The Journey Home

Headed out Monday morning at about 8 AM for home. I didn't really plan on stopping anywhere along the way, but we passed through a few places worth noting.

The first was Blackduck, Minnesota - we were fishing in that area when I was very young. They have three large ducks around town, here's one of them:

We stopped in Bemidji, Minnesota for a quick pictures with Paul Bunyan and Babe:

We stopped in Itasca State Park, and I really want to know when the Mississippi headwaters became a huge tourist attraction:

When I was a kid, we visited it them, and there was no gift shop that I can remember, no crowds, nothing. Just a pile of rocks, and a log for crossing the river:

It was difficult to find a nice, quiet picture spot to get a picture of the lake:

And me standing in the river, just downstream from the headwaters:

And that's it. There was a lot of bad weather coming back through southern Minnesota and Iowa, so I didn't get home until about 10 PM. The fish I brought back stayed frozen though, and I'm looking forward to cooking them soon.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:59:34 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 3

For day 3, Tim was our guide, on boat #3. In addition to my dad and myself, there were 4 other guests on the boat. We spent the entire day downrigging, something Tim said they do not normally do. It was a lot different than yesterday though - Larry did all the work of setting the poles and maintaining everything. Today, Tim let us do everything ourselves. After a quick lesson on the equipment, we were doing everything and it was a lot of work. For the entire day, we brought in 1 fish shy of our limit. The morning was slow, but the afternoon was incredible.

The water was like glass the entire day:

Here's the final pile of fish that were left after lunch (we did the short lunch again, so a few disappeared):

Couple more pictures from the boat on the way back:

Here's the boat we went out on:

And here's the end of the day picture of my dad and I, along with Tim:

(The fish were primarily from our boat, with a few from a second boat.)

The sunset that evening was really something to see:

One last picture of the three boats we went out on during this trip:

For all the complaining people do about mosquitos in Minnesota, the trip really wasn't the bad. In fact, the only one I saw on me the whole trip was this little guy that landed on my big toe in the cabin:

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:47:32 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 2

Larry was out guide for the day, we were on boat #2 with three other guests (a father and his two sons, one just out of high school, the other just finishing up his military service). This day started out far better than the first day:

And here's a look back at the main building at the resort:

Here's the boat we went out on, felt a little smaller than the first days, but with only a total of 6 people, it wasn't bad:

I caught three walleyes in the morning. In the afternoon, we were downrigging, and caught a lot of walleyes and a few saugers.

Lunch was interesting. The first day, we had sandwiches on the boat, and that was it. This day, we did a shore lunch. Four of the boats from Ballards pulled up on Garden Island to a beach with picnic tables. Everything else was carried on the boats - grills, food, etc. The first from the morning were cleaned, and grilled. Being mostly a non-fish eating person, I was really not looking forward to this - but after trying a couple pieces of the freshly grilled fish, I don't think I've ever had a meal that good.

Here's the four boats that participated:

Here's a look back at the area where we ate lunch:

Me with the guide, and a walleye I caught:

The fish at the end of the day:

This is part of the Ballards group of boats headed back to the resort at the end of the day:

Another picture from the back of the boat, and one of the downriggers we used:

The ride to and from the area we were fishing in was rather long, a little over an hour each way.

Wild rice growing along the river, on the Canadian side:

And that was pretty much it for day 2.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 10:32:18 AM CDT ) Permalink

Fishing Day 1

Scott was our guide, my dad and I were on boat# 1 with 4 other guys. Unfortunately, one of them was extremely hung over from the night before and spent the day either puking over the side of the boat, or sleeping down below. Not many pictures, it was raining off and on much of the day.

I caught three sturgeon that all needed to go back. Minimum size of 44", and you need to have a sturgeon stamp in advance of catching them. Not really a good day. There were a few other fish brought in by others, including my dad catching some flat fish that the guide didn't even recognize.

Picture of Scott holding one of my sturgeon, with my dad:

The boat we were on:

Scott was a good guide, but the day just didn't go well.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 09:50:34 AM CDT ) Permalink

From International Falls to Ballards

We stopped by Smokey Bear Park for a quick picture with the giant bear. There's a picture of me by him when I was a little kid, so this will go nicely with that.

Here's a couple pictures of Rapid River:

And a frog that was watching me while taking the pictures:

Dinner on Thursday evening was here:

Willie the Walleye in Baudette:

And here's the room at Ballards Resort. It was really nice, the view from the windows was towards the river:

After getting checked in, and getting the Jeep unloaded, we took a drive up to Canada. Here's the view from Canada back towards the bridge that returns to the US.

Maple leafs everywhere. This is a picture of the floating dock I walked out on:

Found these guys out in a marsh:

Me with a giant beaver, holding Kassi, the younger of the two dogs my parents have:

And that was it for the day. We returned to the US, and started to get ready for three days of fishing.

Posted by rich ( Jul 17 2007, 09:32:37 AM CDT ) Permalink

Minnesota's Iron Range

Today was spent wandering Minnesota's Iron Range.

The first stop was the World's Largest Authentic Hockey Stick in Eveleth (that's me in front of it):

Sadly, Honk The Moose will have to wait for another time.

I stopped at the Iron Ore Miner Statue in Chisholm:

And from there, we headed off to the Hibbing Taconite Company, for a tour of their open pit mining. I really felt like I was in a Discovery Channel special, it was great actually seeing the giant trucks they use in person.

Here's a shovel loading a truck:

The scale of all the equipment is just unreal. The shovels are electrically powered, the yellow poles are used to hold the cables supplying power up in the air so that the trucks and other equipment will not damage them. Mining occurs 24x7, Wednesdays are a maintenance day, when things slow down a little bit. The only weather that holds up operations is fog, snow barely effects it. As the guide pointed out, two feet of snow to those trucks is like 2 inches of snow to your car.

I really like this photo of two trucks passing:

After loading, they dump their load into the crushers, a nine story rock crusher that reduces it to 10-inch rocks:

Here is the result:

From there, its pulverized in these machines (the picture just doesn't due justice to the huge scale of all of this):

And is reduced to a fine powder that is then run through magnetic seprators to remove the iron (60% pure):

The resulting iron sludge is scraped off:

And put into more piles:

From there, its made into balls, 1 ton of iron for every 18 lbs. of clay:

There's 12 of those giant drums. Here you can see in the end of one of the drums, and see the balls coming out:

They're then separated by size:

And sent down conveyors to storage silos, where they'll then be shipped out by train:

We stopped after lunch at the Minnesota Museum of Mining. It was raining heavily and hailing, so no pictures. Lunch was at The Rock Bar and Grill. I assume the name came from the movie, The Rock - a poster for the movie was on the wall in the bar.

Tonight's hotel in International Falls:

And tonight's dinner, the Chocolate Moose Restaurant Company:

• Chicken & Rice Combo
• Root Beer Float

Tomorrow, we continue on to Baudette, and then Ballards Resort.

Posted by rich ( Jul 11 2007, 09:15:27 PM CDT ) Permalink

Heading Out Again

Today my parents met up with me here in Duluth. From here, we're going to be traveling north to International Falls. Along the way, we'll be stopping in Eveleth, Chisholm, and Biwabik. I'm not sure if I'm going to have any Internet access for the next few days - I know the resort we're staying at while we're fishing doesn't have anything available. If not, I'll post some pictures when I get back in Des Moines.

Posted by rich ( Jul 11 2007, 07:45:11 AM CDT ) Permalink

Ore Jennies

Bulldog from AnimeOnDVD.com gave me a great explanation on the short rail cars:

Posted by rich ( Jul 11 2007, 06:39:38 AM CDT ) Permalink

Dinner at Green Mill

Well, that's annoying. I've been trying to go to local, non-chain places while traveling, and tonight while walking down Lake Street in Duluth, I stopped at Green Mill Restaurant and Bar. I had no idea it was a chain. Good pizza though I must admit, ordered their three meat and cheese, though it seemed as though the crust may have not been fresh (yeah, I'm a picky pizza eater). After finding out they're a chain, it doesn't surprise me.

On the other hand, if you ever pass though Ames, Iowa on I-35, take a side trip into Ames and visit Great Plains Sauce and Dough Company. Incredible thick-crust pizza loaded with cheese. They've never let me down over the years.

Posted by rich ( Jul 10 2007, 10:28:09 PM CDT ) Permalink

From Duluth to Split Rock Lighthouse, and Back

This morning started out extremely stormy. Here's the view from the hotel:

There was at least a light mist for much of the day, sometimes a bit of rain thrown in as well. In the afternoon, driving back from going up to Split Rock, there were 20-40 MPH winds. Lots of limbs were down, and even a couple trees were uprooted along highway 61.

Heading up the North Shore of Lake Superior, the first stop was at the French River. There's a fish hatchery operated by the Minnesota DNR along the river for salmon and migratory trout.

Here's the view upstream, looking towards where they catch the fish:

And here's a downstream view towards Lake Superior, the bridge is for highway 61.

The next stop was in Two Harbors, here's the Edna G. tugboat:

Also in the same area are iron ore docks:

And here's what I walked out on to get those pictures:

I think I gave enough blood to support the entire next generation of mosquitoes in the area.

Here's the Agate Bay Light Station:

The area was blocked off so much that you could barely get a decent picture of it without paying admission - it was extremely annoying. It was inexpensive, but made a bad impression. I skipped the tour.

Next up was Gooseberry Falls. There's three sets, here's the middle ones:

The lower ones:

And the upper ones:

This is looking down from the top of the middle ones, towards the pool at the bottom:

Compared to the photos on the DNR's web site, the amount of water flowing them seemed to be very minimal.

From there, it was off to Split Rock Lighthouse.

Random cute animal:

The lighthouse:

The fog horns:

I would've loved to have a high quality scan of this, it was difficult to get a good picture since it was laminated, and there were windows everywhere:

This is a view of the lighthouse from the base of the tramway that was constructed to bring up supplies from the lake:

One of my favorite photos from today:

There were a few stairs to climb to get back up:

This is part of the remains of the tramway, it was used from 1916 to 1934:

When headed back to Duluth, I had to wait for this train - what is with the short cars?

On the way back, I stopped for lunch at the Vanilla Bean Bakery & Cafe in Two Harbors:

Lunch consisted of:

• Raspberry Lemonade
• Chicken Wild Rice Soup
• Wild White Moose (sandwich)
• Grand Mariner Chocolte Truffle Cheesecake

Everything was excellent.

I caught the Federal Yoshino leaving port when I arrived back in Duluth:

There are bridges in Duluth other than the Aerial Lift Bridge:

And that's it for now. Off to Dinner.

Posted by rich ( Jul 10 2007, 08:08:42 PM CDT ) Permalink

Minneapolis to Duluth

The first night was spent in Minneapolis, and at least the Super 8 didn't quite have as bad of taste as the one in Glendive, Montana did last year.

While headed north to visit a friend that lives in the Baxter/Brainerd area, the highway crossed the Mississippi several times. Amazing how shallow it is, there were even people standing out in it fly fishing. In the 15 minutes or so I was along the shore, I seen them catch at least 3-4 fish.<.p>

These little guys were along the shore:

Another picture of the shore, not sure exactly what type of waterfowl these were.

Babe seems to have been banished from this rest area.

Finally made it to East Gull Lake, where a friend of mine lives. Here's the view of his backyard, and then one looking back towards the house. It looks like an incredible area to live in.

After spending a few hours there, I started heading back towards Duluth on 210. Ran into a nice detail that backed up traffic badly, followed immediately by having to wait another 10-15 minutes for a coal train.

The first giant fiberglass animal I've seen on this trip:

Gotta love Minnesota:

Finally made it to Duluth, where I'm staying in the Canal Park Lodge.

Here's the view of Lake Superior from the room:

These guys looked a lot friendlier than the New York pigeons did:

This is the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. coming into port, a 1000 ft. coal ship.

Some generic wreckage along the lake:

Dinner Monday night was here:

I'll probably walk back down there this evening, it really wasn't too bad. Here's a few pictures from later in the evening, I really like the lighting in them:

Its quite stormy this morning, so I'm not sure how the trip up the north shore will work out, but hopefully I'll have more pictures to post this evening.

Posted by rich ( Jul 10 2007, 07:49:28 AM CDT ) Permalink

Ballards Resort Bound: Leaving Des Moines

This summer's vacation is going to be a trip up to Ballads Resort in Baudette, Minnesota. The plan was to stop in Minneapolis on the first day, and take some time to see friends in the area. Then, head up to East Gull Lake on the second day, and work my way over to Duluth. For the third day, spend some time around Duluth, and spend a second night there. The following day, my parents will be showing up, along with the dogs, and we're going to head north to International Falls. After a brief trip up to Canada, we're going to spend the night there, and then finally head over to Ballards for the remainder of the trip.

So far, things have gone extremely well. Great weather leaving Des Moines this morning, good weather for most of the day in Minneapolis, right up until some severe storms moved through the area late afternoon. I'm rather glad I didn't take the motorcycle - it would not have been fun getting caught in that storm on the first day of the trip.

No pictures yet, hopefully in the morning it won't be raining as much and I'll be able to get a few when I'm leaving Minneapolis.

Posted by rich ( Jul 08 2007, 07:26:29 PM CDT ) Permalink

Which Transformer Are You?

Find out which Transformer you are at LiquidGeneration!

Posted by rich ( Jul 07 2007, 10:55:40 PM CDT ) Permalink

Northern Lights

Last Thursday I drove up north of Saylorville Lake, to a location on a gravel road just off highway 17, and attempted to take a few pictures of the northern lights that were visible that evening.

Posted by rich ( Dec 17 2006, 11:32:02 AM CST ) Permalink

The Bridges of Madison County

Last Wednesday, November 8th, it was one of those rare fall days where the temperature was in the upper 70s, and it would've been just plain wrong to sit in an office the whole day. Fortunately, I rode the bike to work so mid-afternoon I headed south of I-35 and ended up down by Winterset. Despite having lived in Iowa my whole life, I'd never actually seen the covered bridges in this after. When I was headed into Winterset, there was a sign that pointed to the south saying that there was a bridge down that way. After heading down a number of miles of gravel roads, I found the Holliwell covered bridge:

Even better than the bridge itself, was everything that people had written on the interior of the bridge. Not the typical meaningless graffiti, but rather things like marriage proposals and memorials to loved ones that has passed away.

After stopping there for a little while, there was a sign pointing off to the south saying that there was another bridge nearby. After riding for what seemed like an hour (they really need to put the distances on those signs), I found the Imes covered bridge:

This one wasn't in its original location, instead its on the east side of St. Charles, right off the I-35 exit. A lot more geared towards tourists, it seemed.

After that, I headed back up to Grimes, and back to work. It was a good couple hours away from the office though, and a much needed break that day. I'll definately try to make it back down there when the weather is nice and check out the other bridges in the area. I'll also try to bring something better than the camera in my phone next time too.

Posted by rich ( Nov 15 2006, 10:28:58 PM CST ) Permalink