6/1/22 Minnesota; Lake Superior shore, lighthouse, waterfalls, more

 Wednesday June 1, 2022

This morning we head into Duluth and beyond to the north Shore of Lake Superior. We take the North Shore Drive along the lake instead of the highway.  Pretty scenery and some nice homes, but little access to the lake until we get to McQuade Small Craft Harbor. 

 This is one of a network of "safe harbors" along the shore which provides a protected area for smaller ships (or is it boats?) during storms.  We walk the area which is covered with dandelions

 and rocks, and a few more geese (and watch out for the goose poop!)  We find a few interesting stones along the shore.   

We head for a Sinclair Gas Station that Gas Buddy recommends and find a totally unmanned station, designed that way.  First one we've seen in the US.  While Greg gets gas, Beth checks the battery and as we suspected, there is something amiss.  After driving for a couple of hours, our house battery should be fully charged, but it isn't.  We head back toward Duluth to have it checked out.

Thanks to Google, we find an O'Reily's Auto Parts and they verify (eventually) that the battery is very weak.  This is the battery that operates our lights inside the Trek, the refrigerator and other things. So - new battery and we are back on the road in about an hour.  We've found auto parts stores very accommodating as far as checking batteries and doing the actual replacement on the Trek and other vehicles.

Don't remember the business that had this guy outside. The fur trade and voyageurs play a large part in the history of this area.

Next stop is Gooseberry Falls State Park, where we have some lunch and hike to a couple of the Falls.  The water here has a lot of tannin in it so looks kind of brownish.  Quite a few people enjoying the outdoors on what has turned out to be a beautiful day in the high 60's. And look at that blue sky! Perfect for an ice cream treat we pick up on our way back to the Trek.

Lower Falls

Upper Falls

We thought the sign was kind of superfluous, but perhaps it isn't so obvious at another time of the year.  All the rivers and falls here are quite vigorous since we aren't far past snowmelt. 

Only a few miles further - or is it farther? - is my favorite lighthouse, Split Rock.  We've been here once before, so opt to skip the lighthouse tour and go to the adjacent State Park to take some photos.  $7 day pass. There are several trails and it takes us a while to find the right ones that lead to views of the lighthouse, but we persevere and are rewarded! 

MNDNR.GOV/SPLITROCKLIGHTHOUSE

First time we've seen a labeled "Selfie Station".

These are from down on the lake shore.

We've been headed towards Grand Portage which is at the Canadian border along the lake.  It is where you can get a ferry out to Isle Royal National Park which is on an island in Lake Superior. But when I call about the ferry for the next few days, I find that there are no spots available.  The entire month of June is already booked!  It only runs once a day, a few days a week  and I should have made reservations months ago.  Our luck has run out and we decide to discontinue the ride along the lake, since we've been this way before, and per Plan B, begin the trek northwest to new territory and Winnipeg, Canada.

This route will take us through a lot of National Forest, and we stop at Eckbeck Campground in Finland National Forest. The beautiful Baptism River is 10-15' behind us and creates a nice white noise background. This is a primitive but beautiful spot! The Campground is nearly empty, which is how we like them, though we do see a ranger drive through a time or two. 

 We have chicken fajitas for dinner and are delighted to find hardly any mosquitos so we can eat outside.  We've been pretty lucky that way so far, though we've come prepared with insect spray and even head nets from our Alaska trip. Only had to use the spray once so far - I think we're lucky the temps have been pretty cool.

Beautiful scenery and secondary roads have been pretty good with barely any traffic. Lots of water in areas and we aren't sure if this is normal or it is extra wet due to recent rains. Probably some of both.  We see beaver dams in a few areas, but no beaver.