Nice little Itasca Run...

I’m late getting to this blog, but the weekend before last held a sweet little backpacking jaunt to Lake Itasca State Park in MN. My buddy Ty and I decided flight instructing could take a break for a couple days and headed out to the woods. Ty recently picked up a new Gregory Palisade pack and some other goodies, and need to take the recently aquired goods on their maiden voyage. They did well. As did my trusty Dana Design (now bought out by Marmot) ArcLight Swiftcurrent pack. It’s been since last year’s trip to the Superior Hiking Trail that I had my big red friend out of the dusty closet. It’ll be out again soon, cuz we sure had a good time. It’s nice to get out and walk through the woods and relax. The cooking was new this time. I’ve been searchin’ through a couple backcountry cookbooks of mine, and decided to whip up a batch of backcountry burritos, using organic lentils, rice, various spices and dehydrated vegetables. Pretty good in the end. I forgot the tortillas though, so they were naked burritos, eaten with a spork. Our campsite was pretty decent, but not quite the one we were heading for. We were told that there was only one other registered backpacker that night, so we never expected to see anyone, but when we reached the backcountry site we were going to use, guess where he was. So, we just backtracked a bit to a shelter site and camped in front of it. We slept very warm in the REI Mountain 2 tent, but I’m sad to say my winter sleeping bag is a cheapo. Although I stayed warm, it tore at the zipper in one place when I simply rolled over. I guess that’s what you get when you only pay 99 bucks retail for a 4 season bag. Something for nothin’ doesn’t seem to work very often. I’ll have to sew it up and deal with it until I am a rich man. All in all the trip was much needed, and we will return to the woods soon. Maybe even to the SHT. (Superior Hiking Trail- it always reads somewhat dirty when using the acronym- for example- sections of the SHT can get quite wet, so wear waterproof boots. Terrible.) Anyway, I suppose pictures will do more to motivate you all into the woods than my rambling:

Ty relaxin' over dinner...













Me and my big red friend enjoying some air...














Campsite airing out after sunrise...

Floodin'

Well, I commented on our flooding river last in my last blog entry, but since then the river went on to do some extensive whoopin’ on the land north of Grand Forks. Our city has finally built adequate protection from the Red after years of getting wet and wondering what went wrong, but since we are so prepared, the land north of us (yes our weird river flows north) gets all the water that misses us, resulting in major flooding. I’m no farmer, but flying over their land lately was simply sad. It’s completely under water, and don’t see how crops will get planted on time this year. I saw several farmsteads that had no protection that had been overrun by the water. Many small towns were completely cut off from everywhere else, as all roads to and from them were impassable. Our river is intense. Here are a few aerial shots of the Red’s destruction from the air (yes I was also paying attention to my student flying the airplane while taking the pix), as well as some shots of downtown Grand Forks. In the first pic, the snakey path at the bottom is the actual Red, but as you can see it is not containing itself...












Blue Moose, Whiteys, Applebee's, etc.. restaurants from the flooded Demers bridge...













Scenic shot of the Herald building from the flooded Demers Ave bridge...














Ahh! We're in the flood!

Of Rivers Foul and Fair

This past weekend Alison and I traveled to Albert Lea, MN to attend her grandfather’s funeral. This spring has been relatively tough for families; ourselves and our friends have been losing many loved ones. I guess it’s the age our lives when our older relatives are reaching the ages where they pass. That’s the way of life though.
Anyhow, on our trip back we decided that we have driven I-94 and I-29 far too many times, and elected to take a slower, yet more scenic route through the north woods country of MN. Our path took us conveniently through Lake Itasca State Park, so we stopped and picked up our ’06 annual park pass and had a look around. The plan is to go on an overnight backpacking venture there this upcoming weekend, so it was nice to have a chance to preview the trail conditions. It’s definitely Spring in the north woods, which means a mixture of ice, snow, dry land, mud, and an occasional drunken fisherman on his super-smelly ATV (or is the himself that in fact is the source of stink?). Anyhow, this week should help dry out the park a little, but we’ll have to prepare for chilliness and sogginess for this weekends loooooong overdue hiking. I’m not afraid. Like I’ve ranted before, sunny skies and warm, dry temps are not the only thing to experience as an outdoor enthusiast. But anyhow, I thought I’d post a shot or two of the icy Spring scenery of Itasca, in all it’s wildernessy goodness (shots taken at the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River). Also, I will post for your viewing my latest visit (same day) of the Red River, our nasty garbage/pesticide filled mess that is yet again flooding our cities. (Why we don’t all just move I’m not clear on; this happens every year and we keep taking it.) Flying over it all today I don’t know how any farmers are going to operate this year. Our fields are completely under water, and so are many farmsteads. Yikes. But anyhow, I must now return home to visit with our apartment manager (who I suspect may have spotted our cat Mullet, who is not allowed in the building- he’s visiting a friends house during the meeting). More later…

Clean wintery solitude near the headwaters of the Mississippi...
















Garbage/ice/tractor parts cloggin' and floodin' our town...