David and Karen Journey – DNKJOURNEY

Of course, given the opportunity, we would be in kayak or bike, or visiting someplace new. “We can update the blog at night” but night time would find us asleep in our chairs or too tired to think much. We were headed to the big Keystone Montana rally in Goshen, Indiana when Megan joined us on our journeys as an angel. We did attend the last couple days of the rally and the Keystone factory repaired a few warranty items that had made themselves known as we rumble down the road. We moved thru St Louis and spent time with both sides of our family, always healing. Then to Nashville and an evening at the Grand Ole Opry with my sister Gemma who lives a few hours away. We finished in south Atlanta where we spent our week cleaning, waxing, closing down and winterizing all the vehicles. They live in storage there until we return in late January.

The summers goal was to circle Lake Superior. We spent more than a two months in Minnesota alone, then Wisconsin and both upstate and downstate Michigan. We ducked into Canada on either side of Lake Superior: Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. The entire journey was 4,500 miles on the truck and many more on the car since we considered side trips the stuff of life.

Summer always goes by too quickly. The opportunity to do something outside, with the sun on your face and wind providing a cool alternative. Caravan life is perfect for summer. We would enjoy the landscape, paddle the course of the river, explore the small towns, have a campfire, check out the stars, then moved the rig and do it all over again. The journey this summer was one of the best summers I can remember in my whole life.

The waterways were amazing. Never saw the Great Lakes so completely, we followed Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. We had many adventures from the water perspective: in Picture Rocks National Park, in Isle Royal National Park, in bicycling along the waters edge, in camping directly on the shores of Lake Superior for a week in Grand Marais, MN.

We discovered the joys of the rail to trail system for bicycling, fully utilized in this part of the country since the iron ore mines were closed. The hardwood trees, and the density of the forests reminded me of my origins in upstate New York. The trail system is a smart use of resources and good for your health. It almost always is near a Dairy Queen ice cream store, a plus when you are thirsty after a long ride.

The people were so friendly, the river access points were well signed, the scenery was beautiful, and it was a summer to remember.

With having kayaked nearly 100 miles on rivers and lakes, and bicycled over 300 miles on rail trails, it was time to get some culture  in Minneapolis (MSP), MN.  The RV park is in Prior Lake, a suburb of MSP and on the Dakota reservation and casino.  Yes, David lost but Karen won.

Other cultural events attended was Mall of America; Costco; the Uptown Annual Art Fair; and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Wacipi (Pow Wow) .

We attended the Grand Entry for a Pow Wow just minutes from our RV Park.   You can see from the pictures, it was colorful, loud, multi-generational.  Also it was enriching to see such expression of pride, culture and a sense of belonging and community everywhere around me. It was especially wonderful to see young children participate with such enthusiasm, after all these kids will take this forward and keep the culture alive.

Pow Wows are the Native American people’s way of meeting together, to join in dancing, singing, visiting, renewing old friendships, and making new ones. The pow wow is a method to renew Native American culture and preserve the rich heritage of American Indians.

There are several different stories of how the pow wow was started. One belief is when the Native American tribes were forced onto reservations, the government also forced them to have dances for the public to come and see.  Before each dance they were lead through the town in a parade, which is the beginning of the Grand Entry.

A pow wow session begins with the Grand Entry, during which all the dancers line up by dance style and age. They then enter the arena while the host drum sings a special song. Normally, the first in are veterans carrying flags and eagle staffs, followed by the head dancers, then the dancers follow in a specific order. Pow wow singers are very important figures in the Native American culture. Without them there would be no dancing. The songs are of many varieties, from religious to war to social.

Many of the various types of dances performed at a pow wow are descended from the dances of the Plains tribes of Canada and the United States. Besides those for the opening and closing of a pow wow session, the most common is the intertribal, where a drum will sing a song and anyone who wants to can come and dance.

[Show slideshow]

Arriving in small towns, we seek out a live theater with local performers. One play was Avenue Q in Duluth,MN that was outstanding. Think of Avenue Q like Sesame Street for grown ups. The actors playing the puppets remain on stage throughout the entire show, and react to their puppets and mimic their actions. It’s a super fast moving show, and was really fun to watch.

Situated at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes on the north shore of Lake Superior, Duluth, MN is accessible to oceangoing vessels from the Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away via the Great Lakes Waterway and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.

Duluth, MN forms a metropolitan area with Superior, WI called the Twin Ports. The cities share the Duluth –Superior harbor and together are the Great Lakes’ largest port transporting coal, iron ore (taconite), and grain.

David got reacquainted with an old friend in Superior, WI, and took her out over Lake Superior. This old friend was a 1978 Cessna 172 that he had owned for several years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

Our next two stops, after departing Duluth, was in Hayward, WI and Taylor Falls MN. Our friends from Denver, Julie and Carl joined us as we tubed down a river and kayaked the St. Croix River.

[Show slideshow]

We stayed in a town on the north shore called Grand Marais, MN. This town is the eastern and southern end of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and the Gunflint Trail. We happily enjoyed more, great kayaking on beautiful interconnected lakes, then, we stopped at a full service lodge for a hearty late lunch; the best of both worlds. Trappers and early settlers used the Gunflint Trail for hundreds of years to bring their pelts to trading forts on Lake Superior.

Just up the road was a living history museum dedicated to the voyageurs. Live historians still man the trading fort, in character, explaining how canoe routes then land portages (like the Gunflint Trail) ran from Hudson Bay or NW Territories to the Great Lakes to Montreal, then onward to Europe where those tall black, beaver felt hats were made. The first nations people reenacted their shelter creation (birch bark logons), and creating fire with the rubbing of two sticks. All of it was educational and just fun.

I have to mention the people. We stayed for two weeks because of a medical issue. The doctors speak about their choice to participate in rural health care. I did not realize that meant they call you, to see how you are improving, or the pharmacist gives you his card and lets you know he is on 24 hour call. Or the campground hosts worked very, very hard to fit your unexpected extension into their space available.

When we were cleared to leave and after seeing the sights and kayaking the wonderful lakes we departed for Thunder Bay Canada where we stayed for 3 nights before heading back to the US for Duluth, MN.

[Show slideshow]

While kayaking the lakes we often heard the call of the loons. Click on link to hear these calls. The eerie calls of Common Loons echo across clear lakes of the northern wilderness. Summer adult loons are regally patterned in black and white. In winter, they are plain gray above and white below, and you’ll find them close to shore on most seacoasts and a good many inland reservoirs and lakes. Common Loons are powerful, agile divers that catch small fish in fast underwater chases. They are less suited to land, and typically come ashore only to nest.call of the Loon.

[Show slideshow]

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, is a 1,090,000-acre wilderness area within the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota. We based ourselves in Ely, Minnesota to explore the central Boundary Waters Canoe area, and Grand Marais for the Gunflint section of the wilderness. Partially because you needed a GPS to ensure you came out where you went into the lake; and mostly because David has a new Garmin GPS watch, I can accurately report that all together we kayaked 37.5 miles in about 7 excursions into the park.

1,000 lakes lie within the wilderness of the protected area. Canada joins this vast lake country wilderness with another 1.2 million acres and another thousand lakes. This is Mecca for paddlers., very serene and quiet with the exception of the sounds of loons.  The labyrinth of waterways was long used by the fur traders to bring their pelts to market.

Each day, we simply chose another lake that had a public access point and completed the required BLM permit. Although we chose day trips, you could feel the excitement as groups would be paddling off with the canoes stocked with food and sundries for their week long excursion.  Some groups chose to use a canoe taxi and paddle one direction.  Then further on you would find another group looking towards the take out point, with visions of showers and comfy beds to look forward to.

When off the lakes we enjoyed cruising around town, visiting the wolf center, having late lunches in the magnificent log lodges alongside the lakes open to commercial outfitters. The scenery was amazing, green, dense, variegated, wild and endless. There are too few places to experience such vast peaceful space, We feel very lucky that we did.

[Show slideshow]

Karen and I celebrated our 11^th wedding anniversary on July 11. It has been truly wonderful and a blessing. When looking back on that day we met 14 years ago we discussed every thing from retirement to traveling. I had 5 more years before retirement and Karen 9 years.  Now both being retired, we are full time travelers.

When we first met, Karen was planning a solo trip to Peru that included hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. After a few months of dating, we discussed the possibility of me joining her.   I did some Internet searching and purchased airline tickets to Lima where I joined her a few days after her arrival. She met me at the airport with flowers and from that day on there was no looking back.

The maps in this blog post contain pins where we have been in the last 14 years.   We sold our house in Aurora, CO in May of 2012 and have been full time travelers since.  We alternate travel with our RV (Camp Casa) for 4 months somewhere in North America and 4 months in a destination over seas.

It has been a wonderful 14 years and look forward to many more years of traveling with my partner, friend, and wife.

[Show slideshow]

Isle Royale, a rugged, isolated island, far from the sights and sounds of civilization. In the northwest corner of Lake Superior the Isle is surrounded by Lake Superior, Isle Royale offers unparalleled solitude and adventures for backpackers, hikers, boaters, kayakers, canoeists and scuba divers. Here, amid stunning scenic beauty. It is one of Michigan’s 5 National Parks, and one of the very few island national parks in the United States. It is mostly a spectacular north woods wilderness.

Visitors traveling to this Island paradise must arrive by boat or seaplane.  Transportation services depart from Houghton, Michigan, Copper Harbor, Michigan and Grand Portage, Minnesota.  Our ferry trip is a long one, some 55 miles from Grand Portage MN. But that’s the only transportation service from Minnesota. The Voyager II makes twice weekly crossings in just over 2 hours – then another 5 hours following the northern contour of the island from west to east dropping off (or picking up) canoeists, backpackers and finally passengers, to the one developed area of the island, the Rock Harbor Entrance.   At Rock Harbor, there’s the Rock Harbor Lodge offering cabins and motel-style rooms. The Lodge, owned by Forever Resorts, has a dining room and grill that are open to all island visitors and also operates a Marina, General Store, and other amenities.  The U.S. National Park Service operates Rock Harbor Visitors Center who collects a $4/day fee for each visitor on the island (David’s senior National Park Pass was not accepted).

Except for the small-developed area of Rock Harbor, the island is entirely wilderness.  It’s a huge island. Isle Royale is 45 miles long and about 10 miles wide. It’s the second largest island in the Great Lakes. Isle Royale is home to 1200 moose, 3 wolves and many loons.   We didn’t see any moose.  It’s a wilderness and hence much more rugged and pristine, the vegetation is incredibly thick. This makes it one of the most unusual places in North America, a spectacular and rugged Great Lakes wilderness that’s very close to America’s heartland.

David and I took a nice hike exploring along the shore of this great island, where we came across a number of beautiful scenes in the moderately foggy conditions on an Isle Royale summer afternoon. The day we embarked from Grand Portage the fog was thick; rolling in and out all day along Isle Royale, and open Lake Superior was fogged in tight throughout the day. That is dense fog hugging the shore in the distance of the photo, though you can hardly see that it’s there. It’s the absence of the horizon that indicates the fog’s presence.

We took local boat transport supported by NPS interpretative Rangers to outer islands to visit lighthouses, and learn about historic fishing enterprises and an active moose research station.

The fog lifted during our first of 3 nights staying on the island. The remaining time on the island was sunny and mild with the water temperature reported to be 37 degrees. The spring flowers are in bloom along the trail, making the way even more beautiful.  The water environment is excellent for breeding mosquitoes and biting black flies.  They aren’t too bad near the beach because of prevailing winds, but inland trails are thick with them.  The solution is a head net as modeled by Karen. It’s must be pretty bad when you see all the hikers wearing them.  Karen must have gotten a dozen bites on the back of her neck before giving in and wearing the fashionable green netting.

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ►

Nisswa MN is celebrating their 53rd turtle racing season. How do the turtle races work? Racers gather in the center circle and release their turtles when a whistle blows. We watch while the turtles make their way to the outer circle. The first turtle to the outside ring wins! The races, held every Wednesday, attract about 400 people a week. Despite my pre race “chat” and the mid race water dousing, my little green friend took a few s-l-o-w steps and watched the race very close to the starting line . . . . . TWICE. Both of my races resulted in terrible results. Thank goodness there was an A&W root beer float as a consolation prize.

And if that wasn’t kitschy enough . . . .

We bicycled on the Paul Bunyan bicycle trail to visit a 30 and 1/2 foot tall Paul Bunyan statue just to sit in the palm of his hand. Many towns claim to be the birthplace of this north woods “giant” and it is curious to see how he and his sidekick blue or are celebrated. But the real celebration was that bike rides here in Minnesota are epic. There are literally hundreds of miles of “rail to trail” systems which are maintained as state parks. They are maintained, mowed, signed, and within a 3% grade because of train constraints. They are paved over a thick rail bed so there are no frost heaves. This day was a 27 mile ride and we are certainly enjoying this bike friendly place.

And finally, we found the headwaters and first trickle of the Mississippi River at Itaska State Park. We learned “Mississippi” is an Indian word that means water that covers a large area, so I guess they named that right. We learned that a drop of water that enters the Mississippi at Itaska State Park travels for 90 days before it arrives in Gulf of Mexico. The river was 2 feet wide and perhaps 1 foot deep, perfect for little kids on a hot summers day.

[Show slideshow]

Our kayaking journey down the Mississippi River began in Brainerd, 100 miles south of where the mighty rivers humble source is located in Itasca State Park. We heard the call of the loon and watched bald eagles soar above the majestic virgin pines. Our float on the river was slow, the strong headwinds and the little flow on the river took us about 4 hours to travel 11 miles south to Crow Wing State Park.

The next stop on our RV journey is very close to Itasca State Park, 1,475 feet above sea level, where the Mississippi River begins its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. This stop is also just a few miles from Bemidji, Minnesota where the legendary superman and woodsman, hero of the early logging days, Paul Bunyan, was born.

[Show slideshow]

Driving from Phoenix to Tucson after 24 hours of flying; delivering the RV to Yuma for repair; meeting the grandkids in Disneyland; four day RV trip to Colorado; a soak at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in Buena Vista, CO; a Shadowcliff Memorial Day Volunteer weekend in Grand Lake, CO; two quick weeks in Denver visiting family, friends and doctors and lastly, attending our grandson Chases’ continuation ceremony from Middle School.

We readied the RV and departed Denver on June 10 for our next adventure. We are on our way to the boundary waters of Minnesota. As shown on the map, we traveled through Nebraska, South Dakota, and now our journey truly begins. First stop in Minnesota – Ashby and now Nissiwa, with each stop on a lake and bicycle path. Next two stops bring us closer to the boundary waters and then the “circling of Lake Superior by RV”.

[Show slideshow]