Fall in the North Country

This has to be one of my toughest posts here as it's so hard to pick the best pictures to illustrate the beauty of Northern Minnesota in the fall. Since I last posted we started working in Lake Bemidji State Park. It's always fun to be working so close to home as it's really nice to make a difference in an area you are familiar with and will get the opportunity to see again. During the early parts of September the drive into work was always beautiful because it was timed with the sunrise and Lake Bemidji seemed to have a constant shroud of mist upon it in the mornings.

At Lake Bemidji State Park we were spending our time doing tree improvements. Our focus was pruning White Pines and performing maintenance on cages which were enclosing the pines to prevent deer from eating  and killing them. The pruning was done to prevent a disease called White Pine Blister Rust. This is a fungal infection which gets into the tree from the ground starting with the lower branches. Eventually the disease works its way up the tree and eventually kills it.

Christy pruning a Pine

Tyler getting the lower branches

This was a good project as White Pines are one of my favorite trees and I am glad to help them survive. There was much beauty in the park as the fall colors were just starting.

Dew gathering on a White Pine

A dragonfly who completed it's life cycle

A Raspberry plant in full color

Lichen

Eleva and Mike working on some tree cages

Maples seem to be the first trees to burst into color in the fall

View of Lake Bemidji from the State Park

Another Lichen shot

I took a video to tour one of White Pine worksites and to show the pruning process:

After the Lake Bemidji project we moved onto Glacial Lakes State Park. This was our second project and as it lies quite a bit southwest of Bemidji the landscape is completely different. Glacial Lakes lies on the edge of the Prairie region of the state and the edge of the Deciduous forest so you have those two biomes competing for dominance. The landscape is also unique as it is a very rolling prairie. The hills of Glacial Lakes look almost like mini mountain ranges when viewed from afar.

A misty morning at Glacial Lakes

a trail cutting through the rolling prairie

A lone tree on the prairie

A small lake in the park

A tree hanging over the lake just beginning to take on it's fall form

Another shot of the rolling prairie

I also got a nice video of the lake shown above:

Outside of work I was able to make it to Cole's cabin party which is a long running get together near where I went to college. I stopped by St John's before the cabin to take a walk around the Lake.

Looking across Lake Sagantagan towards the Abbey 

Turkey Vultures circling overhead Lake Sag

View of Big Watab Lake (where Cole's cabin is) just before sunet

I also did some volunteering ourside of work to help maintain the Border Route Trail. This was an incredibly rewarding experience as the scenery is unbeatable and we were able to get a lot of trail clearing accomplished.

 We cleared trail from the intersection of the superior hiking trail, down to otter lake, and north as far as the border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Fall Colors were ramping up in the border area.

The understory in this area was fully changed

A directional sign

Mcfarland Lake as seen from the Arrowhead Trail (a road)

Where we stopped clearing trail as power tools, like the brush saw, are not allowed in the BWCAW

One of the many amazing overlooks on the BRT

Swamp River

A Maple next to a big White Pine

 The next group of pictures are all from the first big overlook on the BRT. This overlook boasts a 270 degree view of the surrounding wilderness (both Canadian and Minnesotan) and great views of the Swamp and Pidgeon Rivers

Swamp River

Pidgeon River

Hard to believe you're in Minnesota with all the topography!

Still afternoon on Otter Lake

Below are a few pictures of the actual work we did on the trail

Ed and Fred Brush cutting

our trail clearing dog Bentley!

working on breakfast

teaming up to move a deadfall

The video below gives a tour of a beautiful section of the BRT

As of today peak fall colors have come and passed in Bemidji. Before the wind blew down the majority of the leaves though I was able to make it to Itasca State Park to see the peak colors. During my trip I stopped a bunch on the roadside to take pictures, took a run on the North Country Trail heading out of the park, and walked to the Aighton Heights Fire Tower to get a spectacular view of the countryside. There are also a few random fall color pics I took from my work and travels.

A beaver pond off of highway 371 south of Walker

Beautiful fall colors in the Paul Bunyan State Forest while working on ATV trails

A view off of highway 71 near Kabekona Corners

a Pileated Woodpecker

One of the many lakes in Lake Itasca State Park

Another Itasca Lake

Just outside of Itasca State Park

on the NCT

more NCT colors

small lake on the NCT

back into Itasca towards the end of my run

Maples!

view on the Aighton Heights trail en route to the tower

 The rest of the pictures are all taken from the top of the fire tower. I took a lot of pictures and most came out pretty well so it was very hard to choose but here is a gist of what the view was like

My favorite view from the tower

And a few more from inside the park

A Monarch Butterfly

Here are a few videos related to the above pictures.

The beaver pond:

A video of a trail in Itasca State Park

A couple of Pans from the Fire Tower, make sure to turn down your volume as it was quite windy at the top

Well that has been my time up in the North Woods for the fall. The fall is surely one of the most beautiful seasons up here and I have really enjoyed the colors. Despite that though it hasn't been the easiest time with my Grandma passing and the other challenges I have been facing. I want to thank everyone who's been supportive of me, through good times and bad, as you all really mean a lot to me.  As always feel free to comment and if you want to see more pictures check out my facebook page or shoot me an email as I have quite a few more.