LAKE SUPERIOR AUTUMN

Autumn is lingering past early October along the North Shore of Minnesota's Lake Superior coast. The forest always holds it's leaves longer along the shore with the moderating temperature influence of Superior. Inland, the maples have mostly dropped their deep orange and yellow canopy. This is a year of intense color up here in the boreal forests of the Arrowhead; the tip of the geographic spear in the extreme Northeast of Minnesota.

Summer is hanging on deep into the season in the northwoods. The mercury hits 80 degrees. My first order of business is to poke up the Sawbill Trail through Superior National Forest into the BWCA to get to a vantage point to see the fire raging just north of Silver Island Lake. I cross over the Sawtooth Mountains that parallel the coast. Twenty miles inland I climb the high point of the Misqua Hills; a divide that separates waters flowing north to the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay, and south into Lake Superior and the Atlantic. With a hint of smoke in the air, I am stopped a half mile from the lake by a Forest Ranger barring entry. The firefighters have established a camp on the landing to the lake.

A 3/4 moon rises out of Superior as darkness descends, coyotes yip, and my fire bathes the birch in orange light. The sky is alive with dark strips of clouds slowing moving through the sky alternating with thinner stratus layers that are set aglow by the moon with clear sky between them. Bright Jupiter rises from the Lake, it is very close to Earth now (350 million miles). Morning brings a calm Superior and a crisp temp. The sun takes over by mid morning heating up the land.

One of the great hikes up here requiring minimum effort with maximum views is the short trip up top of Oberg Mountain. If affords great views of the Autumn forest with the Onion River cutting through it and Levieux Mountain due south. Lake Superior shimmers just a few miles away. A trail circles the top of the mountain with terrific views all around. Britton Peak is another short hike with a lot of scenery bang for the hiking buck. The large granite flat top Carlton Peak rises due south with a maple forest spread directly below Britton. Carlton Peak is circled by a band of bare maples, their textured limbs reaching haphazardly toward the sky. The Sawtooth Mountains have pockets of flaming maples with a view of Lake Superior as a backdrop.

A yearling eats oak bark just off the trail, unconcerned with my presence. The forest shows it's shape and texture. Green spruce and fir add a counterbalance of color to the oranges and reds of the forest and the blues of the sky and the lake. Pink salmon run up the Temperance River though the salmon run is done 20 miles up coast at Cascade River. The boreal forest is well established here though global warming may push out the spruce and firs and favor the growth of maples, aspen, and even oak. I head up the Caribou Trail to the Superior Hiking Trail to a spur to White Sky Rock which tops out with a long view of horseshoe shaped Caribou Lake. I descend as the light fades and the nighttime is firetime.

Superior is building in intensity with the passing of a front. After midnight it will be rocking and rolling. The now full moon rises over the lake arcing to a position of due South at midnight. Lake Superior has a 1" tide but 4 foot waves eclipse that minute rise. The full moon arcing and stars circling to a fire on the wave pounded coast gives rise to philosophical meanderings and life and self evaluations. The sky gives rise to the recent confirmation that our universe is not only expanding, but expanding at an increasing rate. What is infinite space, why would our universe be the only one, are their infinite universes all expanding into infinite space. Hard for man's logical mind to grasp an understanding of it. Man, we need a 5 billion year plan to get off this planet, if we last that long, 8 billion people, you'd think that far exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet. CroMagnum man had a pure way of thinning the herd. The smart and the strong and strong willed survived; the others perished. Modern man has no equivalent natural thinning process. If I don't get to civilization and get a maple pecan roll, a latte, and some pizza there will be one less human on this planet.

Tomorrow I roll. The best of Minnesota is the 'Scenic Corridor', a 460 mile journey from the tip of the Arrowhead adjacent to Canada down Lake Superior, the St. Croix, and down the Mississippi to the blufflands of S.E. Minnesota adjacent to Iowa. It's Hiway 61 at it's best, I'm on my way.

The Hickory Hiker

AUTUMN in the BLUFFS

These are some stellar warm late October days in the unglaciated bluffs of S.E. Minnesota. Head to Houston for the bounty and beauty of a Minnesota Autumn; Houston County that is; the extreme corner of Southeast Minnesota butting up against Wisconsin & Iowa.

This is the apple belt with apple orchards spreading across the vast bluff lands along the Mississippi River. Hiking into the forest in Autumn is a trip to your soul; the essence of life comes bubbling forth. These forests are rich and varied with Black Walnuts, Butternut, Hickory, White & Red & Burr Oaks, Maples, Aspen, Birch, White Pine, Cedar and Ash dominating the landscape. It is a haven for deer, turkeys, black squirrels, red fox, and eagles.

It is an uneven fall color change this year, some trees are green, some bare, oaks have little color, maples and aspens are muted and mostly down with spotty brilliant trees. The leaf change is a week to 10 days early, overlayed by summer phenology that is running equally late. October is warm, it will be the 8th warmest October ever. The leaves on the forest floor are dry and crisp and crackle under my waffle soled Danner hikers. Six to 8 foot tall golden prairie grass waves in the wind, the sun heats up my face, my spirit is warmed.

The sun drops as an orange ball beneath the Mississippi River throwing the Autumn forest in an even warmer orange glow. Darkness ebbs in as the stars spin up spawning meteors and satellites tracking across the sky. My fire throws yet another orange light into the forest. The owl hoots and a pack of coyotes yelp from a nearby bluff to announce their presence. The midnight air chills down to 50 degrees bringing additional weight to the fire.

Morning breaks crisp adding some urgency to cranking up a fire; for the warmth sure but more for the coffee. I grab my hickory hiking stick and walk into the woods and across an open stretch of head high grass. A powder blue dragonfly lifts off straight up and vanishes into an equally powder blue sky. I hike across a limestone ridge into the Queens Bluff Scientific & Natural Area, a preserve primarily for the dwindling and beautiful Timber Rattlesnake.

I am at the head of the valley formed by Kings & Queens Bluff which tower 500 feet above the Mississippi. The bluff is so steep that trees cannot grab hold to grow. These 'goat prairies' are common in Bluffland. I reach the apex of Queens with a limestone perch overlooking a long stretch of the braided Mississippi. The river is very high and a cold 58 degrees. A cold breeze rolls off the river up the bluff while a warm breeze rises up the goat prairies. Eagles and Turkey Vultures frequently ride these thermals to scan the bluffs for prey.

I roll back to camp and take Apple Blossom Drive down to Bauer's market in LaCrescent for all the bounty of the season; apples, cider, blackberry and strawberry jam, honey, pumpkins, curds, organic popcorn and a close up view of the river I've only seen from atop the bluffs. It is roll time but I am refreshed and invigorated by my time in the bluffs; an understated landscape of peace and tranquility and strength that counterbalances the wear and tear of life.
THE HICKORY HIKER