Chippewa National Forest Snowshoe!

A couple of quick admin notes. I added a youtube tab and link. You can click on the videos on the top to stream right on this site, it only shows a few of my videos though. Otherwise click on the link on the right to go to my youtube page. The blog archives and followers of the blog are now on the very bottom. I found them hard to read on top as the pics got in the way.

Since being back in Bemidji I havn't done a whole lot to be honest! I holed up the first day and a half because it was so brutally cold. I don't think it got above zero those first two days and it was as low as -30! Feeling a little stir crazy I forced myself to go out on Saturday despite still frigid temps (-20 at the start of my snowshoe). Oddly enough I was actually to warm for the most part dressed like this:

I quickly dropped the Russian backwoods hat and my 2nd pair of gloves and was pretty close to comfortable after that. I was very much considering dropping the coat for a different thinner layer but opted to just keep it on and be on the slightly to warm side. Part of the reason I was so warm was that I was breaking trail through 3 feet of snow. This was quite beautiful but very strenuous!

Just 9 miles from where I live!

Mostly very beautiful trails but quite a deep snowpack

My freshly broken trail

Looking at the edge of the namesake of the trails, Meadow Lake.

Walking through a nice stand of Red (Norway) Pines

Overall a nice hike! Very tiring breaking trail but very peaceful and beautiful. I will surely go back here again in the near future!

One last note! I put up three posts today as they are all things that I've wanted to post but haven't gotten around to. I start work again this Monday so my posts will most likely be more sporadic. Depending on how interesting the work and play I do is I may update every week but it may be less frequent than that! Do check back in and feel free to comment if you questions, suggestions, or whatever!

Indianapolis

After Cinci I made the short drive over to Indianapolis. My stop here was to catch up with my dad who I had not seen in far to long. Overall the trip was really nice! We stayed in the first day/night and had a nice home cooked meal of steak and potatoes the way only my dad could make it! On our second day we toured Indianapolis which was real nice.

We checked out the War Memorial Museum

Looking south towards Monument Circle from the War Memorial museum

Looking north towards War Memorial Park from the Museum

A pretty mean looking Chopper in the museum

One of the many exhibits in this museum

View of Monument Circle looking east from Market Street

Dad, Jeremy, and I in front of the centerpiece of Monument Circle

After our tour we checked out a couple of Brew Pubs which were both darn good! Everyone was satisfied with their food and drinks and it was a nice day! Our last day was spent mostly hanging out and watching movies. We had a classic dinner, which I hadn't had for years, Chicken and rice with raisins! Very nostalgic. I said my goodbyes the next day and made the long drive through the cornfields back to the Twin Cities. I got to spend a bit of time with Diane and Dan who are both doing well and have been up in Bemidji since!

DC and Cincinatti

The next stop of my journey involved heading down to DC to see the Woods family. Despite some heavy snow in Pitt the drive down was pretty easy and fairly scenic. After catching up for a little while with my relatives Marlies and I decided to take a trek down to Great Falls National Park, just a few miles away from their home! The park was very nice as the Great Falls of the Potomac River are truly magnificent

Courtesy of the National Park Service

Overall a fun hike and really a gem for being so close to DC! That evening we had a nice home cooked meal and I got the chance to learn the Wood's favorite game Bananagrams which is kinda like a very fast paced scrabble game.

My second day in DC Mary, Marlies, and I all went to the Mall (not the shopping kind) in downtown DC. There we braved the cold and toured most of the monuments and spent a good amount of time checking out the Museum of Natural History which is quite cool!

DC was quite incredible! The sites were hard to beat and getting the chance to spend time with the Wood's was quite the pleasure. I'm hoping to get that chance again sooner than later!

After DC I made my way out to Cincinatti to see Karen, Greg, and Zack (Jess was still abroad). The first half of the drive out was real nice driving through the rolling hills of VA and into the Mountains of PA and WV.

I stopped at the Green Ridge State Forest in Maryland as it was right off the highway and boasted a scenic overlook. I would have loved to stop and explore a bit as it looked beautiful but I was on a tight schedule as I only had 1 night to spend with my relatives in Cincinatti. I took a quick video of the overlook.

The second half of the drive was pretty much all through agricultural land, mostly corn fields. This is how the rest of the drive would be to Indianapolis and through the I-35 route back up to mn (through Illinois, Iowa, and Southern MN). Not the most exciting driving but a few days of boring driving is still well worth the weeks of incredible beauty I had before.

In Cincinnati we spent most of our time catching up as it's been 5 years or so since we've been together and I only had that evening and part of the next day. It was really great to hear what Karen and Greg had been up to and I am glad to have been welcomed in their home! Hopefully next time I will have a greater amount of time so it doesn't feel so rushed!

Pennsylvania Wilds and Pittsburgh

After a great time in the Hudson Valley I set out en route for Pittsburgh, PA. I decided to take the scenic route through the northern mountains and a region they call the Pennsylvania Wilds. This was quite the scenic drive!

The drive was through mostly mountainous terrain and there was quite the mixture between hardwood and softwood (mostly white pine) forest. Since my friend Mary from college had class until 9pm I decided to take a quick jaunt through the forest in the Elk State Forest. The hike had me following a winding creek, which they call "runs" in PA.

The forest was a mix of Balsam looking trees near the creek and hardwoods up the ridge side.

I decided to make the top of the ridge (mountain?) which gave me some nice views of the sunset!

Quite the nice hike!


I arrived in Pitt a bit later than I had hoped. Mary and I had a nice night catching up! The next day we toured Fort Pitt and downtown Pittsburgh on a snowy day.

Mary and I at Fort Pitt

Downtown

Pitt got 4-6 inches!

PA and Pitt were both very fun and well worth going through! N. PA is very beautiful and actually quite wild. Seeing Mary in Pitt was also excellent and I hope we can catch up again soon. Next up I'm stopping in Washington D.C. to catch up with the Woods family!

The Adirondacks with my Family!

(as a quick administrative note I enabled commenting for guests! If you have questions or comments please post as I'd love to clarify things or get feedback on how to improve my blog!)

Though my trip through Canada was amazing I was ready to see my family and return to the USA after eight days in Canada. The drive from Toronto wasn't bad. I ended up crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge.

From there I met up with my family at the Cabin. This proved to be harder than I thought as I got lost on the road the cabin was on. I drove it up and down multiple times until I finally gave in, knocked on a locals door, and called my family on their phone (as I had no service). The cabin was quite nice and seeing my family again was awesome!

Our first night was spent catching up and relaxing which was quite nice! On our second day we wanted to try a ski despite poor conditions. I waxed all our skis for a classic romp. Ashley was an excellent waxing asisstant!

Skiing that day didn't end up being in the cards as the conditions to were to poor but being with family really made it quite ok! On our third day the girls and I decided to go for a day hike. We went up almost to the summit of Mount Lyon which was pretty close to our cabin.

Overall I think we all had fun on the hike despite some icy conditions! The next day my Mother was enjoying her xmas present from us, a day at a nice spa in Lake Placid, my sisters were out shopping, so I decided to tackle one of the High Peaks in the Adirondacks, Mount Wright. This ended up being quite the amazing adventure as it was very challenging but rewarding because of the beauty and excellent views at the top.

The summit of Mount Wright

The Summit next to us.

My hiking partners for the summit and way down.

The hike was truly awesome! It ended up being 7.5 miles roundtrip and the ascent to the Summit was nuts as it was a sheet of ice! The crampons were absolutely essential for this trek! After the hike I met up with my sisters and mom for dinner at a nice local restaurant. We spent the night playing a lively game of Mess up your neighbor (also known by a less PC name) which everyone really enjoyed! The second to last day of our trip we did a bit of skiing at Lake Placid. Conditions weren't great but good enough to have fun!

After our ski we went out to Lunch at the Lake Placid Brewing Company. Great food and beer!

We had one last awesome night of family fun and we all went our respective ways on Friday. The last few days I've been back in my old stomping grounds in Wallkill. It's been great catching up with friends and I made it up to the Mohonk Preserve for some xc skiing on Saturday. Very fun though no pictures! I'm off to Pittsburgh next to see one of my best friends from college Mary Demars, then off to Washington D.C. to see Aunt Mary (and fam), Cincinatti to see Aunt Karen (and fam), Indianapolis to see my dad, then finally back home! Last leg of the trip should be fun!