Return to Mille Lacs Kathio, Sun May 3

High of 68 degrees. Wildlife consisted of one big ol' Woodpecker, two Robins, one dragonfly and the spring peepers are still at it. Maybe it's the time of day, but I sure don't see much wildlife. Hans and I walked the "Landmark Trail" which covers about an hour's worth or hiking. We stopped to read about the Indian establishment along the shore. Apparently they built a "palisade" around their encampment. There are markers around an acre site where this fence line used to be. Some bloodroot is blooming. Small buds on the trees.

Time to do the math. Two park permits @ $25 each divided by 8 trips is $6.25/trip!

Thursday, April 23, 2009 Charles Lindbergh State Park

This was a short trip. Owing to the "Closed for the Season" sign on the outhouses with a request for those in need to "use pit toilets". Good plan, except the pit toilets also bore signs. "Closed for maintanence" and padlocked shut. I was forced to continue my trip home from the Cold Spring CBHH. It was warm, very warm. Around 75+ degrees. Overtime shifts that weekend made this the only State Park visit for the week.

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Lured by the 77 degree weather, we went to Crow Wing (again?) a couple days early. With the park to ourselves, we enjoyed a picnic lunch (cooked at home due to the fire bans and dry conditions). Our most ambitious walk of the year ensued, going almost 2 miles. Wildlife count continues! Spring Peepers, Blue Jays, a few other various unrecognized bird songs and one Red Squirrel! (Which translates to Swedish as "Oak Animal") It wasn't until we were driving out of the park that a true harbinger of spring was spotted, a huge 5th wheel being towed by a pick-up truck. There are still unexplored trails which we'll save for next time...and the next...but this might've been the last time we'll have the whole park to ourselves.

Sunday, April 12th Crow Wing State Park

Crow Wing State Park had it's third visit this spring. About 90% of the snow is gone with just some patches left on the wooded trails. The temps are low 60's today with hazy overcast. We (Hans and I. Rod is in Michigan) heard one Loon, some Canada geese and saw two Eagles. We also heard 3 unknown bird songs. (Of note, on the way home we spotted the Osprey on his/her nest on Wise road, having returned sometime between last night and this afternoon.)

Hans and I walked the trails north from the parking lot to where the old Crow Wing Village used to sit. You can see by the photo how high the river is. As usual, I never gave the park or it's history much thought over the years, even though I've lived so close by. That's one (One!) nice thing about getting older is a sense of appreciation for the natural beauty of things, the efforts of others, and a sense of respect for what has come before. There is a long and rich history to this park as well as huge restoration efforts. This area was almost *the* river city in these parts, except for the fickle placement of the NP Railroad bridge 10 miles north, in Brainerd. Prior to the village, the confluence of rivers (Crow Wing and Mississippi) made it a good crossing for the Red River Oxen Carts. Ojibwa and Sioux before them inhabited this natural meeting ground for eons before that until they were eventually relocated to the White Earth Reservation in 1868. It will be fun to reacquaint with this park and it's history as the summer passes!

Sunday, April 5th (My Birthday)

We cheated and went to IKEA State Park.

Sunday, March 29th Schoolcraft State Park

The weather has taken a turn for the cold. Two days prior to a major blizzard here with temps in the 30's. We pretended our lives depended on being able to read the weather signs. We came up with (well...Rod came up with) the horsetail clouds and the subtle shade of gray to our west. I came up with the hat and mittens I'd brought along cuz I was COLD. We didn't have MY car (with the thermometer and STATE PARK PERMIT, so we had to guess at the temp (38??) and buy another PERMIT. Now we have one on each of our cars. Now, for the math. $25 +$25 = $50 divided by 4 = $12.50!

This park is touted as "The quiet park" and lives up to that with it's high canopy and thick mulch. We walked about 1/2 mile along a trail next to the Mississippi River. We saw an adult eagle, several Canada Geese and heard some crows. We saw some cool deer tracks that were frozen under some ice on the trail. I also saw what had to be a moose track. It was almost as big as my foot. We had bought some deli lunch fodder from Cub and ate at a sunny picnic table. It was 75 miles from home and took us about 1 1/2 hours to drive there up Hwy 6 north of Remer.

Sunday, March 22nd, Kathio State Park

When we were younger, we used to go to the BWCA. We used to 'scoff' at those crazy campers in the State Parks. I'm sorry about that.

This Sunday was the warmest so far, topping out at 53 degrees, but windy. We found a closed off road, still snow covered, that would allow us to sneak Hans off his leash for a good run. Something we won't be able to do once the parks get crowded again. We've seen no one on any of our trips so far. Critter inventory consists of 1 young eagle, 1 junco, (usually seen in flocks in the spring and fall on their migration) 1 grey squirrel and we heard some chickadees.

We only stayed about 45 minutes which allowed for about a 1/2 mile walk. We wanted to get to the Casino before the "lunch buffet" closed at 4pm! Kathio is 40 miles from Brainerd and takes about 50 minutes to drive there. It is noted for the 3 biomes merging there. Pine forests, Hardwood forest and a tiny edge of prairie.

Crow Wing State Park, March 15th

Our second Sunday out found us again at Crow Wing State Park. We saw the afternoon running short so retreated to the close at hand. The temperatures were the warmest so far this spring with it topping out at 50 degrees. We hiked about 1 1/2 hours...maybe a mile or more? There is still alot of snow in the woods, however too warm for snowmobilers. We didn't see or hear any wildlife, which we thought was rather strange. We brought a lunch we'd picked up from Walmart deli. 25 divided by 2 equals $12.50!

Catching up back to March 8th, 2009

This will be a bare bones blog. It's to see which is preferable to this old collector or tidbits. If I would prefer the $.74 cent notebook I bought at Target, or this incredibly easy and free tool.

First you need a reason to blog, which for us evolved out of an idea to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon at our closest State Park, namely, Crow Wing State Park. We're trying to walk more and sit less to condition for the upcoming Sweden trip in June. We had to shell out money for the park permit, which leads us to our annual dilemma, "day permit" or "annual permit". One is $7.50 and the other is $25. We always rationalize that we'd never get $25 worth out of an annual one, so usually go the cheap route. This year we thought "Hej" "why not buy the annual permit and GET our money's worth by actually using it!" We tossed around the idea of going to a State Park every Sunday that we didn't have other obligations, no excuses, even if it's just to return to Crow Wing. So far, so good!

Our first trip to Crow Wing State Park was Sunday, March 8th. The temperature was 30 degrees and the sun was out. Most of the trails and roads were still closed off but we were able to stretch our legs a little and give Hans a nice run. We hadn't started the fauna inventory yet.