Hike in the woods

Well, we went for a hike yesterday to Oberg Mountain. It's about a half hour from us along the lake shore. It was a beautiful drive, the clouds had broken up and the wind had died down. It was crisp, in the low 50s F, just perfect for a fall hike.

As we feared, most of the leaves were on the ground. Of course, that makes for some great leaf-crunching! I've always loved kicking up the leaves in the fall while I walk; I'm almost 60 now, but I still love it! It was still beautiful; there were a few really bright red maples that stood out even more against the mainly bare trees.

If you ever get up here, this is one of the premiere hikes in the fall. Well worth your time.

By the way, it still hasn't frosted here. Got close last night and there was some frost on the shop roof, but the ground was wet but not frozen. I might get another picking of beans yet! And that Delicata squash plant is working hard at maturing those late babies!

Enjoying the fall

Slow week at the cabins. We're winding down, just two weeks left. We only had one to clean yesterday and nobody coming in. So we went hiking! Today's a bit busier, with two coming in. This weekend will be hopping, as usual. So we're relaxing and enjoying it—well, maybe relaxing isn't the right word for it : )

We're in the midst of Indian Summer, and it has been beautiful. We've been hiking along the Superior Hiking Trail, especially along the Brule and Temperance Rivers. It's just beautiful with the leaves on the ground and some still on the trees.

With so many leaves off the trees and the undergrowth dead because of the frost, you can see a lot more. And the sound of the river! It's so much louder. We have to shout sometimes to hear each other.

It's also time to preserve the harvest. Yesterday I picked the apples off of one of the two Haralson trees. I got four bushels. Now all I have to do is sauce them! I started last night, but only got 18 pints done. It didn't even dent the pile of apples! I better get more done tonight...and the next night...and the next night...

I'm also making kraut. I harvested the late cabbages the other day. I grow Danish Ballhead as my late cabbage. It makes a great kraut. And the heads are huge! And dense. And tender. And juicy...Last year I had a head that must have weighed around 10-12 pounds. The heads this year a bit smaller, but still substantial. Last night I made four quarts—from one head! I make three quarts from 2 heads from "normal" sized heads, just to put it in perspective.

Good thing the cabins are slow, because I've still got about ten more heads to go...and the apples to sauce! And then another (smaller) apple tree to pick...and sauce. But we'll be thankful this winter!

OK, back to editing and then replacing that faucet in Pine, and clearing out the shop so I can tear down the extension. And then we'll take a nice walk in the afternoon before I start making kraut and applesauce again. Oh, I better remember to pull back the row cover on the overbearing strawberries, we probably have a few ripe ones to eat for a snack!

First day of fall

Yesterday was the first official day of fall. Actually, fall arrived here about 2 weeks ago with a week of cold rainy weather, but it has cleared up again and is beautiful. The leaves are starting to turn. In fact, I could have sworn that on my bike ride last Saturday, they got yellower in the course of the 30 mile ride!

The cabins have slowed down a bit right now during the week (they'll pick up again next week with the leaves turning), so we only had two to clean yesterday. The weather was perfect for a hike in the woods, so off we went.

Our first stop was Temperance River with its magnificent torrents of tortuous waterfalls. Last Saturday we had hiked up the east side of the river on the Superior Hiking Trail to the point where it leaves the river, so we wanted to go up the west side now. We hadn't been up that side for a few years, but from the map (PDF), it looked like it might be a fun walk, too.

It was. It offered easier access to the upper falls and a magnificent panoramic view of the ridge, which was more colorful yesterday than it had been on Saturday. We soaked it in for a couple of hours, walking and then stopping.

The original plan had been to just walk in Temperance, but with the leaves so colorful, we thought we should add one of our favorite fall hikes, Oberg Mountain. But time was fleeting, so we covered the return trip along the Temperance in half the time that it took us to get there : )

We arrived at Oberg with less an hour of daylight to do the 3 mile loop. I don't recommend trying this if it's your first time there! As we were going up the trail to the loop, we met some people coming down. They asked us if we had a flashlight. We assured them we had a few—flashlights are standard equipment in our day hike backpack, we've been caught in the woods too often by the dark! The leaves were a beautiful yellow, reflecting their color back from the canopy, giving the whole thing a otherworldly glow. Beautiful!

The Lake Superior overlooks on Oberg are spectacular, but we were interested mainly in the overlooks on the back side where we could see the leaves on the ridges and in the valleys, so we sped past the 3 lake overlooks far too quickly. We'll come back another day and loiter there—maybe tomorrow?

The back side didn't disappoint. The sun was getting lower and gave a different glow to them. The small lake was like a mirror, reflecting back the trees. We paused and took it in, but not too long! We've been caught on Oberg before in the dark, and all those roots and rocks seem to reach out and grab your feet in the dark. It's almost as if they come alive...

We arrived back at the car just as it was getting too dark to see. I glanced at my clock. We had covered the 2.25 mile loop in about 45 minutes! That's flying for a walk in the woods. We'll be back for a more leisurely walk soon...but what a way to celebrate the first day of fall!

Miscellany

I haven't been real good about updating this blog since we moved. There are multiple reasons for that: We are living in a small cabin with one bedroom; the computer has to sit in a corner of the living room that isn't terribly convenient, otherwise I can't get the wireless to work. So, when it does work, I generally try to do as much Eisenbrauns work as I can. That doesn't leave much time for blogging. Second, I've been busy with the cabins and with building a garden at Joel and Renee's. Third, the spare time I have is used for hiking and biking.

Speaking of gardens, we are in the process of putting up two hoop houses. I'm terrible about pictures—as you well know!—but I'll try to get some. We filled in the boxes with a pickup load of aged horse manure. I planted some green beans, peas, and carrots right away. The weather was warm enough that they sprouted almost immediately. Hopefully we'll get some beans before the weather turns cold. We should; I've got row cover and the hoop houses to keep them warm.

And, speaking of hiking and biking, we've done a good bit of that the last few days. On Friday, after taking care of the cabins, we went hiking in the afternoon at Temperance River State Park and then continued on for a mile or two on the Superior Hiking Trail. One of my bucket goals has been to hike the entire trail (not all at once!). We got a bit closer to that on Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday, again, after taking care of the cabins, we went hiking. This time we went to Magney State Park and hiked to the kettle. From there we took the Superior Hiking Trail west. At the beginning of the trail was a bear trap; Debbie wasn't too sure she wanted to hike the trail with a bear trap there. I told her it wasn't baited; if a trap is baited, it smells very strongly of licorice. This one didn't have even a hint of it. Nevertheless, she was a bit skittish. We walked for a good bit, then turned around and went to the Kadunce River, which is a spur train on the Lake Superior Hiking Trail. Noticing a pattern? Because we couldn't start until late afternoon, it was getting dark, so we didn't go very far. It will be a regular on our list, though.

On Sunday, we didn't do any hiking, although I rode my bike to Lutsen and back—about 40 miles. Day of rest and all, you know :)

Today, Monday, I got done cleaning the cabins and Debbie asked me if I wanted to ride the Gitchee-Gami bike trail. It will be a bike trail eventually connecting Two Harbors to Grand Marais. Right now, there is a section about 1/2 hour from us that we have always wanted to do when we would visit Joel and Renee. I said, sure. So, I loaded both bikes into the Prius and off we went.

It was a blast! We only rode about 20 miles, round trip; that's all that is done in this area right now. Ironically, we rode right through the Temperance River State Park that we had been hiking in on Friday. We stopped on the bridge—you can never see a waterfall too often or too long!—before continuing on. We both decided this would be on our list of regular occurrences, as well.

So, that's why I haven't been posting as much as usual. Oh, and the fact that the books I've been reading aren't electronic so I can't cut and paste...besides the fact that the ones I've read lately haven't lent themselves to excerpts very well.

And so it begins

The canning, that is. Last night I canned 3 pints of beet pickles, 6 quarts of dill pickles, and 4 quarts of rhubarb sauce. The Roma style tomatoes are starting to ripen in large quantities, so tomato paste and tomato sauce won't be far behind.

We ate our first fresh onions, pepper, and tomatoes pizza Sunday night. Delicious. And, I planted another round of cucumbers last night. I hope they grow fast enough to produce before frost.

I'm going to harvest most of the onions this week; the tops have fallen over and are getting dry. I had to pull the peas this weekend; the heat did them in. Heat is an understatement! It has been 90º+ degrees F for the last several days. The heat index has been around 100º F.

Sunday afternoon we went for a hike in the Lost Bridge Recreational Area, East side. The trail we took was in the woods, thankfully. It was just too hot to bike, and even walking in the woods had us sweating like a faucet. My shirt was drenched after the 2.5 hours of hiking. We were hoping to cover most of the 10-mile trail, but it was too hot!