picture.

We decided that there were so many falls in this area that were easier to access, that they did not keep up all the others.

On the opposite side of the parking lot was a woodland road where Doug decided to explore and where he discovered the falls. Again, with the lack of access and trees, the picture was hard to get.

On the dirt road back to the campground, we captured the wildlife of the day.

Trail down to Lake

Sunset over Lake Superior

Example of multiple dirt
roads we traveled.

Superior Falls

Wildlife today

       

Porcupine

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Day #23

Another blog of the day:    After a restful night, I woke about 8:00 am. It was such a cool, refreshing morning, that we had our devotions outside to enjoy our last morning in Michigamme Shores Campground.

This morning’s packing was leisurely as our drive today is the shortest of the trip, only 2.5 hours to Saxon, Wisconsin.

The most disappointing part of our travels in the Upper Peninsula is not viewing a moose, not sure if elk are in this area.  It’s not like we have not given them opportunity to present themselves. We have ridden state forest dirt roads at dusk, been up early. I’m hoping it might be different in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Here are some interesting things we have heard or noticed: 

The local new is interesting to listen to on Air TV. We hear interesting things like Munising High School has 150 students. 

Michigan has built two things around their state roads 

1. Most of the have passing lanes, it seemed every 10 miles or less, especially on rolling hill roads and ones with very few straights.
2. Road Side Parks are places to get out to walk, picnic and potty break. Really nice, easy off and back on area that are shaded with picnic tables and beautifully maintained. Yes the bathrooms are composting toilets (aka pit toilets), but hey the Road Side Parks are well planned out and maintained.

Local foods (ie – pasties), rivers, lakes, cities, townships, counties and road names are hard to pronounce: Ishpeming, Neguanee, Otongonia, Gogebic, Pentwater, Manistee, Charlevoix, Wapato River, and lot of them seem to be related to the Native American Indian culture, but there we have not seen reservations or advertisements for anything Native American cultural.

There is a lack of billboards for advertising and the lack of cell service has made discovering the points of interest around us difficult. Then when we see a sign of interest, we have already passed the turn off. We soon discovered that the only advertisement was the signs for turn offs. The signs were a 100 yards OR less before turn off. We missed a lot of interesting places and the signs made for interesting turns.

We’ve arrived at our next campground – Frontier Bar and Campground. I guess that what we experienced in Michigan will transfer to Wisconsin – Restaurants and Bars were one and the same. To eat locally we would go into these local establishments. The usual chain restaurants – McDonalds, Hardees, Taco Bells were available, but I can get that at home. We wanted to experience the local fare. Some good, some not so good – like the BBQ from “B Dog’s BBQ” just outside the Michigamme Campground.

Many of the buildings in Asheland were painted with murals that depicted local history.

By this time next week, we will be turning south for the last leg of our trip.

We have driven through the following states:

1. 

   Long roads and the view of the city of
   Asheland on horizon
   

   
   

   
   

   

   Bad River (Official Name)
   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   North Carolina
2. Virginia
3. West Virginia
4. Ohio
5. Pennsylvania
6. Maryland
7. New York
8. Michigan

Bogs, wetlands & grassy inlets

Buildings in Asheland Murals