Voyageurs NP

By Jen.

Dates: 07/03/2021 to 07/08/2021

It just so happened that Jonathan has family in Minnesota. So we contacted his parents and got the contact info for his extended family. They invited us to their 4th of July gathering, so we made a beeline there as we hit Minnesota. I was surprised at how flat Minnesota was! They were having a day at one of many Minnesotan lakes.

 

I even got out on paddleboard (that’s me in my lovely black sun protection/stinger suit)!

 

Then Jonathan’s aunt and cousin took us on a tour of their hometown and nearby mine. Turns out they actually had to move the whole town 3 miles back in the day because it was sitting on top of an iron vein they wanted to mine. We noticed the landscape in the area was greatly transformed by artificial hills from mining.

 

 

 

From there we decided to pursue our northern quest all the way to the border and visit Voyageurs National Park. This park almost exclusively requires a boat to visit it. There are a few hiking trails, but mostly the point is to get out on the water. We focused our time near the Ash River area.

 

We first paddled our way to Blind Ash Bay.

Blind Ash Bay. It was a glorious day.

Our new kayak is so much nicer to paddle than our old one.

There were lots of birds in the cattails.

Minnesota is filled with cattails!

 

After lunch, we checked out Long Sou and Lost Lake.

 

There was a family of what I think are grebes.

I knew there was a portage trail between the 2 lakes. Examining the satellite view made me think it was down this path through the cattails.

The kayak barely fit. Eventually, I had to give and we had to reverse out of it.

As we made our way back around the lake I spotted this flower shortly before I spotted the portage dock.

As I scoped out where to put the kayak in at Long Sou, this guy charged across the lake to distract me from its family who was escaping around a bend in the shoreline.

 

The portage trail was about 0.25 miles long, which was a long ways to carry our kayak, but we made it. Jonathan picked up 3 ticks along the way, though. Fortunately, he caught them before they latched on.

 

I had a visitor as well.

We found a massive beaver dam and lodge here.

I thought the white tips of the black-edged wings were interesting.

This deer was surprisingly large, so much so that we thought we were looking at an elk at first.

A beautiful day to be out on the water!

We crossed back to Lost Lake via the portage trail again, and Jonathan’s sharp eyes spotted this spotted frog.

We spotted a bald eagle flying high above the trees on our way back to the van.

 

By the time we got back and packed up the kayak, my right arm was nearly useless (somehow we always ended up needing to paddle more on the right than the left) and both were super sore from paddling all day. I don’t normally use my arms that much! But we paddled around 8 miles that day, so we decided to focus on hiking the next day.

 

First off was a hike to Beaver Pond.

There was a pelican at the Beaver Pond.

As well as a beaver lodge. We learned that beavers have 2nd set lips inside its mouth behind its teeth to carry sticks in its mouth while swimming. How unique!

 

We stopped at the van shortly to make sure the cat had water, and she decided she ought to run out and catch whatever was in the bushes. So we put her on the leash and let her have a brief foray. She definitely didn’t like being stopped or pulled back.

We tried a walk down Kab-Ash, but the bugs were really bothering Jonathan until he took off his white short.

There were apparently enough bugs around to support this very large/fat spider. I think it was about an inch from head to end of the thorax.

A squirrel decided to cuss us out on the way back. Apparently we were impinging on its territory.

 

To finish the area off, we made a couple of stops along the Vermilion River, including the Vermilion Falls and the Vermilion Gorge.

 

Vermilion Falls.

On the way to the gorge, we spotted a ptarmigan and its chicks! They were so cute!! The chicks were not nearly as silent as the parent; they still have much to learn.

The parent!

The charming green-lined path.

The gorge.

Top view.

Bottom view. What fun little flowers!

Do you see those yellow stripes in the center of picture?

They belonged to a long garter snake! It must have been 4 feet long!

 

I was very disappointed that I didn’t see any vermilion.

 

Sasha doesn’t do heights much, so it is always entertaining when I see her perched on the narrow armrest.

My view while exercising in the van and the cat finally gives up from weaving between my legs and settles for sitting by her treats to get me to feed her, haha.